California Dreamin’

Though he lives in Texas, Ed Simon still considers himself a New Mexican. While shopping at his local Whole Foods, he noticed they sold sausage made with “real” Hatch green chile. The clerk asked him what exactly Hatch chile is. “I explained about the high-desert climate, the warm, dry days and cool nights in the Mesilla Valley that give the chile a very particular flavor,” Simon says. “The clerk responded, ‘That’s interesting. We get our Hatch chile from California.’ ”

That’s Not the Ticket

While visiting New Mexico, Bryan Camus-Reed and his wife were so charmed that they decided to retire here one day. In the meantime, they loaded up on souvenirs, including a decorative New Mexico Route 66 license plate for the front of their car. One day, back home in New Orleans, Camus-Reed got a parking ticket. When he entered his license plate number into the city’s website, nothing showed up. Rechecking the ticket, he laughed out loud. The officer had only looked at the front plate, resulting in two errors. “Someone in Mexico with a license plate of RT 66 is going to be in trouble for an unpaid ticket,” Camus-Reid says.

Say Anything

At her Colorado apartment building, Beth Kitely was chatting with a resident who asked where she was from. When she replied, “New Mexico,” the woman asked blankly, “Where’s that?” Before she could answer, her neighbor confidently said, “Oh yes, in Arizona.” Kitely tried to set her straight, but then the woman “hastily turned to talk to someone else.”

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