Sometime in our recent past (circa 1995, California) my husband (at the time), and I got a mutual wild hair to purchase some property out of state.
Somewhere pretty. Somewhere up in the mountains. Somewhere we could camp, fish, hang out with the kids, whatever. Just somewhere out of the California Inland Valley heat-bucket.
So, after scouring the internet and checking out property from coast to coast – border to border, we happened on a lovely remote little town tucked away in the shoulders of the Sacramento Mountains in southern New Mexico. I have family ties in New Mexico, so I was partial to the state to begin with.
Road trip! Off we went to check it out, kids and all. Took us about 15 hours all told. With one stop to sleep in Las Cruces, we were on to Alamogordo the next day, and up the hill, through the Lincoln National Forest, to Timberon we went.
We spent one day in Timberon, and put a down payment on 2 adjoining parcels immediately. It was perfect. Nice flat parcels with water and power to the property. Maintained (gravel) roads. Close to the town. Pinion and Ponderosa pines whispering in the breeze and making the air smell like heaven. We closed escrow about a month later and it was ours.
Fast forward to late 1996 when the California housing market started their infamous downturn. Fortunately we were able to sell our California home, which was the fork in the road that landed us on the path we are currently traveling. We used the money to build a home here in Timberon, our ‘camping’ spot.
You just never know what fate will drop in your lap, eh?
A view of Timberon. Our property is somewhere down in those pine trees:
