i'll tell you a secret.

There exists a place in northern New Mexico that has somehow gone under the popular radar despite its uncanny combination of amazing scenery, great weather, dazzling sunsets, and a population consting largely of genuinely good people. I expected to spend a day or maybe even a weekend in Santa Fe, but the days turned to weeks.

I called my contact, Paul aka Federicci, and got directions into town. There was plenty to do that evening; a trend that persisted through the duration of my stay. To make things easy I decided to roll to the Wal, get online, plug in the GPS, and attempt to get my bearings. As it turned out, Santa Fe is pretty small and it looked like I could easily bike around town. I mapped out the addresses that Paul had given me for the night's goings on and headed out to meet his neighbor, friend, and bandmate, Ben Wright. I discovered that despite the relatively small size of the city, there are few proper places to ride a bike and far too many drunk idiots abound.

More importantly, I started meeting the people that would make me fall in love with the place. I spent the next couple nights at the Wal and was afforded the opportunity to shower and do laundry at the houses of my new acquaintances. There was also an invitation awaiting me, I still am not quite sure how, from three girls with a large, fenced in yard and a driveway 30-40 feet from their house to come and park.

My solar panels weren't working and the battery bank was acting funny. It wouldn't hold a charge and I was running the generator for a couple hours everyday to keep juiced up whereas previously I could go four days with the whole studio running and all the lights on with no problem. Unbeknownst to me, I happened to be three miles from what might be the biggest solar supply company in the states and a bandmate from one of Paul's many musical projects just so happened to work there. I went and diagnosed the problem, free of charge (thank you!!). The charge controller, which is the bridge between the solar panels and the battery bank, had shorted out on installation and had to be replaced. Since I had to wait a week or two for this to be resolved, it seemed like a good time to take up the girls on their offer despite the fact that I'd met only one of them.

Elena, Bridgette, and Lacy turned out to be the sweetest, warmest group of p