Joeann Fossland, Master Certified Coach

The ghost of Byron T. didn't come to our room last night. After reading his legend and the history of the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico, I was kinda hoping he would wake us up in the middle of the night, but no such luck. Maybe it was because hubby, Bub, was sleeping blissfully next to me; it is said that Byron prefers to visit single women in this historic hotel, built in 1882.

We are halfway through a six day road trip in New Mexico, as I present e-PRO workshops in 6 towns. I am finding a great positive attitude everywhere I go. Maybe the people who come to learn how they can hone their skills and offer a higher level of service, are the people whose attitudes are the positive ones anyway. I have been getting educated to what is really happening in the little towns and cities in this part of the country.

Monday morning we were greeting by a friendly crowd in El Paso (and, yes, I DO understand that is Texas, not New Mexico!). The drive from there to Alamogordo, through the White Sands Missile Range, was a quick one. There isn't much going on in that part of the state. In Alamogordo, I found friendly, positive group and enjoyed being treated so wonderfully. They are excited about military plans to bring more people in. A positive attitude was pervasive, but that may, in part, be a reflection of their EO Marty's attitude. What a nice guy!

Mostly agents are telling me, the buyers are out. The lower price ranges have the most interest, but inventories are decreasing and people are buying. Is it the incentives for first time home buyers? Or the fact that in most areas, the affordability extends to more people? I believe most would agree this is a great time to buy and if things are not at the bottom, they are close and waiting could bring a higher interest rate, even if the prices decrease a little more.

We drove up to Ruidoso from Alamogordo and it was nice to smell the pines and enjoy the cooler weather, since we are still experiencing scorching temperatures in Tucson. A wonderful friend lent me her second home there and we saw deer and relaxed in a beautiful home in the pines. The Texas Club had great steaks and Bub found a new delicacy: Texas Toothpicks which were jalapeno strips, lightly battered and fried, smothered in cheese! Yum!!!!

On Tuesday, we drove back to Las Cruces for a workshop at their Association. They had a good turnout and nine folks from there took the smart step of signing up to get NAR's e-PRO certification. That will add to their skills and professionalism in a time that technology and Social Media are changing the real estate business. I have been telling people that 2009 is the year of the Video, showing them my Flip camera, and exhorting them to get a YouTube account! If you don't believe there are going to be some changes in how we communicate, take a look at this.

The drive from Ruidoso to Roswell was through the part of New Mexico that is sparsely populated with large ranches and open range. Roswell has 50,000 and I'm told there are space aliens there, though none came to the presentation...only smart agents, four of whom had been in business longer than my 26 years! Talk about survivors! Well, guess it goes to prove there are opportunities in all markets; we just have to be flexible enough to recognize and take action.

From Roswell to Las Vegas, our trip was again on sparsely travelled roads, with lots of miles between ranches and towns. Flat sands and red clay stretched as far as the eye could see with few trees, a couple of bushes and one ridge filled with wind turbines. As we pulled into Las Vegas, it was dinnertime. Most of the shops had closed, but the Landmark Grill and Byron T's Saloon were hopping with activity. We're glad we got to see this part of New Mexico!

An aside-when we checked in with Granddaughter Lily and her Mom, telling them we were in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Lily said, "No, Grandma, I thought Las Vegas was in California!"

So if you haven't been here...stay at the Plaza Hotel next time you are in the neighborhood and maybe Byron T will visit you! I'm off to Santa Fe and Taos...if you areinthe neighborhood-come say hi!

The drive from Paradise to Kalispell took us along Flathead Lake for almost an hour. What gorgeous scenery. In my Missoula e-PRO Class one of the participants said there are over 150+ listings on the lakefront and none has sold in the past 6 months. Seems what I am hearing as I travel, is that the under $200,000 and first time homebuyer market is getting busier in most areas, especially in the last 60 days, but the higher end market buyers are still on the sidelines.

We ate a nice Father's Day dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ in Kalispell. It was tasty and then we swam and enjoyed the Jacuzzi at the hotel.

After an e-PRO Workshop in Kalispell where 7 out of the 8 attendees sign up, we took off to stay in the Glacier National Park Many Glacier Hotel.

We had planned to drive the famous Road to The Sun, but 12 miles of it are still not open due to snow. All of the mountains still have lots of snow and this is the second time in 2 weeks we've been in snow! How amazing for June for us desert rats.

We drove some new roads as we went on the perimeter drive around the park to get to the hotel

On Route 49, suddenly the cars in front of us stopped and we could see cars stopped coming the other way. We thought perhaps an accident, but then saw others out with their cameras. There was a large, brown mother bear and cub about 100 feet from the road ambling through the woods. The motorcycles behind us weren't as entranced and as they revved their bikes and passed between the cars, the bear ran off. We also saw deer twice on the side of the road. Last week I forgot to tell you on the drive back to Paradise from Poloson , a deer ran into the back of my car...thankfully, this time the deer stayed off the road.

The weather was very blustery. Raining hard with a strong wind, we thought it would change to snow at our altitude but it never did. One of the original railroad hotels, Many Glacier Hotel was built between 1910-1914. Many Glacier Hotel is situated on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake and rests at the base of Mt. Grinnell. This Swiss-themed hotel has 214 guest rooms and offers a fine dining. We had hot chocolate followed by a trout dinner. Red bus tours, boat cruises and David Walburn evening entertainment are available at this extraordinary hotel. Our cozy room on the 4^th floor with a lakefront view. There was no cell phone reception, no internet, no TV's but the views were inspiringly breathtaking.

We are still taking roads less traveled and enjoying the scenery and seeing what's going on in the rural towns in the Northwest. From Walla Walla for 4 hours through beautiful green rolling hills. Wind turbines dotted the landscape and cows and horses were everywhere. We saw a deer off the road ambling up a hill and lots of hawks overhead.

We crossed into northern Idaho to go to the beautiful town of Coeur d'Alene so I could share e-PRO with more cool folks! My buddy Christina Ethridge brought her hubby, Chuck, whom I had never met; so, it was fun to connect in person. Christina is a social networking maven and it is easy to see why she is attracting success! It was Triathlon weekend in Coeur d'Alene...so we choose after the presentation to drive on to Quinns Hot Springs Resort is near Paradise, MT

We stayed here 2 years ago and LOVED being in Paradise!

We had a cabin reserved right in front of the playground. Wireless made my work easy. We never figured out how to make the satellite TV work, so everyone got some reading done.

The chipmunks were friendly and sly. At the pool, we watched one go right into someone's pool bag and then scurry off.

On Friday, I go to Missoula and then Polson for 2 ePRO Workshops. The drive was breathtaking. Montana is soooo pretty. I think I could live here. We are still trying to figure out the name of the black and white cows.

Being in one place for 3 days was a nice break from the fast and furious pace!

Leaving Portland to head east for the rest of the vacation, has us traveling along the army green, mighty, Columbia River on the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Highway for almost 4 hours. Take this drive sometime, if you can. It's beautiful, especially for a desert rat like me to see all that water. I tried to find Pete Seegar's song on the ipod without success (but I am pretty sure it is there). Why isn't there an easy search feature?

The river in places looks more like a lake than a river. The beautiful Multnomah Falls , the second tallest falls in the country, are astounding beautiful. However, instead of stopping a "Look Lily at the Falls" was all we did. No, this isn't a slow meandering vacation....but we are having fun.

The wine country surrounding Walla Walla was beautiful although we didn't take time to go wine tasting- one choice was a limo that took you to the wineries of your choice. Now that would be the way to go. We just stocked up at the wine store in town and tested some really good pinot niors. In looking at dinner choices, Bub was opting for Dominoes but I saw that Gourmet Magazine had given Whitehouse Crawford Restaurant a great review. Man, was this a good move. The other specialty from Walla Walla, of course, is their wonderful sweet onions. We had an onion string appetizer was fantastic. The small strings in a very light batter and perfect sauce were decadently delicious! But we hadn't seen anything yet: Bub had the Kobe beef and I had the lamb chops. Both boasted a beautiful presentation and were accompanied by organic fresh vegetables. If you ever get to Walla Walla, this is the place to eat! There is also a wonderful bookstore downtown where we got the latest Magic Treehouse Book to satify some of the summer reading assignments.

The choice of hotels in Walla Walla was predicated on who had waffles as part of their complimentary breakfast and a swimming pool. Lily is a waffle eater and we dubbed breakfast Walla Walla Waffles. We giggled over the name for days.

This year's REEA (Real Estate Educators) Conference was in Portland. It gave us the timing and destination for our vacation this year. Over 130 Educators, School administrators and Association staff gathered to network, learn and share. If you are an instructor and not a member of REEA, please visit the website and join! You'll be glad you did.

It was fun to see friends like Amy Chorew, Darryl Davis, Rossi, Kathy Howe and Doug DeVitre! And meet some new friends! The Twitter hashtag #REEAPORT will give you some more insights into the experience.

Dirk Zeller, a hometown boy and real estate trainer, delivered the keynote and entertained us with a delightful story about his 7 year old's lemonade stand. That child is following the great example of a salesperson Dirk has modeled.

The theme of the conference was GREEN and the handouts were on a nice little zip drive instead of a notebook! I love it!!! Portland was a good example of a community doing a lot of very environmentally friendly things. The hotel room even had separate receptacles for cans and glasses and newspapers.

Wow! For two nights in a row, we ate the Best Oysters in the World! The first night we went to Jakes Famous Crawfish and the second night to the oldest family restaurant in Portland, Dan and Louis and Oyster Bar Restaurant

The parallel universe trippers, Lily and Bub, went to the great zoo and saw a new baby elephant. Portland is a beautiful town to walk around in. There were lots of parks and the riverfront through downtown was a wonderful walking path from where we stayed about a mile north of the REEA Headquarters hotel.