Taking the Right Turn to Albuquerque (and Santa Fe)

July 14th-15th, 2018

We were blown into Albuquerque, New Mexico by the flurries of monsoon season and (from my end) a whole lot of Bugs Bunny impressions. The rain was taking no prisoners that day- we all inched along the freeway as rain blasted the windshield with far more gusto than our ‘95 wipers were prepared to deal with. There were the blurry shapes of cars along the side of the freeway, identified only by their headlights. Even those were being beaten out by the sheets of rain coming down. I was driving, so of course, I didn’t pull over as I was determined to make it to our first Airbnb. We had decided to get a couple of Airbnbs along the way, only in the places with the hottest weather that we thought might be intolerable in the heat. In this case, we were wrong about that, but still grateful to pull up in front of an actual house and take a break from Molly. The monsoon had wiped most of the heat out of the air, leaving a tepid sort of humidity in its wake, and the respite from the sun was another little New Mexico blessing.

    I parked Molly on a tiny street lined in very unique houses, none of them exactly alike. We hopped out and I was thrilled to find that the chill in the air required a sweatshirt, the first time I’d pulled on a hoodie since we left California. Nothing glamorous happened that evening (which could be a motto for vanlife as a whole); like many wanderers, once we’d landed we had necessary errands and chores to attend to. We dropped our stuff off inside in the blessedly air-conditioned house and headed back out again. That first New Mexico night was spent at a laundromat, people watching under fluorescent lighting while we waited for our clothes to be done. I was also taking that time to research a gas-wasting plan I was concocting to take a detour up to Santa Fe before we swooped back south to Carlsbad Caverns. After a quintessential stop at a Target with the friendliest employees I’ve ever met in a store, we crammed Molly back into a spot on our street and said our goodbyes to her for the night. It was a little unnerving to leave it parked overnight without being in it, and we hoped that somehow our 9 foot tall purple Barney van with California plates would go unnoticed by the neighbors. Yeah, right.

    The next day we were up at a chipper 7 am to pack ourselves back into the van and head out to Santa Fe. This new plan, sadly, meant that we were forgoing Petroglyph National Monument out of the assumption that we’d see Mammoth Cave later on in Kentucky. The drive to Santa Fe was about an hour, and it didn’t disappoint when we pulled onto the narrow roads near Canyon road. We’d chosen this area because it was supposed to be a historic arts district with the kind of picturesque Santa Fe flair we were imagining. The streets were so tight that it almost hurt to drive through them and I winced in preparation for impact with every parked car next to us, but we eventually found paid parking in a field-type lot, where a friendly local walking by told us helpfully that they did not check on Sundays. We walked up to Canyon road, where art galleries were littered throughout like muni stops in San Francisco; essentially one on every corner for a few blocks in each direction. To my absolute delight, turquoise appeared to have been used very liberally to accent doors and walls, creating pops of color everywhere.

Brian and I took our opportunity to pose with the colorful doors- and later felt a little bad because this must be a scourge on the locals, as some doors had signs asking that pictures not be taken in front of them. This was not one of those doors, for the record.

Flowers that were obviously meticulously tended to bloom at the foot of sculptures, everything from elegant metal figures to abstract shapes and silly animals. Most galleries weren’t open until 10 so we were too early, but we did stop by Selby Fleetwood Gallery after being lured in by the whimsical sculpture of an enormous pair of scissors topped with a paper crane. It appeared that most of the galleries had rooms to wander through as well as gardens that continued the display outside in the sun.

Rock, Paper Scissors Gallery

We wandered around through the art, most of which were metal formed to look like paper. The way the metal was shaped to look crisp and creased was incredible up close and was well worth stopping by to see. We had to get to Carlsbad Caverns so we couldn’t wander as much as I’d have liked to, but we were happy to have gotten a little hint of Santa Fe magic.

Squirrel origami statue at Rock, Paper, Scissors gallery.

Our next stop was to get some very expensive, very needed coffees from The Teahouse, a tiny little restaurant walking distance away. I had a chai latte, and the atmosphere was cute and cozy (like pressed up against the wall while waiting for our orders cozy). We drove past the Loretta Chapel on our way out, but unfortunately, none of my pictures for that are great.

Then, we hit the road.