Tour

Below you will find a tour of what you can expect if you fly into the Albuquerque Sunport Airport and travel south to Starry Night.

Whether you rent a car, use the El Paso – Los Angeles Limousine Express Bus service, or have us pick you upat the airport for an $80 fee, beyond the city proper, the drive is roughly two and a half hours of this:

Sunny Southern New Mexico at its best.

You can also fly into the El Paso airport. The drive in looks quite similar.

After your arrival in Truth or Consequences, which is exit 79 or 80 off of I-25, you will find a very small, rural town through which the Rio Grande runs, just like this.

The Rio Grande runs through town, and during the warmer months of spring and summer, Captain Bob at Whitewater Weekends rents out tubes and boats to float own the Rio Grande. Drop offs and pick ups included for about $5 to $10 per person. Needless to say, it is a delightful way to spend a hot summer day. Old River Road runs alongside the Rio Grande and makes for a pleasant, quiet walk or bike ride.

Also, New Mexico’s largest lake, Elephant Butte Lake, is only 5 miles away. In the summertime, they rent out boats o all sizes by the day or week.

And to the south of Truth or Consequences is Caballo Lake, pictured below.

A walk around the neighborhood looks something like this.

There are several galleries and artist live/work spaces in the downtown area. Here are a couple of them that have web sites:
Judd Bradley Photography
Main Street Gallery

As a side note, pretty much anything that moves is generally legal to drive on the eclectic streets of Truth or Consequences, or “T or C” as people call it.   The owner of this vehicle turned their golf cart into a solar charged automobile. To join in, we have a small fleet of bikes that the AIRs are free to use to get around. The downtown hot springs district is flat and easy to navigate.

This picture was taken while looking across the street from one of the cafes in town, the Happy Belly Deli, which is one of a handful of places to get coffee in the morning. Note we said coffee. Not espresso. So far there is only one espresso machine in town, at it is in a restaurant called Casa Taco in Elephant Butte. At Starry Night we provide drip coffee makers in all of the living quarters.

Here is a list of the some of the restaurants that you will find in town:
Cafe Bella Luca has hands down awesome Italian food.
Los Arcos is an old T or C standby that has been around forever and going there feels like walking into the fifties. Surf and turf, baked potatoes, lots of butter.

Happy Belly Deli is a coffee shop downtown that serves breakfast, lunch and on Friday and Saturday nights, pizza dinner as well. A nice spot to grab a bagel and a cup of coffee in the morning, a sandwich in the afternoon, and good conversation almost always.

Pacific Grill has seafood. In the desert. Strange but good.
La Cocina serves Mexican food. Go figure.
And here are the usual suspects in Anytown, America: Subway, Sonic Burger, Denny’s McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and KFC.  And Walmart.

As for shopping, Susan Morrongiello owns Dust and Glitter and it is a fabulous addition to our little town with custom clothing, accessories and art.

Celestial Creations features arts and crafts made by hundreds of New Mexico artists.

And as more shops develop web sites, we will surely be linking to them.

There are also a couple of small hills in town which are perfectly suited for perching and watching the sunset. It rarely disappoints.

View from the hill

Here is a view of Turtleback Mountain, which sits above the town and can be seen from almost anywhere.

And there are ghost towns nearby.

Cuchillo, Monicello, Engle
(Apologies in advance for the obnoxious blinking ad on the following links.)

You will also find several bath houses downtown in the Historic Hot Springs district, with free flowing hot springs running through the many tubs. This is the entrance to one of them, La Paloma, which means The Dove in Spanish.

Inside the tall wooden fence surrounding the Starry Night grounds, is a courtyard with two large planters willed with various plants and vegetables, depending on the season.

We also have a smattering of pants in the courtyard in pots and things. Honeysuckle, Jasmine, Tomatoes, Strawberries, Sunflowers, Nasturtium, Potatoes, and many different succulents are placed about according to how much sun they can tolerate.

This wraps up our tour for now. Please check back for more pictures and information as we make it available. You can also find out more about us on Facebook and by following our feed on Twitter.

Additional reference materials:
Wikipedia page for Truth or Consequences, NM
Vanity Fair article on Truth or Consequences, NM