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About the Episode:
Talk about a New Mexico expert! Ashley M. Biggers has been writing about and sharing her love for New Mexico for years through her career as a journalist working on GuestLife New Mexico, GuestLife El Paso, the University of New Mexico Press and New Mexico Magazine. On this episode, Ashley talks to Bunny about her recently published, 3rd edition of 100 Things to Do in Albuquerque Before You Die. She lets us in on some insider secrets as well as pro-tips for anyone living in or visiting Albuquerque. Be sure to find Ashley and her publications available at the links below.
Links
Ashley’s website
Buy Ashley’s book
Follow Ashley on Instagram
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook
Original Music by: Kene Terry
Featuring:
Ashley M. Biggers
Ashley M. Biggers is an award-winning freelance journalist who has contributed to CNN, Lonely Planet, AFAR, USA Today, and Fodor’s Travel, among many others. As author of 100 Things to Do in Albuquerque Before You Die and Secret Albuquerque, she’s an expert on her hometown’s marquee and off-the-beaten-path destinations.
Ashley serves as editor of GuestLife New Mexico and GuestLife El Paso, and is lead editor for the Southwest Adventure Series from University of New Mexico Press. Her award-winning book, Eco-Travel New Mexico, was the first in the series.
Ashley completed her undergraduate degree in communication studies at the University of Puget Sound and earned her master’s degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She has earned member to the Society of American Travel Writers and the International Food, Wine, and Travel Writers Association.
A word nerd, she’s a storyteller at heart. She adores being outside, but when she’s in the office, she’d love to hear from you. She can be reached via email at ashley@ashleymbiggers.com.
Episode Transcript
Bunny: (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of in chat. We’re excited that you’re here and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico.
Bunny: (00:50)
I’m so excited. I’ve sort of fangirled and followed our guest today for several years because she has my dream job. She’s a travel writer as well. She’s a freelance journalist who writes in a lot of spaces that I enjoy, um, particularly New Mexico Magazine, but she’s also contributed to CNN and a Lonely Planet. There’s a long list. I wrote ’em all down a Far USA Today. She can tell you more about that. But our guest is Ashley M. Biggers, and she got her degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at ASU. And she’s a freelance writer, mostly, at least in my experience reading her about travel. I know there’s a lot more to tell and, and Ashley, you’re gonna be better at telling this story that I am, but we wanna hear it. Tell us your New Mexico story.
Ashley: (01:50)
Well, I’m so delighted to be here with you today. I have such a love of New Mexico, which I know you share, and I am a native New Mexico. So my grandfather moved to Tucumcari, New Mexico in 1950 to start an optometry practice, which he had for 60 years in that town. And my mom grew up there and then moved to the big city of Albuquerque, to go to college where she met my dad. And, um, so I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and spent, spent a great deal of time visiting Tucumcari as well growing up, but was mostly in Albuquerque. And now I’m raising my son here as the third or fourth, depending on how you count generation of new Mexicans.
Bunny: (02:33)
That’s cool. We were just talking about that before we began because my grandparents came to Ko County, which is where Tucumcari is out near San Jon, between San Jon and Logan in the teens, like 1912 and 1914, something like that. And so, I mean, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, um, it’s exciting that we’re sort of from the same neck of the woods, at least our roots are. And it’s so much fun to talk to you. And one of the things I, that I know we wanna cover and I have a lot of questions for you, but you have a new book out, I wanna talk about that because anybody who loves New Mexico is gonna wanna read this book. Tell us what that is.
Ashley: (03:20)
So I, um, am recently releasing the third edition of my book, a hundred Things to Do in Albuquerque Before You Die. So this book was originally published and I believe it was 2015, and then I’ve sort of revisited it a few times and refreshed and added new places and replaced things that have gone away. So, the third edition is out soon, and I’m really, you know, I have such a great love for this book because, um, growing up in Albuquerque and living in Albuquerque, I often hear from people that there’s nothing to do here, which is such a surprising comment for me personally, just because I never seem to have enough time to do all the things that I want to do. My calendar is overflow, so I kind of have the opposite problem. So I’m really glad to guide people to these hundred things to do in Albuquerque.
Ashley: (04:12)
And, you know, the book is meant both for visitors and for locals. And so in the book you’ll certainly find the top sort of marque tourist attractions like riding on the tram or hiking at the petroglyphs, but you’ll also find more off the beaten pathway places more places that might be a surprise to locals. And so my favorite thing when I’m doing book events is to have somebody come up and say, Oh, I’ve lived here forever. I’ve done everything, and there is to do an Albuquerque. And then they start flipping through the book and they say, Oh, well, I haven’t done that one or that one. So it gives people an opportunity to rediscover a place that they thought that they knew really well. Which I think particularly during, um, you know, the past few years in Covid when we’ve been spending more time at home and spending more time in the places that we live, is a really exciting opportunity because it gives us a chance to get to know the places that we spend so much time, even more.
Bunny: (05:12)
I really like that part and I love your dedication. It’s to your son and you say, may you learn that in your hometown? There’s always something new to discover. And, and I’m like you, When I lived in Albuquerque, that’s where I raised my kids. I lived there for about 18 years. And, um, we, I was a single mom. I had no money, and yet we were able to find free things to do all the time and places to hang out where, just like you, I thought there’s not enough time to, to do everything that, that we wanna do in what we consider our home city. I know that, that my kids both consider that their hometown. And so, um, reading your list, I wanted to let you know I’ve done 52 of the hundred things on your list, and yet I wanna go back and do them all again.
Bunny: (06:04)
And, and for our listeners, Ashley did this great job of laying this book out. It’s, um, in separate categories so that, you can tell folks our listeners more about the categories, but it’s, you know, if you’re a foodie, there’s an entire section for you if you’re an adventurer, if you’re an outdoors person, there’s this section for you. And then at the end, you do a really great job of talking about seasonal options. Um, I’m, you know, I wrote down everything that is a fall option because we’re gonna go and do that stuff this fall. And, um, you also break it down into, you know, family things, girlfriend, weekends, um, it’s, it’s, it’s sort of a one stop shop for what to do when you’re visiting or from Albuquerque. So I’m really, I’m curious first about, I mean, you talked about the reason that you loved doing the book, but where did the idea come from? I’m curious about that first.
Ashley: (07:06)
So this book is actually part of a national series that’s published by re press. Um, so this publisher out of St. Louis, Missouri specializes in regional titles. And so they have created these sorts of guidebook for cities across the us. And so if you’re traveling somewhere, it might be something to check out because there’s probably a guidebook like this one wherever you’re going, whether it’s to Los Angeles or New York or Austin, or Traverse City, Michigan. So they actually approached me, um, as sort of an expert on Albuquerque to be the author for this guide. Um, and so that was a great compliment to me because it felt like, you know, they were seeking me out for my expertise, um, in asking me to create this publication. So that’s kind of how the book came together for the first one.
Bunny: (07:59)
Well, I’m gonna tell listeners some of my favorites because, um, it, you’ve really jogged my memory. Um, certainly, um, Johanna and I Johanna’s my co-producer and my assistant, and she’s also my daughter. We’re of course going to Balloon Fiesta because that’s what you do. But I was in Albuquerque just this past weekend for a wedding, and the one thing I really wanted to do was go and have breakfast at Barella, coffee house. We didn’t do that because they didn’t open quite as early as we wanted to but we ended up at the Frontier and we had a cinnamon roll. Um, and, and, um, so it reminded me, I wanna go back and go to Barella’s. I’ve certainly done the Luminarias at Old Town, and it reminded me that we also used to do I’m sure you know about this, that luminary tour of the cemeteries. I mean the cemetery on Edith, is it on Edith, like at Edith and, um, Manaul where mm-hmm. . I used to go with friends of mine and we decorated, her sister’s plot and, you know, went out and took a pot of PAs sole and hung out there. But there are, people don’t get what a cool place Albuquerque is to visit. It’s so diverse and so interesting. And you can go and do dinner at Farm to Table. You can go to Los Poblanos or you can do the Breaking Bad tour. I can I ask if there’s anything that was your, I mean, do you have a list of what’s your top five favorites? Are you allowed to talk about that ?
Ashley: (09:43)
I know everyone always asks me that question, and I always feel like that’s asking me to choose my favorite child or my favorite pet. Sure. Because I have, you know, I have a place in my heart for every, everything that’s in the book. Um, I certainly hear from people that, you know, they’ll say, Oh, I drove through Albuquerque on my way to Santa Fe or to tows or to somewhere else, and it, it didn’t seem like there was that much to do there. And it’s like, oh yes, every, everywhere you visit the best view of the city and the best perception of the city you’re gonna get is as you speed by on the freeway. So , you know, that’s kinda a not a great way to think about the city. So, um, I definitely encourage people to explore and dive in and spend a little time, and maybe it’s, you know, in little chunks of time as, as you go through, um, and visit at various times over the year if you’re from somewhere else in New Mexico or maybe that’s a big, you know, splashy trip of you spend all your time here in Albuquerque. So in terms of my favorites, I think, you know, some of the items that kind of stand out to me from the third edition, because it has 23 new items that were not mentioned in previous editions of the book. Um, so some of the things that I’m kind of most excited to talk about are, for example, having a, um, vegan tamale from Vagos in Albuquerque. So of course, you know, we love our tamales in New Mexico. Um, but as a vegetarian, I’m al always on the lookout for ways that I can have those special new Mexican foods. And one of my new favorite ways to do so is to have a red chile jackfruit tamale from Vegos. And so that’s a very interesting and new culinary experience that you can have in Albuquerque. So this is a specialty vegan restaurant where they have all of your new Mexican favorites from enchiladas and burritos to Chilie rellenos, but all vegan versions and, um, they’re very indulgent. And , my husband has eaten there and he is a meat eater and says that he doesn’t miss the meat at all in those versions. Um, so another kind of of favorite place that I have liked to enjoy, um, on the culinary side is Restoration Pizza, which is a pizza’s joint here in Albuquerque that’s owned by the same folks as Bosque Brewery. But what’s kind of special about Restoration Pizza is that they try to employ people who might otherwise have difficulty finding work. And so, um, they work with people from an organizations like the New Mexico Coalition of the Blind, um, to kind of incorporate folks that might have more challenges in finding work and give them a place for stable employment. And so they work with them on, you know, if transportation is a challenge in getting to work, they help them with that, um, and, you know, special sort of working environments to make it more conducive to making sure that those folks have a great place to work.
Bunny: (12:42)
And can I tell you that that is the section that I read to my husband? I mean, we’re Bosque fans. We, we, we stop at the one and Bernillo whenever we can. And we certainly, um, have been to the tap house they opened here in the rail yard. But to read that, that’s huge, that, that makes me an even bigger fan of their product. What, what a cool thing to do.
Ashley: (13:08)
Absolutely. I love that. You know, they’re looking at how they can give back and contribute to the community that they’re so integral to. And so, um, those are a couple favorites. Of course, as a new Mexican, I’m always like quick to reach for the food the culinary side of things, of course. Um, but just to give you something that’s not food. So one of the other sort of things that I d got to write about for New Mexico magazine actually and inspired an entry in the book is Secret Gallery, um, which started out in Albuquerque, kinda right before the pandemic. And it was originally intended to be sort of a popup gallery to show, um, contemporary new Mexican works, whatever that means to the artist who they’re featuring at that time. But they kind of found a brick and mortar home in the Berube, um, location, which is formerly a pharmacy that was one of the longest operating pharmacies in New Mexico. Um, and for a long time it, um, was really known for kind of, and having these traditional healing practices that were, um, sort of recommended out of this pharmacy. And then when the pharmacy closed, because the, um, proprietary passed away, the community of barelas really rallied around this building and wanted to really preserve it. And so, um, in the back, it has a little museum that tells the history of this location and gallery where you can go. And really appreciate a lot of works by contemporary New Mexican tems that I’ve to third edition.
Bunny: (14:51)
And that neighborhood is, is experience, uh, experiencing sort of a cultural, um, I’m not gonna say resurgence because it’s always been culturally rich, but isn’t that am I saying the right thing? Is it, I mean,
Ashley: (15:06)
There’s certainly a lot happening in the neighborhood and I think what, you know, they’re always very cognizant about gentrification and not wanting to get away from their cultural roots. Sure. But there’s a lot of, uh, sort of re-envisioning and redevelopment happening at the rail yards. There are some new commercial properties that are going in kind of on the edges of the neighborhood. And so they’re trying to sort of make it more of a, an attraction where people want to go and spend time and really dive into these cultural elements that they’re so keen on preserving and rightfully so.
Bunny: (15:40)
And then after you go to the gallery, you can go down to the coffee house and have pasole with chicharrones , which is about about my favorite thing.
Ashley: (15:48)
Favorite.
Bunny: (15:51)
And what about, I mean, you, you talk about a place, I don’t know anything about 66 acres and level five. I don’t know either one of those places. Tell me about those.
Ashley: (16:02)
So 66 acres, um, is relatively new restaurant. It’s few years old, but, um, it is created by the same owner as Slate Street Cafe, which people might be familiar with in Albuquerque. Yeah. Um, and 66 acres is directly across from the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Avanyu Plaza, where they have been having a lot of business development, and they’re quite a few restaurants and, um, now a hotel and things going in that area. And so 66 acres, the name is actually inspired by the acreage that was allotted to the original, um, Indian school, which is on, that was on that site. And so that’s sort of their way of paying homage to the places history. But it’s a really fun restaurant. It has a wide variety of all delicious, um, dinners and lunches that they have there. And they have one of my favorite margaritas in Albuquerque, which, you know it’s a very difficult part of my job that I have to make sure that I taste test Albuquerque’s margaritas and Albuquerque’s green chile cheeseburgers, um, Right. To make sure that I’m recommending a good one to readers. And so I point people there to enjoy the margarita. And remind me of the other item.
Bunny: (17:20)
Oh, well, level five. Which I know is at, at Hotel Chaco, but I haven’t been there. I’m just dying to go.
Ashley: (17:26)
Yeah. So, um, of course Hotel Chaco, when it was unveiled a few years ago, was the first new hotel, um, in Old Town Albuquerque in probably 40 years. And it is a really lovely hotel if you wanna just go wander through the lobby because the design is inspired by the Pueblo Great Houses at Choco Canyon. Um, and so, so it incorporates a lot of natural materials and it also, um, blends in a lot of contemporary indigenous art. And, um, so there’s an amazing antler chandelier by, um, Ira Luhan, who’s an incredible glass artist. There’s an incredible, um, statue that greets you as soon as you walk in the lobby. Um, but we’re pointing people there to go to the rooftop, um, level five, which is, they believe that Pueblo Bonito when it was at its full glory, uh, was five stories. And so they built a five story building. And so now they have a rooftop restaurant where you can go and have, um, dinner and cocktails and have a great view over the city. And I’ll also point people to usually during Balloon Fiesta, they’ll have a few breakfast events there as well. And so it’s a great place to go and have a little breakfast or brunch and watch the balloons as you’re enjoying, you know, the beautiful cityscape that you can see from that vantage as well.
Bunny: (18:50)
Wow. I gotta go. And, and of course, and of course there’s the Sawmill across the street, which was on your list, which we’ve been to several times. I was really excited, and I know I read this in the New Mexico magazine in a small column, I believe, but I was excited to hear about the Lobo Theater, which is a place I used to go on dates and I used to take my kids to see movies. Tell our listeners what’s going on there.
Ashley: (19:18)
Yeah, so, um, Lobo Theater is one of Albuquerque’s oldest, um, theaters. And over the years it has been various things, but most, um, notably a movie theater for quite a few years. And sort of during the, um, pandemic, it has been reimagined as a live music venue, um, and also a lounge. And so it is alive and well once again in Knob Hill, um, which is really exciting to see for that neighborhood. And, um, has been sort of lovingly restored in terms of the lobby to bring back elements from the sort of 1920s and 1930s when the theater was first built. Um, so they’ve blended those into the, uh, decor and then they have concerts that are everything from, you know, New Mexico Jazz Festival kind of concerts to you know, more diverse things, but it’s really a wide ranging, um, lineup. But, you know, a lot of the historic theaters tend to lean more into metal or rap or something like that. So this, um, has the genres of music that kind of aren’t already covered by other places. So it really sort of fills the gap in Albuquerque’s music scene and is a fun place to go just for the history of the building as well.
Bunny: (20:39)
You also do this really cool thing in the book where you give tips, not on every entry, but on the ones that obviously need it, it, you know, like, here’s, here’s where you should park. Um, here’s what you should do about getting tickets, you know, for the Breaking Bad Tour, you, you give a a tip that’s separate from the entry, that’s like, here are the can’t miss items. Um, one of the reasons I love this book is because it, not only is it fun to read, but I think how much fun it had to be to write it.
Ashley: (21:08)
Absolutely. The my publisher and designers of the book made me kind of reigned in on the tips because , they were like, Why are you having so many tips? But I felt like I wanted to provide those, um, insights about the best way to experience a place. And I don’t mean to, you know, pigeonhole people into doing a certain thing, but you know, if there’s, if there’s a free ticket day or a best place to park or something like that, I wanna provide those insights so that they can have a great experience when they go and do those things. And, um, yes, you know, I have a wonderful job in that my job is to go and research and experience things in Albuquerque and New Mexico. And, um, that’s a pretty great thing to have to do. You know, I will often take my husband on a date somewhere, and then as we’re on the way, he’s like, Wait, is this for work? Or is this just for fun? And I always say both really the work,
Bunny: (22:05)
Yeah, the work is the fun. Um, I’m curious. I mean, you have to get this book and, um, if you’re a listener and you love New Mexico, you have to get the book. And I do say, when you were talking about it before, I say very frequently on this podcast, and I even, I wrote a blog post about it, Get off the freeway. You know, I had friends all the time who would say I drove through New Mexico and it is not very attractive. And I’m like, Get off the freeway, You know, get off the freeway west of Santa Rosa and drive up through Delia or get off the freeway south of Grants and drive down to Zuni, get off the freeway. And that’s, and you gotta do that when you visit Albuquerque. Don’t just rush through on your way to somewhere else. It’s kinda like life, you know, slow down, take a look. I’m, I’m really, so I love this book and I’m really excited for our listeners to get a copy, and I’m so excited that I got to read a little bit of an advanced copy. I’m curious, um, what’s next or what are we, where are we gonna see, What are we gonna see next? What are you writing about right now? Is it a secret ?
Ashley: (23:15)
Well, I usually have, um, book projects in the works and, um, we might be looking at, my other Albuquerque centric book is called Secret Albuquerque. So it is a great companion to a hundred things to do in Albuquerque before you Die, because, you know, the first hundred things are definitely the, the must dos and Secret Albuquerque, its subtitle is, Guide to the Weird, Wonderful and Obscure. And it definitely is. So it sort of of like peels back and is that next layer of kind of weird and wacky things to do in Albuquerque, which I must say, even as much as I love it, Albuquerque certainly specializes in those weird and wacky things. So we’re probably looking at, uh, a revisit of that book, just to make sure everything is current and happening, uh, in those pages as well. So that’s kind of the, probably the next book project we’ll look at.
Bunny: (24:11)
So can you share a weird and wacky something that our listeners might not know about?
Ashley: (24:16)
So one of my favorite items, um, that’s in the secret Albuquerque book is The Glass Garden in Albuquerque. And so this is about a three acre stretch of the Bosque where it was formerly a kind of a dumping ground for the city. So this was in the 1930s before Albuquerque had municipal garbage pickup, and people would just take their trash down to the Bosque and dump it. Um, which shows you just how much sort of our conception of, um, what the Bosque is and what it means to us as a city has changed over the years. Because, you know, saying that today would just kind of horrify people because it, the Bosque is such a treasured part of our city, um, today, but at that time, they would just, um, dump their trash. So over the years, much of that trash has disintegrated, blown away, been buried, but what remains it are shards of glass that are, um, sort of glittering across the surface of the, um, dirt in this three acre area.
Ashley: (25:18)
Um, and so of course the glass is completely weathered, totally safe to walk on and around. Um, but you can see it’s sort of become a little informal time capsule because you’ll see pieces of dishware from the 1930s, you’ll see piece of a Clorox bottle or a milk bottle or a Coke bottle from that era. And so it’s kind of a really fun little treasure trove, um, and kind of a secret little area in, uh, Albuquerque and an area of the Bosque that people often don’t know about, even if they’re very familiar with, you know, hiking and biking and exploring that riverside forest.
Bunny: (25:57)
And we’re not gonna tell anybody where it is because like me, they’re gonna happen by the book and find it.
Ashley: (26:04)
Fair deal.
Bunny: (26:05)
Yes. I love that. And you, our listeners are obviously very interested in Albuquerque, but if you were, if somebody was coming to New Mexico for the first time, and you know, believe me, we’ve covered the whole Santa Fe vibe with a couple of our guests here. But if, if somebody was coming here and they said, Well, I’ve got a week and a half to hang out in New Mexico, what’s your best tip today? And I know this changes, so, um, you know, if you had something you wanted to tell people that they don’t wanna miss, um, and I, and I know, you know, Balloon Fiesta is one thing and the tram, but when you, when you have friends come from out of town, what are the things you like to show them?
Ashley: (26:56)
Well, one thing that I would certainly point people to is that, you know, we, the Southwest in general, and particularly New Mexico, is so rich because of the indigenous cultures that thrive here. And so that is a really unique aspect of New Mexico in terms of, you know, the world and our country. Um, so I would absolutely direct people to visit a Pueblo in whatever capacity you can at this time, or know the Navajo Nation or Apache lands. Um, these communities have been particularly hard hit by Covid, and so they have been a little more insular lately, um, very rightfully so to guests. Um, but I do know that Taos Pueblo recently reopened to the public and is accepting visitors to come, um, which is fantastic because it’s such an extraordinary place to visit. And so that it’s reopened again is fantastic. Um, so right now I would point people to go to Taos Pueblo because, um, it is such a rich source of, um, you know, indigenous culture and history and present, and you get to meet artists who, um, you know, continue their, their heritage, by creating art and pottery and jewelry and, um, visit their studios in, in their homes. Um, you know, there’s also a great history there of, uh, you know, land being returned to an indigenous community in the form of Blue Lake, which is very, unfortunately very rare in our country. Um, and so you can learn about that history, you can appreciate the scenic beauty of the place and the architecture that has inspired so much of the Southwest architecture that we, um, see every day. And so it’s just an extraordinary place to visit. And so right now that would be sort of at the top of my list.
Bunny: (28:53)
Wow, that’s a, that’s a great recommendation. And I don’t know, it was one that I expected, but I, and it, and it inspires me to go back. I won, I wanna go back now that they reopened . Like I said, this is so you, you get to do exactly what the rest of us dream of. I guess I’m curious, did you always, I mean, as, as a child, were you aware that New Mexico was a, like the coolest place in the world to live? Or did you go away to school and then you were like, I gotta go back. I’m just curious to know about your sort of this long love of New Mexico. Was it always there?
Ashley: (29:33)
Well, it’s, it’s very interesting because as a child I would go and do all these things with my parents, um, thinking that they were completely normal and that’s what every other kid, every other place did. You know, I would think it was completely normal to go to fe days and traditional dances. I would think it was completely normal to go to Indian Market where it was a world class market that just celebrated its centennial. You know, all of these things were very, and you know, the biggest bullying festival in the world, and this was always just very normal to me. Um, and so it didn’t stand out at that time because it was so customary and part of our lives. Um, and so growing up, you know, go looking at going to college, New Mexico and Albuquerque felt very much like a coat that was one size too small. And I really wanted to go and explore other places. And so I went away to college and graduate school, and in doing that, I was able to realize just how very unique and special New Mexico is. And, you know, I’ve traveled all around the world. I think I’m up to like 20 countries now, which is a lot, or not that many, but certainly enough to give, to give perspective, um, on what sort of place New Mexico is. And it is really very unique and it’s also certainly my soul place. It’s the place where I feel connected to the earth and the people and, uh, the culture. And so it was only in, you know, traveling that I was able to appreciate just how special this place is. And I always, um, when I was growing up, knew that I wanted to be a journalist. Um, and it was only through traveling abroad and studying in Ireland for a semester that I started to wonder about if I could turn my love of travel and my love of writing into my dream job. And so that’s when sort of the spark ignited and I was, began pursuing that professional path.
Bunny: (31:31)
Well, you’re doing a great job. I would just tell folks if you, you know, look through the New Mexico magazine you have on your table, and there’s probably, Ashley probably has a byline there. I can’t remember… Oh, you wrote recently about, there was a concentration camp. I mean, we a a prisoner of war camp, I’m sorry, Um,
Ashley: (31:53)
Oh, in Roswell.
Bunny: (31:54)
Yes. Tell folks about that. That was so cool. I mean, this is the obscure stuff that Ashley finds .
Ashley: (32:02)
Yes. So, um, of course during World War ii, there was a prisoner of war camp in Roswell where they had, um, German prisoners of war, and they arrived there sort of because they wanted to put them in the middle of the desert where they would have difficulty escaping. Um, but while they, these men were at the camp, they created a work detail, um, and sent them to create these various, you know, community projects around town. And so when the men were working on creating sort of a drainage ditch in one part of town, they, uh, kind of formed together and decided to, um, inlay a German iron cross into the, into the rocks that they were laying, um, in in this, uh, in this drainage ditch. And so as sort of a way to rebel and to, you know, fight against their circumstances. And so when the town of Roswell discovered that this had been done, of course people were incensed at that time, and so they laid concrete over the rocks to cover them so they couldn’t be seen. But over the years, erosion has washed away that concrete. And so the, the German Cross is once invisible in Roswell. And so you can go and visit that sort of oddity as you’re going to see the other oddities of Roswell, um, and look for UFOs and aliens. Um, and so that’s just another kind of quirk of that place, which is also, I would say on my list as an art destination, which you wouldn’t normally think of Roswell as being, but it has an extraordinary contemporary art scene. Um, and so if you’re headed to Roswell for aliens, don’t miss the art while you’re there.
Bunny: (33:52)
Wow. Ashley, I feel like you could be a you, you could be a regular contributor here because you know more about the state than any of the rest of us.
Ashley: (34:02)
So I’ll Be your roving reporter.
Bunny: (34:04)
,Yes, please. I’m so excited that you agreed to come on the podcast. I love that you’re writing about things that are both beautiful and obscure, because that seems to me sort of the tagline for New Mexico, It’s beautiful, but to other people elsewhere, it seems a little obscure. It’s like, really, what, what is it all about? Um, so I, and and I really enjoyed reading that piece. I thought, you know, history is history. I don’t wanna say anything that’s, that’s either politically one way or politically the other, but I think it’s important to remember, um, where we were at one point, um, and you, that was, I loved that piece. So keep writing, keep exploring, and will you come back so we can talk again?
Ashley: (34:52)
I would love that. Thank you.
Bunny: (34:54)
It’s so much fun. We’re going provide a link to your book and if you know, we’re recording this a little bit ahead of time before it drops, but if, if there are events that our listeners can get to where you may be talking about the book I’d, I’d like to include links to that. So we, um, wow. I want everybody to have a copy in their hand and then I, I wanna see them, I, you know, I wanna see them at Farm and Table in the Lobo Theater and, um, at 4th of July Canyon, which is one of the one, one of the things that’s coming up soon. I used to always take my kids there for a picnic. So, um, but you’re gonna have to get, get the book if you don’t already know what that is. So Ashley and Biggers, thank you so much for being a guest. Do you have something else you wanna throw in before we finish?
Ashley: (35:46)
Well, I just wanted to say that I have a few outtakes every time I do this book, um, of special items that I share. So if you’re able to join at an event or if you want to buy a book from Ashley and biggers.com, I can always sign it with an extra thing to do. So you’ll get 101 things to do in Albuquerque before you die. So I will personalize that for you to give you an extra item.
Bunny: (36:11)
Cool. Cool. Well, I’m coming in. I’m gonna meet you somewhere. Thanks so much. This has been fun. And thanks to everybody who’s been here and thanks for checking in. We’re always looking for, um, more New Mexico stories and we wanna hear yours, so feel free to reach out to us at I love New Mexico blog@gmail.com. And, um, we’ll talk to Ashley again hopefully soon.
Ashley: (36:37)
Thank you so much for having me.
Bunny: (36:39)
Oh, Thank you for being here.