D e s e r t E x p o s u r e February 2008

Blowin' in the Wind

News and notes that have blown across our desk lately. . .

These are the voyages. . . The space tourism business is hopping, even though the groundbreaking for Spaceport America has been postponed until November, after the spaceport's environmental impact statement (EIS) had to go back to ground zero. The Federal Aviation Administration had qualms about a potential conflict of interest with having another state agency, the NMSU Physical Science Laboratory, handling the EIS. There "were some balls dropped" in handing the EIS over to California-based Tetra Tech for a redo — hence the delay.

Nonetheless, Virgin Galactic space-tycoon-to be Sir Richard Branson successfully completed a space-flight training course at the National Aerospace Training and Research Center (NASTAR) in Southampton, Pa., so he'll be ready to launch. Other Virgin Galactic trainees going through the two-day training, according to Travel Daily News online, included son Sam Branson, company president Will Whitehorn, "Gaia Theory" creator and future space tourist Prof. James Lovelock, and Alan Watts, who cashed in a bazillion Virgin Atlantic frequent-flier airline miles to qualify for a $200,000 ride to the edge of space. Some 60 of the 100 "Founders" who've signed up to be Virgin Galactic's first customers have gone through the training, which includes a simulation of the 6 G force they'll experience on re-entry.

That re-entry experience is now projected to be a bit more, well, crushing than the four to five times Earth's gravity that Virgin Galactic originally described, by the way. By comparison, the Mindbender at Galaxyland Amusement Park in Edmonton, Alberta, delivers a record 6.5 Gs. The New Jersey state legislature has considered limiting front-to-back G-forces on amusement rides that exceed 5.6 Gs for more than one second. The proposal was prompted by reports of brain injury and aneurysms from sustained G-forces on roller coasters. Only two of the future space tourists training at NASTAR, however, couldn't take the G-forces, and Virgin Galactic asked three customers to put off flying. For the rest, including the 88-year-old Lovelock, the training has been what one customer described as "a wickedly realistic experience."

Meanwhile, New Mexico Tourism Department honchos blasted off last month to Philadelphia for Virgin Galactic's first Global Forum for its Accredited Space Agents, Jan. 20-23. ("Space Agents" are forward-thinking travel agents, not cosmic spies or future Flash Gordons.) Department deputy secretaries Sharon Maloof and Craig Swagerty were on hand to schmooze the nearly 50 agents from 14 countries who will be booking passengers through Spaceport America someday. The group took a daytrip to New York City to see the unveiling of the final designs for Virgin Galactic's spacecraft. "New Mexico is the place to experience the future first-hand," said tourism secretary Michael Cerletti.

Sierra County voters will be voting in April whether to join Dona Ana County taxpayers in boosting their gross-receipts taxes to help pay for that future.

Dust from the campaign trail. . . The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, in his online The Fix column, now ranks the New Mexico US Senate seat held by Pete Domenici as the nation's second most likely to flip parties. Only the seat held by Virginia Sen. John Warner, another retiring Republican, is more likely to switch to the Democrats, says Cillizza. He also ranks the US House seat held by one of the Republicans vying to succeed Domenici — Rep. Heather Wilson — as the seventh most likely House seat to change party hands.

New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg continues to make noises about a possible independent bid for the White House. Requirements to get on the ballot as an independent vary from state to state, with a total of about 650,000 petition signatures needed nationwide. If he wants to run in all 50 states, Bloomberg will have to tip his hand soon: Texas allows candidates to start collecting signatures only after its March 4 primary, and a whopping 74,000 names — none of whom can have voted in either party's primary — must be turned in 75 days later, by May 12. Other states have deadlines in July, August and even September. To get on the New Mexico ballot in November, Bloomberg would have to act pretty fast: The deadline for petitions is 5 p.m. on June 4. If he tried to qualify as a "new minor party" candidate, Bloomberg would need a mere 2,796 signatures, according to the secretary of state's office, while a truly "independent" presidential candidate in New Mexico needs 16,775 John or Jane Hancocks. Professional petition-signature gatherers are paid about $2 a head, meaning the effort here could cost more than $33,000 — chump change for Bloomberg.

Traveling on their stomachs. . . The editors of Saveur magazine must have been passing through New Mexico recently. The magazine's annual Saveur One Hundred issue, listing 100 favorite food-related things, cited "New Mexico Road Food" as number 18: "Perhaps it's the harmonious convergence of Mexican, American Indian and Western-frontier cooking traditions found there, or maybe it's the daunting distances between population centers, but we know of no other state in the Union where you can so consistently find such tasty cooking along the asphalt byways, often only steps from the gas pump." The magazine singled out the San Felipe Pueblo Restaurant, north of Albuquerque off I-25; the San Antonio General Store between Albuquerque and Las Cruces on I-25; Michael's Mini Mart in Velarde; The Diner in Tres Piedras; and Bode's General Store in Abiquiu.

Just a few months earlier, Gourmet magazine's traveling Roadfood columnists Jane and Michael Stern chimed in on a similar note, but paid a bit more attention to our end of the state. In the November 2007 issue, the Sterns praised Chope's in La Mesa (where they dined with NMSU Chile Pepper Institute founder Paul Bosland), Nellie's Cafe in Las Cruces and two Texas hot spots, the Little Diner in Canutillo and H&H Car Wash and Coffee Shop in El Paso.

D e s e r t E x p o s u r e February 2008

Blowin' in the Wind

News and notes that have blown across our desk lately. . .

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