Alex, it's spectacular. While I haven't ridden on my self-powered bike (and I want to, badly) I've been out there many times on my motorcycle. The advantage there is I can cover a lot of backroads in a short amount of time.

Sante Fe has some the best food in the country, from expensive haute cuisine to local unpretentious cantinas the locals all recommend. For breakfast there, it's the legendary Cafe Pasqual's. Be sure to order the right chillies, though. They won't accept returns for food that is too hot.

I agree, with Terex that some of the roads around Taos are kind of rough and drinking out there seems to be a recreational sport. Although US 64 from Taos to Shiprock is a beautiful, winding, smooth ride over the mountain and then down into desert around Shiprock. As a side note, if you are truly into pain and hell on a bicycle, US 491 between Shiprock and Gallup had been US 666. It's a devil of a ride through the desert.

US 380/70 (Known as the Billy the Kid trail) between Roswell and Corizozo is a gorgeous ride. Much of it following the Riodoso Rio, peppered with cottonwood trees along its bank, it flows along a valley surrounded by gorgeous desert hills. The great thing about riding around Roswell is that if you ever get tired, you can always have some aliens beam you up. Roswell, though is situated in some very sparse desert.

For retirement, my wife and I have had our eye on Mountainair. It's situated near the middle of the state, at the eastern foot of the mountain range that runs north and south through New Mexico. State road 55/14, which runs from just north of Corizozo into Mountainair, is smooth, flat-to-rolling hills and beautiful high-desert scenery. Just be careful coming over ridges and through curves. The antelope population there likes to bask in the warmth of the asphalt as day cools into night. They'll crawl under the barbed wire just to get there, but when you startle them they panic, running back and forth between the fences trying to escape. Fun to see, but keep your distance. Also, last time I was there I ran across this wonderful cantina with some of the best Mexican food I've ever had. But brush up on your spanish -- this is real Mexican food. Also you could get buzzed by extremely low-flying fighter jets out of White Sands, which is quite the earth-shattering experience. There are also old native ruins along the way that are good to visit; you might have to travel over gravel to get to them, though.

Another beautiful area to ride is down near Silver City (where New Mexico Maidens play guitars and sing songs about Billy, the boy-bandit king). The town is on the southern edge of Gila National Forest, which is a wonderful ride.

Those are my recommendations. Just be sure when you buy a property you have good access to plenty of water.

--Rick