on the road to SXSW - Farmington, NM

SomaFM is road tripping to South by Southwest this year. Well, at least Rusty and Merin are. Elise is going to fly in a little later. But on the way there, we're going to spread the word about SomaFM along historic Route 66 and the southern US. And tell you about it in the process.

Farmington, NM

There is something cool about seeing towns you never even knew existed. Last night we ended up in a place called Farmington, New Mexico which is the first of the “middle of nowhere” places we’ve been to that is thriving, even with the somewhat recent addition of 2 Walmarts on either end of tiwn!

This is a small low-rise city full of wacky (and/or unique) small businesses (e.g. an optical place had two 20-foot tall palm trees made of christmas lights as decorations out front) as well as a moderate number of chain stores (Home Depot, Safeway, Lowes) all existing in harmony, and all seeming to flourish.

Apparently this is a big center for “the oil and gas industry” as the man at the motel told us, incredulous at our ignorance. That also explains all the people asking where the Chevron meeting was taking place.

We had dinner at Three Rivers Brewing Company downtown. 10+ microbrews, great food. And they also own a Pizza place next door. Maybe we’ll go there for breakfast tomorrow?