Where in the World...

...is Portales? What's it like? What does one DO there? So many questions, so few adequate answers!

The map above gives you an idea where P-Town is, relatively speaking. Portales would be the bottom left-hand point of a easterly-tilted equilateral triangle, with Amarillo, TX at the apex and Lubbock, TX on the right. Or, in other words, smack-dab in the middle of nowhere. It's a two-hour drive to both Amarillo and Lubbock, and a three-plus hour drive to Albuquerque or Santa Fe, NM. I've done all those drives quite a few times.

You want demographics? Go here. If you're pressed for time, here's the Executive Summary:

College town.
Portales is a city in Roosevelt County. It is the county seat. The latitude of Portales is 34.186N. The longitude is -103.333W. The estimated population, in 2003, was 11,078.

Median household income:
Local (Portales), $24,658
National, $41,994
Source: 2000 census, U.S. Census Bureau

OK. All that said, the principal industry is diary farming...there are over 20 times more cows in Roosevelt County than people. There's also peanut farming, along with two large peanut processing plants, which surprised me. Cannon Air Force Base, 11 miles NW of Portales, is responsible for 30% of the local economy. "Local" includes both Portales and Clovis, a city of approx. 30,000 people.

I really like it here. Portales is quiet, safe, inexpensive, and above all, uncongested! I can drive 80-flipping-miles-an-hour everywhere I go, and most people drive that way, too. Nice.

I'll add more about my adopted home as time goes by. This should be enough to answer a couple of questions, and perhaps spark a few.

That's the sign you see as you approach P-Ville from the north (i.e., on US 70, from Clovis). I'm one of the "three or four' individuals named on the sign.