I Moved to New Mexico!
A big benefit of moving to New Mexico is that I now live only an hour away from Jemez Pueblo. Here I am running at the Red Rocks which is on our tribal land in Jemez.
I’ve been in New Mexico a month now, so I figured it was time to update the blogosphere with my new locale.
I have to tell you…three months ago, I had no inkling that I would be a New Mexico resident before the summer arrived. Yet here I type in my the computer room of my parents’ house in Sandia Park, NM (Albuquerque area).
What brought me here?
Combination of wanting to be near my mom who has been fighting the good fight against her autoimmune diseases, but was in need of sunshine in the form of moi and my chocolate fur monster AND wanting to chase some personal trail running/adventure goals.
I made the decision suddenly, but it was not a rash one. I knew moving to the mainland from Hawaiʻi was the right thing to do, so in 3 weeks I packed 7 7 large boxes & 5 small media boxes, said good-bye to work friends, sold or gave away all my furniture, and said farewell to my apartment I had lived in for 11 years. Then Ziva and I got on a plane bound for the mainland.
We flew into San Diego and stayed at my sister’s house for 2.5 weeks until my Nissan Rogue, aka Reggie, made port. During that time, my parents’ drove in from New Mexico to celebrate Easter weekend with my sister, her husband, myself and our dogs (my sister has two dogs, Ace & Eve).
Right after Easter lunch, we packed up the vehicles and started the 12+ hr drive to the Southwest.
That drive sucked.
My parents were in one Rogue with their senior Golden Retriever mix, Charley, and I was in Reggie with Ziva. We drove through the very bottom armpit of California and Arizona.
Now, I thought I was used to barren desert drives because I had driven from Southern California to New Mexico many times growing up. We used to live in Cali and would drive to see my grandma who lived on the Jemez Pueblo outside of Albuquerque, NM. But this drive was a different route than we used to take and there was absolutely nothing to see. I couldn’t take any photos because I was driving, but you aren’t missing anything by not getting a glimpse of that barren wasteland.
Things got better as we got farther into Arizona, and never was I so happy to reach our night’s destination near Phoenix, AZ. We stayed overnight at an Air Force base, and then got back on the road the next morning.
I was also hoping for a welcome to New Mexico sign photo, but it was on the other side of the road from our rest stop. So, just got this Arizona one.
About 8 more hours of roadtripping (should’ve only taken 6 hours, but we stopped a lot for snacks and Ziva potty breaks), we finally pulled into the drive way of my parent’s house.
It’s now been a month and two days since I pulled into the driveway of my parents’ home in New Mexico.
The plan is to stay with my parents’ for awhile to save some money, help out my mom on her bad days, and then after a bit Ziva and I will get our own place.
I’m still very much getting used to it here. Until last week it was nothing but cold and windy every day. Still windy most days, but now it’s warming up. And there are wildfires burning all across the state because it is so dry here. It’s quite sad, so please join me in praying for rain!
When I look out over the dusty brown landscape and think that I moved away from my luscious green island I do get sad and homesick from Hawaiʻi. But spending time with my family has been uplifting, and I know that it will just take some more time to adjust.
So far, I haven’t had any BIG adventures, but I have had some small ones. I ran the Shiprock Marathon, hiked the local major mountain trail, and trusted my mom enough to cut my bangs (she didn’t do too bad for her first time cutting my bangs in 20 years). Fortunately, there are a ton of trails nearby to run in the Sandia Mountains, so as soon as I can catch my breath from running at elevation I am going to pump out some trail races. Even registered for an ultramarathon already.
Currently, I am working full-time remotely, so planning BIG adventures around the work schedule has taken some juggling. But good news….I have an entertaining adventure coming up in 2 weeks. The only hint I will share is that it involves alligators!
If you’re local to the Albuquerque area and have any recommendations of adventurous or interesting outdoor things to check out, I would LOVE the suggestions. I think I have a hot air ballon ride and a SUP of the Rio Grande in my near future, so tune back in next week for more fun!
- Nicole