Andrew "Drew" George Carleton

Ryan Irion - Met through rugby and working in Taos NM I met Drew for the first time when he moved to Austin, TX as he was an old rugby friend of my employer Tres Howland. However, I never really got to know Drew until he became Hotel Luna Mystica's vintage trailer builder. First and foremost at this time I want to say that in my opinion Hotel Luna Mystica likely would never have opened when it did, and perhaps might not have even survived without Drew Carleton. He was a godsend at just the moment we needed him. HLM will forever, in my opinion, be in his debt. Many people through the years have come to enjoy all that HLM has to offer. Some claim that it healed them in their time of need, some that it healed their family relationships, others claim its where they had their best vacation ever, or where they married their life partner and began their new life. Yet few will ever know how close all of those experiences came to not happening at all and likely would not have had it not been for the services of Drew Carleton. In the winter of 2017 the site construction was finishing up and we had purchased our first tier of trailers. Almost all of them came from a contractor in Albuquerque who made them look all shiny, but nowhere near sturdy enough to handle commercial loading or Taos winters. We of course were not well versed yet in determining what was needed in a commercial grade trailer - we soon learned. Finding a contractor to fix the multitude of trailer deficiencies our small fleet had in the Taos winter who would both be willing and competent in this task was essentially an impossible endeavor. Let alone then finding someone who would be able to add to our fledging collection and make the whole venture viable. We were up shit creek and we knew it. It just so happened that Drew at that time was looking for a change of scenery and a new life challenge. The northern NM altitude and crisp air seemed to be favorable to improving his health and so he sprang into action! Drew lived onsite fixing our existing trailers and building new ones. On June 2nd, 2017 we opened with 8 trailers; all of which Drew worked on. He then quickly built both shower houses that summer and went on to construct 11 additional trailers! Drew was a trooper living on the property and working long hours rarely taking a day off on the schedule he set for himself. I know he saw HLM in part as his Legacy and he wanted to do it right!! If you didn’t know differently you certainly would have thought Drew owned the whole place. While this lead to many arguments and confrontations I no doubt believe it also lead to the best development of the trailers. Drew's voice and opinions, along with his craftsmanship, are visible in all of the trailers. Drew made HLM as much as anyone what it is today. It is a Legacy creation to be proud of. I'd also like to note that Drew took a huge leap of faith in all of us in that we were not able to keep up in paying Drew for his services yet he never slowed down. All of which is to say he wasn’t motivated by the money, but rather in creating something of value and beauty that would be utilized to bring joy into people's lives and to make sure that his family would be taken care of. We human beings are complicated things. All of us, and Drew was no exception. If you knew Drew then you knew he was difficult. (A friend told me to use the word 'passionate' when writing a remembrance. Well that would be no stretch to say so as Drew was certainly passionate, but I think it would be a disservice to his memory to not acknowledge that Drew was in fact difficult! And I believe Drew in turn would laugh at the notion and would wear that moniker with pride were he standing here with us now!) But despite Drew's difficult side he was also genuinely very kind. Drew was never someone to not help a person out if they were in need. He always did. He loved to pass on his knowledge of construction to younger folks and to impart the life lessons that he had learned. He was a good person who on the whole was very much a value add to this world. Some of my favorite memories of Drew will be: of him playing with Logan out on the Mesa. Kicking back and having a good time after a hard day's work cooking for anyone who was hungry and offering them a beverage. Hearing about how proud he was of Zach. Playing trivia (true Cliff Claven!) And of course that one time I saw him leap completely over the length of Spartacus putting on full display his State Championship long jumping skills when he thought nobody was looking; or was that just a Drew Carleton tall tale. ;-) Toast