R&R AT THE R&R RANCH

April 30, 2006

We bought more gas in Bernalillo, ($2.94), and down the road we headed to see our friends, Rick and Rebecca Koll.  They sold their home in Pleasanton a few years ago and bought some horses and acreage in the remote little town of Corona, New Mexico and had a very special home built.

I took the first leg, driving from Albuquerque to Willard.  The distance didn’t look that long on the map, but once we got through the hills east of Albuquerque we were out into flat plains country.  The road went on and on and on.  We switched off driving duty in Willard.  I was expecting flinty rock and cactus, but the terrain is actually miles and miles of  grassy fields.  Along the way we saw some herds of prong horned antelope.

After what seemed like a whole day of driving, but was really only 1½ hours, we came to the secret turn.  There is no marker or street sign, just look for the 5-mile post, drive to the no passing sign and turn right.  Off we went into the scrub cypress woods.  The road turned to gravel.  On and on we drove.  Boy, this is really remote.  The scenery is cows, cypress, brown grass, cholla cactus, cow pies, and more of the same.  Finally we came to the next turn.  Don was a bit dubious as I opened the gate, but I read the directions—go through the gate, be sure to close it so the cows don’t get out, drive to the windmill.  That took us to the choice between the gravel road and a dusty little trail that led off to the right.  “Go right”, I urged.  “Are you sure?” asked Don.  We made our way through the herd of cows sitting in the trail, and sure enough, there was the next gate, the barn and finally the house.

Rick and Rebecca have just been in their home for three weeks, but they had it fully furnished and ready to receive visitors already.  They designed their new home themselves and had it custom built.  It is of rammed earth construction in the Southwest style, with walls 18 inches thick, big beams, spiraled support posts, stuccoed walls, and beautiful Mexican paver floors.  There are charming decorator touches throughout the house, from paw-prints in the floor tiles to petroglyphs on the kitchen walls.  Rick and Rebecca have antique typewriters in a display case, their turtle (an Indian sign of friendship) collection, antique wall sconces, pots and displays of all kinds.  Rebecca has included several pieces of antique furniture handed down from her mother and grandparents.  Each piece has a special story to go with it.  What heritage!

  

The house has a wonderful greatroom, with a kiva fireplace in the corner.  Rebecca’s kitchen is spacious, with a large island and a wonderful red enameled 6-burner AGA stove.  In addition to a dining nook adjacent to the kitchen, there is a dining room.  The spacious master bedroom suite looks out to the blue sky, hills and forest.  The guest bedroom, the Cowboy Suite, is decorated with a charming quilt and many of those lovely little decorator touches that Rebecca is so good at.  Rick has a very nice library, lined with built-in bookshelves.  He is waiting for his desk to arrive.  Across a small patio is the Casita, a lovely guest apartment, with a kitchen/sitting room, bedroom and bathroom.

After the house tour we got to have the choice of the Cowboy Suite or the Casita.  We chose the Casita because of the queen bed.  It is very comfortable to have the apartment because when I wake up early I can come to the sitting room and write the trip log, make a cup of coffee, read a book, etc. without bothering anyone else.

Rebecca had a nice chicken with a special spice rub ready for dinner, so after depositing our luggage in the Casita we all had a glass of wine and sat down to dinner.  We learned about how R&R selected this remote spot to build their home, and a lot about their design and construction processes.  I really admire them for sticking with it, making the 5000 decisions to be made, and getting pretty much what they wanted.  After dessert and more conversation we all went to bed.

In the morning Don and I agreed that we were so comfortable here and there were so many things to do and see that we had to find a way to stay another day.  We re-evaluated our travel plans and decided that if we took a deep breath and gritted our teeth we could do two days worth of driving on Monday.  At breakfast we told our hosts that we had figured out a way to stay another day and then we began to plan our activities.