Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Sometime very early next year, the World Headquarters of the Carla and Doug show will probably move from Weatherford, Texas to some place in New Mexico, very possibly Alamogordo (more on that later).
The propellant for this change is our need to reduce our cost of living in the light of severe deterioration in the earning power of our investment estate.
A big part of our budget is the cost of owning and operating our home. We have a lovely home here in Weatherford, but it is bigger than we need (read, "bigger than we can prudently afford"). So we think in terms of a smaller home, and perhaps one in a location where housing costs (and perhaps other living costs) are less than in North Texas.
And we really would, for various reasons (you can see some of them on television these days), rather be in New Mexico than Texas. So here is an opportunity to act on that.
We fed various criteria (climate, environment, etc.) into our (metaphorical) Ouija board and when its bug settled down it was pointing to Alamogordo, New Mexico.
This is a town of about 30k population in southern New Mexico, about 90 miles north of El Paso, Texas. It is near the famous White Sands area (only a few miles from the site of the first nuclear detonation).
The altitude is about 3300 ft MSL (1000 m). It sits at the western foothills of a serious mountain range (one wants to be on the western side; most of the snowfall is on the eastern slopes - adiabatic expansion of the prevailing winds, you know).
It is the company town for the White Sands Missile Range (missile and bomb testing) and Holloman Air Force Base (whose mission includes aircraft testing and special flight training). It has the world's longest high-speed ground test track (almost 10 miles, capable of "sled" speeds up to Mach 9, about 7000 mi/hr).
Holloman also hosts a flight training school of the Deutsche Luftwaffe (German Air Force). Why have that in New Mexico, rather than Germany? Man, the weather is so much better!
Neither Carla or I have ever been there. The end of the first week of January we will drive out (about 520 miles from Weatherford), and if the vibe is good, we will look at houses to buy.
The prospect of the move is daunting, largely because we have a lot of stuff to offload (much of it stuff I was going to sell "right away" when we moved to Weatherford from Dallas four years ago!). You'll see a lot of LF cameras in the classifieds here over the next little while.
So, that's the current outlook. Like everything else, it is subject to change.
I'll keep you all up to date as the adventure unfolds.
Best regards,
Doug
The propellant for this change is our need to reduce our cost of living in the light of severe deterioration in the earning power of our investment estate.
A big part of our budget is the cost of owning and operating our home. We have a lovely home here in Weatherford, but it is bigger than we need (read, "bigger than we can prudently afford"). So we think in terms of a smaller home, and perhaps one in a location where housing costs (and perhaps other living costs) are less than in North Texas.
And we really would, for various reasons (you can see some of them on television these days), rather be in New Mexico than Texas. So here is an opportunity to act on that.
We fed various criteria (climate, environment, etc.) into our (metaphorical) Ouija board and when its bug settled down it was pointing to Alamogordo, New Mexico.
This is a town of about 30k population in southern New Mexico, about 90 miles north of El Paso, Texas. It is near the famous White Sands area (only a few miles from the site of the first nuclear detonation).
The altitude is about 3300 ft MSL (1000 m). It sits at the western foothills of a serious mountain range (one wants to be on the western side; most of the snowfall is on the eastern slopes - adiabatic expansion of the prevailing winds, you know).
It is the company town for the White Sands Missile Range (missile and bomb testing) and Holloman Air Force Base (whose mission includes aircraft testing and special flight training). It has the world's longest high-speed ground test track (almost 10 miles, capable of "sled" speeds up to Mach 9, about 7000 mi/hr).
Holloman also hosts a flight training school of the Deutsche Luftwaffe (German Air Force). Why have that in New Mexico, rather than Germany? Man, the weather is so much better!
Neither Carla or I have ever been there. The end of the first week of January we will drive out (about 520 miles from Weatherford), and if the vibe is good, we will look at houses to buy.
The prospect of the move is daunting, largely because we have a lot of stuff to offload (much of it stuff I was going to sell "right away" when we moved to Weatherford from Dallas four years ago!). You'll see a lot of LF cameras in the classifieds here over the next little while.
So, that's the current outlook. Like everything else, it is subject to change.
I'll keep you all up to date as the adventure unfolds.
Best regards,
Doug
