Albuquerque - Part 2 - while I was at it...

SO the main reason for me being in Albuquerque was to be there for the birth of Caroline and to help Justin and Meredith with the baby. That was first and foremost. However, I also happen to love Albuquerque. I have been there enough times to feel fairly comfortable and this trip was my test run at how it feels to “live” near the kids rather than “visit” the kids.

First of all, cutting to the chase… it was wonderful. Of course, I loved spending time with family. I always love that and that’s one of the main reasons I chose RV’ing for my retirement. But I also loved having my own house to go home to. At this point in the trip, it was truly feeling like home. I am really comfortable in the RV. I have my own space. I have my own clothes, not just a suitcase of selected favorites (though I have done a significant amount of weeding with a ton of help from my dear friend Mark). I have my cupboards full of my foods, condiments, kooky extras, and such. I have my kitchen gadgets and my favorite pots and pans, and I even had a few of my really good knives (side note… I have now purchased a terrific in-the-drawer knife rack so I will have almost ALL my good knives on the next trip. I am learning). When I went to visit Adam in California for three weeks, I flew in and lived with them. As such, I was living in their house, which was fine, but it wasn’t mine. This was mine. I like how that felt.

I also liked having my own car. I was not dependent on anyone else to not need their car, and I could come and go as I pleased. Running to the store to pick up something was easy. When I was at the RV park, having my own car made that an easy transition. AND, when I wanted to go out and meet people, I could do that as well. That was another interesting aspect of this part of the trip. Since I know that I will be back to Albuquerque often, I wanted to meet people and try to establish some friendships there. The social apps make it pretty easy to meet people, and I was lucky to make some new friends. Having the car with me meant that I could go out for breakfast with David and got to meet a friend of his in the process… I could meet Aaron for a late night drink and later even offer to pick him up at the airport. A picnic was planned with Ryan but the weather put the kibosh on that. I am looking forward to my next trip when I can explore some more activities in the social arena… like gay square dancing and going to see the community band. I like that. I like feeling like I can become part of the community in some small way. Again, I feel like the RV and the car allow me that luxury. Living, not just visiting.

Back to the car for one second… When I was looking at car choices, I quickly zoomed in on the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk because it needs the least preparation before any trip to be ready for towing. It’s kind of the gold standard, by my reading, despite some issues I read about and later experienced. Now, it’s called the Trailhawk for a reason. It is an off-road ready vehicle and for that, it is truly first in its class. I had a Jeep Wrangler for 13 years and never, ever took it off road. Snow was my challenge and that’s about as challenging as it ever got. Wait, I am wrong. One time something was blocking my driveway and I drove over the lawn.. WOO HOO I did go off-roading!!

So, again, I was here for Justin and Meredith, but here I am with this new car just made for off-road fun… and in Albuquerque, which has tons of acreage in Albuquerque and surrounding areas that was supposed to be developed but was never quite completed. So there are mapped out roads. They look “normal.” But, in fact, they are just plowed desert. Check out the map in the picture below, then slide over and see the satellite image to see the difference. And, what you can’t see is that they have become rutted and gutted, flooded and mudded. Sounds like off-road heaven, right? RIGHT!

So most people don’t know this, but Justin and I have been known to put ourselves in some, shall we say, risky situations. You know the kind. Seems like an ok idea at the time, but you look back and say, wow, did we really do that?!? Since Justin’s mother (and my mother) read this, we won’t go into details, but suffice it to say we have a history. Of course, Justin is a new Dad so he doesn’t want to go too crazy, but the operative word there is “too.” So one afternoon, when the baby was kind of snoozing, and Meredith’s Mom was there to cover all the bases, and with reluctant permission from Meredith (she knows the history), Justin and I took off for an off-road adventure.

Now, I just remembered that I have driven somewhat off road before. When Peter and I came to visit Albuquerque a few years ago, we were driving Justin and Meredith’s Pathfinder, which I consider an off-road vehicle. Justin now says not really, but it was to us at that time. We went exploring outside of Albuquerque. We went to the Acoma Reservation and we went to Chaco Canyon. The sites were amazing, but so were the drives. The landscape, with its mesas and buttes and plateaus is spectacular. The changing rock colors and sand colors and the varying amounts of green vs brown is a wonder to behold. We went out one day and then went back another just to explore some more of the mountain regions and to find some natural hot springs. We found one where we had to drive five miles up the side of a mountain, then hike another half mile to get to the spring. It was worth it. But to me, the ride up was half the fun. It was the bumpiest and most potholed road I had ever driven, but with the Pathfinder, it felt easy and fun. So to me, that was “off-roading.”

Terrible picture of Justin, but you can see the landscape… check out the ups on one side and the downs on the other!

We went just outside of Albuquerque proper to an area called Rio Rancho. This was very different. This was desert. This was big hills. This was bumpy. Some of the roads were pitted with potholes. Some looked like a clam shell edge… One side smooth and the other bump after bump after bump. At one point we came to an area where the road had collapsed and a car fell in. Yikes!! It was long ago and few of the remains remained, but it got the adrenaline pumping. Justin and I were giggling at points...

Now you look at that and say, who would be stupid enough to go through that!? Unhuh…

…And holding our breath at others! Going up a ridge and realizing it didn’t lead anywhere safe… not good… back up, try another route. Going through a puddle, only to find it was deep enough that we could see the water lapping up at the doors…”just keep going Dad, do not stop for any reason…” We got through it and proved that the 20” water clearance of the car was appropriate, and needed. The car slogged through incredibly thick mud in the arroyos that had obviously been recently flooded (you can see them in the photos above)… again, just keep going and do not stop! Justin could see where we were at all times becuase the “streets” are all showing on Google maps as if they were real streets. Trust me, none of these were anywhere near a real street, but it did tell us where we would hit dead ends and it helped keep us from coming out of the area too soon. It was all incredibly exciting.

BOOM… we made it to the other side. More like WHEW! And, let’s not go that way again, thank you!

Justin was hesitant to drive thinking if we really got in a pickle he would much rather be able to blame me, but I convinced him that he had to give it a try. He did and he said he could not get over how much better the Jeep pulled and pushed us through everything put in its path. Much better than the Pathfinder, which he now decided is indeed a four wheel drive vehicle, but not one really meant to take off road.

All I can say is it was a BLAST. And, it was well worth the $30 that it cost me to have the car washed afterwards. It took them over 30 minutes to power wash the mud off the car. It was so thick, and so caked on, and so thoroughly dried from the Albuquerque sun, even though I took it to the car wash the same day! But it was all worth it. The adventure was fun in and of itself. It was fun to have an adventure with Justin that somehow felt safer looking back than it did at the time (how novel vs the opposite). It was fun to have a unique Albuquerque experience. I look forward to doing it again, though I am not sure I would do it with anyone but Justin navigating! We shall see.

Have you had any fun off-roading adventures? Share with me in the comments; I would love to hear.

Sorry for so long between posts. I will keep catching up so you are up to date by the time I leave on my next excursion. Plans are underway!

Leave comments… subscribe… stay tuned for more.