New Mexico, part 1: Roswell, Portales, and Las Vegas

Sean often pokes fun of New Mexico, where he’s currently going to school. The state motto is “The Land of Enchantment,” but he shared with me the local’s real motto that it’s the “Land of Entrapment.”

New Mexico has the third highest poverty rate in the US, so I suppose people are trapped by simply being unable to afford to move away.

I wouldn’t describe New Mexico as enchanting, but I sort of felt like it was the desert’s answer to Hawaii. Cities are small, surrounded by vast amounts of open land, rather than water. Locals are a mix of white, natives, and immigrants, and there’s no sense of hurry: Sean told me about the “mañana” syndrome, or the sentiment that it’ll get done tomorrow. It’s both frustrating and appealing, he said. There’s great beauty in that simplicity, but it sometimes makes a backward-ness about the place.

He told me he came in peace

I flew into Roswell on a tiny American Eagle commuter jet, full of kids returning from spring break to the New Mexico Military Institute, one of the country’s best high school/jr. college private military prep schools. The “airport” was the size of a large house and the “gate” resembled the back door.

New Mexico Military Insitute's mascot, the Bronco, in front of the unique fortress-style architecture

Roswell is a decent-sized town by New Mexico standards: 45, 000 people and as you’d expect, full of alien memorabilia, designs, and mentions. The local Arby’s sign states that aliens are welcome, and street lamps are in the shapes of alien heads/faces.

Note that Arby's welcomes all beings

We walked through the museum and took a tour of the Military Institute. I found the school more interesting…

A shot of Lea Hall on the NMMI campus, founded in 1891

Next on our trip was Portales, home of Eastern New Mexico University. Sean’s dorm is actually a nice apartment on a small and well-maintained campus. It was quiet (okay, deserted) since it was Spring Break, but a couple of his friends were around for an impromptu steak fajita feast.

I went for a run and found myself out of breath. I wondered why I was feeling to tired until I found out that despite the deceptively flat area, Portales is actually at 4,000 feet. For you Bay Area folks, that’s 200 feet higher than Mt. Diablo. I didn’t feel as lame after I learned that.

Sean's dorm, after a big snowstorm in January; it was in the 70s when I was there!

We drove up to Las Vegas (New Mexico) where we watched the ENMU baseball team lose, quite painfully, to Highlands University. Las Vegas has a nice downtown area with a old west style plaza, but the best part of the trip was meeting Sean’s friends and them telling me how wonderful I am for him. C’mon, who wouldn’t love that? Sean, are you listening?

Photos by yours truly and Sean Manzi