And I was doing that in reverse, following Spring up the hill from Albuquerque to the mountains above Denver, where the wildflowers were just beginning to peek out of the snow in July :D

Yeah, I skid (sp?) there last year. I don't ski often, so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but I thought it was pretty good.

Mari... who told you I had a tail?? :sniff: lol
You are right on about the Metro in DC - although I will miss the people here I definitely will not miss the idiots on the road (apologies to all Cellarites in the DC area!)

And Happy Monkey is head on about snow here - what insanity!! Starvation, impending doom and the possibility that the wolves will come into the town and carry off the children... all for an inch of snow... what a riot!

I am looking forward to the hiking, skiing and such... prefer the great outdoors... and NM seems to have some exotic allure - (or maybe that's the peyote calling?? :biggrinje LOL)

FF, the drivers in NM are considerably worse than those of DC, so drive forewarned. The problem has always been too few people to rate the kind of Highway Patrol coverage necessary to keep any laws enforced once you get off the Interstates. At best, you can say they are courteous and apologize after hitting you, at worst you would have to say they are oblivious to everything around them. At least since the times I first drove in NM they have fenced a lot of the range along the highways. You used to have to share them with cows and horses, and everybody used to have a story about "the time I hit a cow on Highway 44". In fact, there used to be a bumper sticker that said "Pray For Me, I Drive NM44". As per the Law of The West, you had to pay the owner of the cow and have it hauled away. Inmates at the prisons always ate very well :yum:

Hiking is definitely one of the best things about the state. There really is a lot to do on the "back side" of the Sandias, where there are mountain sheep, wetlands, and several climate zones. The Jemez and the area north of Santa Fe can be very primitive and has lots of Indian ruins and abandoned cabins to check out. Taos area has canyons and hot springs, and the Jicarilla and Cloudcroft reservations have many wilderness areas that they maintain for the tourists and hunters. You can find out anything you need to know by asking around at the University, where you will see as many hiking boots as cowboy boots :)

The difference between AZ drivers and DC drivers is in AZ they have a running start at you. :mg:

When I was going to move to AZ, a friend cautioned me that half the drivers on the road there were drunk and the other half were senile. He called the Caddies and Lincolns "motorized wheelchairs" and warned me that snowbirds in their RVs need all 3 lanes to turn a corner and have no idea where to find the turn signals :D I guess every state has its own brand of road hazzards.

Here in Pennsylvania our most significant road hazard is People from Maryland.

#2 is potholes.

LOL - Wolf - I grew up in the South Hills area outside of Pittsburgh - I swear there is still one pothole on Rt. 51 that's been there since I was a teen! LOL I come back to visit that pothole every so often.

xoB - Obviously you've been here in DC. :D

Tonchi -

Perhaps you are right that I don't know what "Albuquerque is all about." Not sure what you mean by that. I have lived here all my 36 years so maybe the novelty has kinda worn off by now. Of the other places I've visited, only Kauai has a greater interest to me than Albuquerque.

My information about the Sandia ski area is based on what I've heard just about ALL skiiers I know say. I am not a skiier. The only time I went skiing was at Sandia. In April. (Someone ELSE paid for it, so I can't complain much.) I hear it IS indeed great for beginners. But the general concensus is that ANYwhere else in the state has better skiing.

FF -

Tonchi is correct. The drivers here ARE bad. Aggressive driving is the norm. We're almost like Idaho with a "WHAT speedlimit?" attitude.

I'm surprised, since we're on the topic of driving in NM, that no one has brought up the NM state plant, the ORange Barrel. I don't think you can drive more than half a mile without seeing a stand of these things. The government around here feels the need to tear up roads allthedamntime. Same road they fixed/repaved two years ago gets it again now. Currently they're wasting taxpayer dollars on "beautification" projects which lately have included gigantic pots with "Native American" designs on them for the medians of the highways.

LMAO!! :lol:

Once I get there I will suggest that they combine the orange barrels AND the Indian painted big planters - how sweet is THAT?? Utility AND beautification....think of all the state funds that could be saved!

Albuquerque seems to be growing at an alarming rate. When I drove through there last spring I was deeply impressed by all the orange barrels. I had been camped down in Chaco Canyon which has REALLY changed, by the way, and was driven out by the high winds in advance of a coming spring storm. The sand blowing across and piling up on I-25 in town was a sight to behold. I noticed those Indian design things you mentioned, too, Ferret. The traffic between Santa Fe and Alb was also impressive to me since I hadn't driven that stretch in 10 years or so and was stunned by all the new growth along that corridor of the I.

mari -

Yes, ABQ is growing quite fast. Mostly to the west, but some to the north and south. And now that they cleaned up "The Big I" we seem to have a lot more traffic.

And, YES, I know we don't have traffic compared to LA metro area or DC metro area. It's just more than we've had in the past.

a good friend sez..... rocks + highway traffic in NM = cracked windshields. they claim that NM is the cracked windshield capitol of the US....

I don't mind that ALB is growing... just so it doesn't grow tooooo fast. I am so looking forward to getting there... the house is lovely that I have chosen, a stucco 2 story in a cul-de-sac with a big back yard... I hear the school system is very good...
Ferret! Can I ask what schools you went to??

FF-I think in 20 years of driving I've only been hit once in the widnshield by a rock.

LOL
Well I went to Acoma and Onate elementary schools. But in '79 my parents had a house built in Edgewood (25mi east on the other side of the mountains) so I ended up in Moriarty schools and graduated from there.

I have heard it said that Pennsylvania's state animal is the construction horse.

Yeah. It was that time you were driving through Chimayo or Magdalena, right? ;)

Marichiko -


where? LOL
i think it was in "the canyon" east of the city

They throw rocks THERE, too? :mg: LOL!

Did you knock on wood after you typed about your windshield? :) It happened to me once, too, but I only drove in ABQ, while a resident, for about three years.

In what part of town are Acoma and Onate? I went to Monte Vista Elementary near Nob Hill (was an experimental hippy-curriculum school back in the '70s), Jefferson Middle School near UNM, and Albuquerque High School (the juvie prison-looking building off I-25).

They've never been to Alaska. :eyebrow:

I have a good friend in Homer, Alaska- seems the moose are very friendly there.

Moose have been know to crack windshields, too. :lol:

Yeah, there's nothing like having a moose fly thru the windshield and end up sitting in your lap. This happened to a friend of mine over on the Western Slope, not with a moose, but with an elk. It wasn't pretty. Bring back the cougar, sez I.

I once accidently managed to get between Mama Moose and her two babies while hiking in Montana. Mama Moose did NOT send out a friendly vibe!

Fortunately, FF need only worry about antelope, deer, elk, and the occasional coyote. Don't know about lions, but we have lots up north if she wants one. ;)

The only time I ever saw rocks flying across the road in New Mexico was in that canyon above Taos on the way to Angel Fire. The name escapes me right now. But I have arrived on the scene shortly after rockslides in many places in the Jemez Mountains, even going around curves to discover a huge boulder in the middle of the road. But California takes the prize for cracked windshields in my experience, due to the insane speed that pickups and transport rigs pass you on the highway, kicking up a cloud of gravel and other debris that hits your windshield at 80 mph. I was lucky enough not to collide with any of the 4-footed road hazzards, but I remember an office mate losing his truck to a rather large deer one time. Not only that, but he was really pissed off that the Highway Patrol would not let him even claim the head and its spectacular rack because it wasn't in season and the critter wasn't "taken legally".

Ferret, if you got stuck in Moriarity, I now understand why you are so indifferent to living in Albuquerque. Simply put, Albuquerque is about FREEDOM. Sure, the town is not fancy, public services are primitive, and sometimes it appears to lack any "culture" but it's a place where YOU can be anything you want to be. Anything at all, and nobody cares. Everybody lets everybody else alone to go their own way. No crushing pressure from the religious right, no neighbors spying on your every move and gossiping, no pre-determined work that everybody is expected to get into. You can be whatever you want to be and go wherever you want to go and you will have a warm home waiting for you right there in Albuquerque. It's the only place I've been able to sit in a bar with a PhD in Mathmatics or a rocket scientist on one side and a working cowboy or a full-blooded Indian on the other and find both of them equally interesting. Within a day's drive is some of the most beautiful and varied country in the nation, you are a 1/2 hour plane ride from Mexico, a one-hour plane ride from the beaches of the Pacific, and good red-eye connections to anyplace else you would like to get away to. You can ski in the morning and play tennis in a bathing suit that afternoon, you can ride horses or race sports cars and meet experts in either field just walking around in the crowd. Everybody's friendly, because they have nothing to prove and neither do you. If you like to show off, this is not the place for you. But if you want to meet a lot of famous people who got tired of living where they have to be showing off all the time, New Mexico is where they come to be by themselves. I think Albuquerque is about infinite choices, but only if you like yourself enough to find them. Otherwise, you are just another vaguely disgruntled person "stuck" there, like the characters in The Last Picture Show.

That's how I feel about the 4-Corners, Tonchi. Damn, I hate being stuck here on the Front Range with Focus on the Family breathing down my back. I almost managed to escape last fall, but hesistated at the crucial moment. Now, I'm ready to just go down there and camp on the BLM land somewhere along the Dolores River or maybe Hovenweep. I'm so so homesick tonight, I could almost cry. Last night I ran into a young man who knew about skiing Wolf Creek and Purgie when it was still Purgie. He understood about driving the wrong way over Imogene and hopping out of your 4-wheel to put your hands on your hips and make Texans slink their jeeps back down the road to allow you to pass. Oh, I wanna go HOME! :(

In Pennsylvania, if you run it over, it's yours.

Actually, if someone else runs it over and they don't want it, it's yours.

In or out of season, you just report the kill to the Game Warden.

In Colorado, if you run over a cow or sheep on open range, you pay the rancher. If you hit a deer or an elk and survive the experience, you notify the highway patrol to come remove the carcass or you just keep driving after having said the appropriate prayers of gratitude to whichever deity you hold responsible for your sorry existance. I have collided with deer or elk three times now and never reported it. On the Western Slope, if your income is below a certain level, you can sign up to receive all the road kill you can eat, free of charge - if its venison.

What you have to understand about New Mexico is that RANCHERS are the powers who run the state. Just like the developers run the cities of California, the ranch-rich always hold the governor's office in NM. All the contributions to elect said ranchers come from you-know-where = OTHER ranchers. Therefore the laws of the range and land management regulations which originated nearly 200 years ago are frozen in place in NM. If you hit somebody's cow, even if it ran at you and jumped into your truck with you, YOU pay. Plus you have to pay the Highway Patrol to have the carcass removed and have your own vehicle towed home. I was told the prisons got dibs on such "road kill" if the owner was not readily available to claim it, so they definitely ate better than most of the residents of the state or on the rez as far as high-quality protein. NM residents used to get out the checkbook right after they saw the flashing lights coming. So I can hardly blame Mari for leaving the "scene of the crime" so long as her car was still drivable.

I might add that I have never collided with a sheep or a cow. If I had, I would have made an effort to contact the rancher in question and work out payment of some sort. Sheep and cows tend to be slow moving and one encounters them more often on back country jeep trails where one is already only going 20mph if that, so there's plenty of time to stop for them.

The first time I hit an elk, I came to consciousness briefly in the ER and then my heart stopped, and by time I got out of intensive care, the Colorado Wildlife division didn't seem too interested in my "crime."

The second time I hit a deer, it put out one of my front head lamps and bounded off in the darkness. I have no idea what the deer's fate was. Mine was to pull off the road since I was on a stretch of highway where nothing was open until 8:00am the next morning for 70 miles or so. I slept in a farmer's hayfield, and limped my car into Nucla, Colorado to have my right headlamp repaired the next morning. The third time I hit a deer, I did a complete 360 on the pavement from the skid, narrowly evaded death from an on coming coal truck headed for the 4 corners power plant at 80 mph and the deer again bounded off into the hills to meet whatever fate may have awaited it.

The Western slope of Colorado seems to be suffering from a massive over population of deer, and it is pure terror to drive the stretch of road that leads from Telluride through Naturita and on to Grand Junction after 3:00pm in the afternoon. That road is full of sharp curves, and the deer seem to enjoy playing a game of chicken with anybody fool-hardy enough to dare to use the highway. You'll round a curve and there will be three or four of them by the side of the road. They'll wait until you are almost even with them and then one will bound out into the road and front of you and just stand there, apparantly hoping that you will go into a ditch to avoid it.

I don't know who gets to keep any dead cows in Colorado. Since the law is that you have to pay the rancher for his cow, it seems to me that you should be able to keep what you paid for, but I don't know.

Uneeda..... :lol:

What's that? :confused:

I did get a pair of these and the deer do seem to clear out of the way now:

Cowcatcher.

The whistles don't work for long. They easily become misaligned or clogged with goo and stop making the magic noise.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, Bruce. The trains have those things on them for a reason. Fortunately, a cow will not walk across something with slats, like a RR track (cattle gates are designed just that way), but sheep are likely to park themselves anywhere and deer or elk have a habit of jumping right at a moving vehicle. In the Plumas River Canyon in CA that can happen a lot in winter. The "cow catchers" will at least clear the tracks, with a resulting feast for the scavengers. Navajos are very careful of their sheep and would keep them far away from tracks or roads because sheep represent their wealth, but many ranchers just let their stock wander, especially in the high country during the summer. And like Mari says, there seems to be a population explosion of deer every few years. I'm told that Maine has a terrible problem with moose right now, they are everywhere. I'm sure the Game and Fish Department does not avocate culling by auto.

As for the open range concept, Tonchi is correct.

When it comes to deer, the Colorado Wildlife Division has actually placed a moratorium on cougar hunting in the Uncomphaghre Plateau area because the deer population has gotten so out of hand. They issue tons of hunting permits every fall, and the little towns on the Western Slope actually have as a public service barrels where you can dump your deer hides. When I was living in Nucla a couple of years back, my next door neighbors bagged two stags and shared some of the venison with me. :yum:

Despite all this, there are still too many deer and they browse the grass down to the point that all that's left is the tasty forage growing along side the highways. Everyone thinks of deer as cute little bambi's, but I don't anymore. When I lived in Nucla, in addition to my own deer encounters, a friend was in a very serious car accident that involved a deer coming through her windshield, and a local woman was killed in an accident with a deer.

I like cougars - a lot! Cougars don't congregate in groups by the side of the road and dash out into the way of on-coming cars. Cougars eat deer which have become the vermin of the Western slope. Deer kill far more people than ever cougars have. I camped alone in lion country for three months and had no problems with them. I just used common sense by not running around at dusk or dawn near cougar habitat. They left me alone and I left them alone. Not so the deer!

Now what's not to love about such a wonderful animal? Here, kitty, kitty!

We are loving them to death
 

Mari's point about the cougers is valid in the context of this post because it is precisely because the protected species laws in many states are what CAUSE animals to die needlessly. In ALL environments, deer, elk, moose, and buffalo will explode in population the minute you restrict the preditors which feed off them in nature. Remove the wolves, cougers, coyotes, and even hunters and you will be up to your neck in deer or their cousins before you know it. In this country we have actually OVER-protected wildlife, usually at the same time we have encroached too far into their habitats. Deer in your front yard are not cute, they are dangerous. Besides totally destroying rose bushes, young trees, and gardens, a deer can easily kill you with one head butt to the chest, antlers or none. A deer landing on your hood at 50 mph pretty much totals your transportation and maybe your life. Plastic surgery will be the least of your problems if they come throught the windshield. Overcrowded populations of deer or their cousins quickly become diseased too, and with organisms which can harm both you and your livestock. It's easy for people to blame the deer, but it's the humans' lifestyle which is causing the problem.

But humans are softies, and they want to have it both ways. They want to live in areas like the mountains of New Mexico or Colorado which can't support them in the food chain, yet they don't want anybody to shoot or remove the cute little wild things which were there first, other than just sweeping them aside. They don't want their pets to be confined, yet they scream when one of the natural preditors does what comes naturally upon finding one of them. They don't want deer or other varmits to invade their property, yet they refuse to manage trash or secure the homes or yards and remember to close the gate. Too many outsiders get involved in the public sentiment of things, they don't want deer or mustangs or wild burros killed but they have no idea what to do about the fact that they are destroying the land, inbreeding, and dying of diseases because nothing is checking their growth.

Preditors like the couger and the wolves are vital to places like Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. And yet at this time the suburbs and vacation homes and roads keep spreading out of control. Somebody sees a couger and there is a huge outcry to "protect" the people by getting rid of it. That means that at least 20 more deer will live and breed over the next years when they could have been cleanly recycled back into nature. The people who end up on the wrong side of a deer never see the connection.

I have gotten into huge arguments with Bambi lovers. They'll say stuff like "Well, the deer were here first." Indeed they were, and so were the cougars and wolves. Man has all but eliminated the wolf from the lower 48 except a few places like Michigan's UP.

The deer out there eating your rosebush may look cuter than hell, but do you really want to sacrifice your life for it? I don't know of any Bambi-lover who has sold their home and moved back to Europe or something because "the deer were here first."

We are destroying habitat left and right in the West with our ranchette style subdivisions and the growing populations of Denver, Salt Lake, and Albuquerque. We need to accept the fact that Bambi is going to be a casualty of this or else become a casualty of Bambi.

Again, it all really goes back to the cattlemen's groups. They want to get rid of the predators because a predator will take down the occasional sheep or calf. They don't stop to think how many deer and rabbits the predators take down, as well. Every deer that a courgar eats leaves that much more forage for the rancher's herds. But ranchers want to eliminate all predators, completely. Unfortunately, the number of deer culled by the hunting crowd just isn't enough in the collision between the urban and the wild in today's West.

We've wandered around in this thread, but I think Fallen Fairy will also get a good idea of some of the issues that are important out here in the western states if she is still reading all this. ;)

If you do some research you'll find the whistles don't work at all, according to Consumer's Union (Consumer Reports).
The early ads claimed, "Tested by the Ohio State Police", which they were, and found to be useless.
The theory is by making noise the deer will hear you coming before they can see you. They can already hear you coming.... cars make a lot of noise..... and they still stand there and wait for you to arrive before deciding whether to jump out in the road or not. :rolleyes:

Blue - Acome and Onate are in "The NE Heights"

You needn't got to the Wild West to find a deer problem. Collisions with deer are the #1 cause of accidents in many non-rural parts of Missouri. I don't go a day without seeing several, and I live in a pretty typical suburban area. A couple of years ago, there was a picture in our paper of a young buck stuck in a fence in *downtown* Kansas City.

Local suburban municipalities are starting to open up bowhunting within their city limits around the KC area to try and cull some of the population.

Given what I and my friend have endured personally at the hooves of Bambi, I have absolutely zero sympathy for the deer.

A recent study indicates that from 1991-2003 calculated traffic accidents involving deer in the US kill 150 people annually and cause $1.1 billion in property damage, and injure some 10,000 people.

The cattlemen's groups who want to eradicate the cougar are being incredibly selfish and gaining some imagined well being at the expense of the many when you look at the stats.

In the same time period (1991-2003), reports show that cougars attacked human beings in the US and Canada BOTH an average of 5.6 times a year and were responsible for .8 fatalities a year.

If you are going to be terrified of a wild animal, Bambi wins hands down.

As for me, I'm putting out catnip. I LOVE kitties! :love:

Involved in those statistics is the massive difference in brain power between deer and couger. You won't find any record of people being hurt or killed by running into cougers with a motor vehicle. They have the sense to avoid us.

I recently I read a report of a person being gored and killed by a moose, in downtown Anchorage. When people can't even walk to work without being cornered and killed by a moose, something has to be done :(

Agreed. I have a biologist friend who calls deer "nature's snack food." That's pretty much what they are - plentiful, tasty treats for other species which have evolved with even an ounce of common sense.

Yesterday afternoon I went out for a walk with my companion in crime, Miz Belle Starr. There is a hiking trail which skirts the boundary of the city and the National Forest about 3 blocks from my home. Starr and I have walked that trail before. Yesterday, I became curious about a ravine that cuts into the trail, so I went up it to explore with my little 4-footed companion. There were some great rock formations and surprisingly old pinon trees. We followed a deer path that had many fresh droppings on it to Starr's delight. At one point I paused to look back over the scenery, bemused by this interface of the wild and the city. I could see the traffic on a major road perhaps 5 miles away across the canyon.

I felt a sudden frisson of terror as I realized that I was out on this game path at dusk, breaking one of my own most steadfast rules. Cougars have been sighted often at the edges of my town and gobbled down wayward poodles and daring domestic cats who strayed a bit too far from home.

Then I shrugged my shoulders philosophically. I have already survived 3 encounters with deer, one of which actually caused me to die for a few moments in an ER. If a cougar got me, at least it would be swift and painless. Cougars lie in wait and go straight for their prey's neck, snapping it and killing them almost instantly. When I go, I wouldn't mind going at the paws of a cougar. It seems a nobler ending then having a collision with that idiot, Bambi, out on the highway. Starr and I resumed our ramble and returned home unharmed for me to write this post the next day.

Isn't that like the fourth time you've renamed the dog?

heh! Well, I'm glad SOMEONE is paying attention. Her kennel name is "Shine". I experimented with calling her "bel" (Welsh for bright one), Star, Starr and Belle Starr. Sometimes it takes a while to find just the right name. I've called her "Star or "Starr" for a while now.

I think the name that will stick is Belle Starr (Shine). Now you know.

Really great names sometimes need time to evolve. Dog breeders have to stick some kind of name on hundreds of puppies every year, but only their new mommy or daddy has the insight and desire to think of the one which really "fits". This is from the mommy of Hazelwood's Krugerrand of Rune, aka "Roo" and Windriver's Ximena Hechicera, aka Shimmy Tail ;)

Belle Starr is the perfect name for my “corgadette”, and it took me a while to decide on it. It incorporates the Welsh word “bel” which I mentioned before and “Star” for the time her arrival into my life (Christmas time), and works well with her kennel name of “Shine” (Ms. Starr Shine or Belle Starr Shine).

Belle Starr was a legendary woman outlaw of the old West. In her youth she attended the Carthage Female Academy, where she excelled in reading, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, deportment, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and music - learning to play the piano. (Deportment! Heh! Did she ever fool THEM!)

Her forebears, like my own on my father’s side, were from West Virginia-Kentucky.

She wore buckskins and moccasins or tight black jackets, black velvet skirts, high-topped boots, a man's Stetson hat with an ostrich plume, and twin holstered pistols. She spent much her time in saloons, drinking and gambling at dice, cards, and roulette. At times she would ride her horse through the streets shooting off her pistols. (I LOVE this chick – a woman after my own heart!)

Belle Starr had a Cherokee lover named Jim July (I am part Cherokee – my grandmother was full blood Cherokee).

Her most famous quote is "I am a friend to any brave and gallant outlaw."

What better name for my little friend than Belle Starr? ;)

it is sad that there are deer-car accidents, for both the humans and the deer. i just think it is wrong to blame the deer. cars are 20th century inventions and a hundred years is not a long enough time for a species (the deer) to evolve for themselves a car-evading proficiency.

humans drive too fast. humans make the decision to take the risk of driving fastly and recklessly and they must accept the consequences of their actions.

Bullshit, my speed has no bearing when a deer plants itself square into the side of my car or comes down on the hood/roof in a 20' bound off a banking.:headshake
Considering the stunning increase in their population, I'd say they have done a good job at evading, so good in fact they've lost their fear of cars.

Yes ma'am I am - ever the watchful lurker...and learning along the way.
Thanks to you all!

The deer problems here in VA are plentful - my 19 yr old has had two run ins... one where she totaled my minivan avoiding the damn deer! and one where she remembered what mommy said - and held straight and gunned it. (sorry to all you Bambi lovers!)
Jess - 1 :p
Deer - 1 :sniff:
tied game.

As for Albuquerque... the move is definite June 30th. The house is ready and I even contacted the schools in the District and enrolled my two youngest... we are ready!
The next Albuquerque question is.... can we really see roadrunners right in our neighborhood? A burning question from my 9 yr old. - last night I caught her designing a catch'em alive trap in the backyard - she aims to have her a pet!! LOL

Mari - did you check inot moving your stuff freight?? It's alot cheaper than Uhaul.

gee Ferret that sounds rather ominous.... PLEASE tell me those are streets...
edit - I actually went back topost #1 - and read all eight pages...I now know what the above mentioned are - thanks Ferret - My kids will be in LaCueva High and Humphrey Elementary


Hey, how 'bout them Chupacabras?? :eek: little goat sucking bastids.....

When I go to Taco Bell, I always order a chupacabra with extra guacamole.

I have seen road runners on the back roads in New Mexico - never encountered one in Alb, itself, though. Ferret could probably tell you more or else Tonchi might. I think her internet was down for a while, but I believe she's back. I think the Chupacabras is more a problem in DC than it is in New Mexico. ;)

Thanks for the tip. I'll check into freight companies. :)

FF - yes, you can see roadrunners in some neighborhoods. there's at least one that runs around the neighborhood in which i live (off tramway.) i dunno if they can necessarily be found all over the city but i have seen them in several parts all around where you'll be living. so it's a good possibility.

unfortunately for your daughter, i think they are protected (being the state bird) and fussing with one in any way would prolly be frowned on.

my wife would love to know that's where your kids will be. she attended both of those schools. say "hi" to Betty (counsellor) at Hubert Humphrey from her daughter's best friend (my wife.) La Cueva is one of the newer highschools in the city.

A couple of summers ago, I was surprised to see a roadrunner near the Journal Center in NE ABQ. He was just kinda hanging out next to a shrub in a parking lot...for a moment. I'd only seen one once before years ago, near Las Cruces.

My wife witnessed and photographed (I think) a roadrunner beating the KRAP out of a sparrow in the parking lot of a WalMart near where FF is moving.

My fiance told me about a road runner in his neighborhood that killed a small bird and stood there and ate it!! Possibly my daughter will need some armor before she attempts to charm one. :worried: LOL

I'll be sure to tell all the folks at Hubert Humphrey hello for your wife Ferret!

I had pretty much based the house choice on the schools - and heard so many good things about both Humphrey and La Cueva... so that was the deciding factor for us. My 13 yr old swims league and runs track and the coaches at La Cueva gave me a real warm and fuzzy when I spoke with them.

as long as it's not purchased from ACME, she should be alright.

meep meep!

Exactly!

and i've never heard one make that (or any other) noise