Sunday, November 15, 2009

Boot Connundrum Solved!

After more appropriate agonizing, I decided to go "classic" and hiked on over to the Lucchese boot store. Lucchese seemed to be drifting on the direction of all things for all people a few years back, but they've recently returned to what they do best...handmade boots.

Also, not to sound jingoistic, but Luccheses are made in Texas rather than Mexico, and I'd rather keep my money at home.

I decided to forgo flash for a solid pair of boots...flash, of course, can come later, like after I win the lottery. Basic cowhide with a little tooling...maybe I'll go B-Western in cowboy shooting and start wearing all those Day of the Dead shirts from RockmountbWestrrn Wear...good taste is indeed timeless.

Foodwise, last night was my Sweetie's birthday dinner - she's 24...forever! - at Maria's, the best chili rellanos in the entire solar system. Light, just a hint of batter, spicy green chili...breathtaking! Maria's is also the place that wrote the book, quite literally, on margaritas. We went for one of my favorites, the Bullseye, made with 30-30 Reposada ("The guns that won La Revolution!!!"), Bols triple sec and fresh lemon juice. Perfection in a glass! And "gunny."

A snowy day in Santa Fe...going to bundle up and hike over to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame for brunch.

House-sitter reports 10 inches at the Secret Hidden Bunker...too much for him to go the range with the Pare Tactical Target Rifle...oh well, he and Alf the Wonder Beagle can sit around and pick off looters!


-- Post From The Road

1 comment:

Will said...

Michael,
there seems to be some confusion about "handmade" boots. I think those prices would be really good IF they were custom made to fit YOUR feet. Customized off the rack sizes, not so much.
Back in the mid '80s, I had my Italian made road racing boots repaired by a boot maker in San Jose. They actually FIT me, so I was desperate to salvage them. He was kind enough to measure my feet in the areas that are important to properly fit cowboy boots, which is what he specialized in. No wonder I can't wear them, my feet are a mix of different sizes in those areas. His basic, no frills boot was $900. A bit of the usual dress-up stitching would bring that to $1100. A top-of-the-line could run $5000. He had a room full of custom molds of customers feet, so you did not have to show up in person to order additional boots later. His customer base ran from range riding cowboys to Hollywood celebs. He had an 18 month backlog of orders! Remember, these are 1985 prices. IIRC, his shop rate was $50/hr for repair work.