TAOS AND A POSTSCRIPT: THE DRILL

A photograph can inspire a trip. Case in point: On a trip to New Orleans in the mid-1990s, I chanced upon A Gallery for Fine Photography. With its gold-standard inventory (Berenice Abbott, E.J. Bellocq, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and so on right down the alphabet), it has to be one of the best photography galleries in the U.S. A photograph by Edward S. Curtis, At the Old Well of Acoma*, caught my eye. Where, I wondered, was Acoma? New Mexico, someone, perhaps Joshua Mann Pailet, the gallery owner, told me. Bingo. I had to go there. The next trip, two weeks after I quit my job to go freelance, was a road trip to New Mexico. (*Here’s a posterized version. Suffice it to say this rendering does not do the image justice.)

Could a sweeps achieve that inspired urgency? Maybe, maybe not. This one, for three nights in Taos, revived my interest in getting to Nevada one of the days. I was on a Reno jag several years ago, caught up in the divorce-ranch history. The pull remains.

Here are the prize details, cut and pasted from the sweeps rules:

GRAND PRIZE: Sign up for a chance to win a vacation to Taos during Summer 2007! Included will be a raft trip for two on the Rio Grande courtesy of Native Sons Adventures, museum tickets for two to all five Taos historic museums, and three nights lodging at your choice of Casa de las Chimeneas Inn and Spa, Hacienda del Sol B&B, both in the Town of Taos, or Columbine Inn in Taos Ski Valley.

This one does not include airfare. That can be a good thing. You can come and go when you choose. When you enter, you have to choose your lodging. I went with the Casa de las Chimenas.

The deadline is September 30.

To enter, click HERE.

P.S. Here’s the drill: I only enter No Purchase Required sweeps and contests. I will subscribe to newsletters and fill out online questionnaires, provided they are of interest. You can unsubscribe to the newsletters; the spam risk seems slim to none. I have yet to receive any spam that I can connect to a sweeps entry. Early on I received a questionnaire, from a magazine. That’s not bad after nearly five months of this. I find sweeps by Googling and by checking my two favorite sources: About.com’s listings and FlyerTalk’s Free Travel Contests and Sweepstakes forum, right HERE. I try to find as many sweeps on my own as I can. I enjoy the hunt.