Road Trip To Albuquerque

We did it! We made it to Albuquerque!

We were up early and on the road by 6am, determined to drive the most miles our first day of travel.

We missed rush hour, and the roads were good. Plus, it was energizing to watch all the snow disappear as we went farther along.

As I had packed a lot of car food, we ended up eating as we drove. We had two kinds of granola bars, bananas, little cuties, dried fruit, almonds, string cheese, and chicken salad on multigrain sandwich thins since I had to use up the last of the roasted chicken in the fridge before we left. We still had to stop frequently for gas and stretching, though, usually at a Love's station.

Iowa was flat and full of farms and cattle. Hawks hung out on poles along the highway. In Missouri, we stopped at a rest stop and I found a road map of the state which I grabbed for Mom, thinking she would love it. In the end, maybe she didn't love it quite as much as I thought she would, but that's okay. We used to live in Missouri and since she frequently asks about road maps, it seemed like a good idea!

We spent hours listening to NPR on the radio and a CD of Bruce singing ...

And then we got to Kansas. Road trips are interesting, but it seems that each one has at least one unique challenge along the way, usually involving turnpikes. What did we learn when we entered the Kansas turnpike? We learned that not all turnpikes are alike, and that the turnpikes in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania had many more travel lodges that you could stop at along the way. Turns out that Kansas has many miles of REMOTE areas and if you don't gas up your car as you enter the turnpike, you are in trouble. Yup. The car was on empty and there was no gas station to be found. For 40 miles, I was in a state of panic, and ended up praying/rejoicing for each mile marker that we successfully passed. Bruce was just pissed, his words. We finally rolled into the next station on fumes, and I was SO grateful. We wised up after that, and decided to top off the gas every couple of hours whether it needed it or not.

We were weary travelers when we stopped in Liberal, Kansas for the night. We stayed at the Hampton Inn, which seems to be the hotel of choice for us lately. We grabbed some comfort food at a Wendy's (fish sandwich/fries for Bruce and chili/fries/chocolate frosty for me) After a lovely hot shower, it was time for bed. Breakfast at the Hampton Inn is pretty good. This time we had sausage with gravy, eggs, and fresh fruit.

Oklahoma and Texas brought lots of grazing cows, and wind turbines all over the place.

The landscape changed quite a bit when we got to New Mexico, with these little green shrubby things growing up the sides of the Sandia Mountains. Again, I tried to capture the beauty with my phone camera but never quite could. New Mexico weather turned out to be cooler than I expected, and it was frequently windy.

We met Jake and Brianna at his apartment in the city before going to stay at his boss's home in the mountains. Brianna is in between jobs, and will be starting med school in the fall. They had already been thinking of things we could see and do while we were there, and that evening we went to a favorite New Mexican cuisine restaurant, Sadie's.

New Mexican style eating usually involves red chile, green chile, or both. I think I've decided that I prefer green chile, and on the side. I like spice, but only so much. Another night we went to eat at La Salita's and I had something called Burrito De Eduardo (a burrito with turkey, sour cream, and swiss cheese which sounds like something a person from Minnesota might get 😊) and of course green chile on the side.

Jake's orange cat, Tony, was a sweetheart ... Tony Boy!

The house in the mountains was gorgeous. They heat it entirely with a wood stove that has a couple of fans on top that circulate the heat, although I know that I'm not explaining the proper physics of how it actually works. Jake made us homemade Sangria to drink in front of the wood stove before bed.

We talked about going on a Hot Air Balloon ride, but decided that could wait until another visit as we'd have to get up so early in the morning, and then there was Tony Boy who was in need of people and food ...

Friday morning we went back early to feed Tony, and decided to eat breakfast in. We stopped to pick up eggs, fruit, juice, and bread (I'm thinking the store was Sprouts?) and then Brianna made us yummy eggs, and we had toast with peach habanero jelly.

We played games (Jackbox, Codenames), and then decided to visit Old Town Albuquerque and explore. We stopped at Rustic Bubble Tea Cafe on the way.

There were a lot of little tourist type shops there, but nobody really felt like shopping so we walked through Albuquerque's first church, San Felipe Neri, and then the Albuquerque Museum. We ate at an Indian Buffet afterwards.

Saturday afternoon, we drove to Santa Fe to go through the Meow Wolf, House of Eternal Return. I think you could call it a museum of sorts (Google it, I can't explain 😊). After eating at La Salita's, we drove up the mountain, hoping to take a Tram ride and see the night lights of the city, but they weren't operating that night because of the wind. Maybe next visit! So back to chat in front of the wood stove before bed.

It was then Sunday morning already and time for us to head back home. We decided that we would drive the shorter distance that day so we could spend the morning with them. We went to breakfast at La Waffleria, and I had one of their savory options, biscuits and gravy waffles. Bruce had bacon and egg waffles, Brianna had a sweet waffle with some kind of red fruit (cherries? raspberries?) and whipped cream, and I have no idea what Jake's was, but I tasted it and it was spicy!

It's easy to just use Google Maps for directions, and this time we took a more southern route home. As we drove through Texas, we were able to see ranches, oil fields, and cotton, so beautiful. And this time I noticed all the Kansas (Bible Belt) billboards designed to save your soul. Of course more cows. We stopped in Liberal, Kansas, again, for the night and did a repeat stay at Hampton Inn and repeat comfort food supper at Wendy's.

It had snowed heavily while we were away, and there were some icy patches on the road as we neared home. But as I mentioned before, the driveway was clear and we got into the garage with no problem.

The cats had been a little naughty, so I heard later, but they were fine and I was grateful for Clara and her sisters for taking good care of them. Tristin has figured out how to muscle his way into the kitchen despite the chair jammed up against the bifold door, so Bruce has now already installed a new lock at the top of the door that should hold better.

Road Trips are adventures, that's for sure.

Of course, it's always nice to get home again and sleep in your own bed, but it was a wonderful trip. 😊

All Good

Uff da, but we've had a hard winter!

What I'd really like to be blogging about is our recent road trip to Albuquerque, and I will get to that eventually, but we've had such a week with water in the basement, that I feel the need to vent ... so, here goes ...

At least the weather's latest storm finished before our return home, so the roads were not too treacherous as we drove back. And the little girls from across the street who were caring for our fur babies, did some shoveling of the driveway and we were able to get into the garage. All good. But then, the snow started to melt and the rains began.

We haven't had water in the basement for a few years. We had leaf guard type gutter covers installed, and that helped so much. But this year has been crazy with snowfall, and when it started to melt, it came in through the foundation and bricks of the fireplace.

We thought we caught it just in time. Out came the towels and shop vac, and we worked it hard for several hours until it seemed to subside. We decided around midnight that we would rest a bit, silly us, because the next time we went downstairs, the entire family room (complete with fairly new carpet) was covered with water and it was moving into the laundry and storage rooms.

We tried to keep a sense of humor. We drank coffee and took thirty minute shifts with the shop vac for a good 18 hours. And then we turned on the dehumidifier and fan, and hoped for the best. I decided that I would fold up some towels and walk on them to try to absorb water from the carpet padding. It helped some, but everything remained so wet. I brought out a little space heater and then a second one, but it tripped the circuit breaker so only one could be used at a time. We turned the gas fire place on to warm up the air. I read online that you only have about 72 hours to dry out a carpet before mold starts to grow, although it did add that foundation leaks are cleaner than most and maybe you have a little bit more time.

I went to Curves eventually, now four days into the flood, and talked to my people there who always have sage advice. Try a blow drier, they said. So I went home, and as I sat on a folded towel absorbing water from the carpet padding, I used the blow drier on the wettest spots I could find. Literally for hours.

In the meantime, the cats seemed very interested in all the new funky smells that a wet carpet can produce, and I worried they might think of it as brand new cat box, so I decided that they couldn't be unsupervised until things were totally dry. In which case, they're now roaming the rest of the house at night and Punk rattles our bedroom door, crying to be let in, which is annoying.

I wondered if I could smell something not so nice coming from the basement. Or, was it from the roasted cabbage that we had made for dinner a couple days in a row?

Anyway, this morning when I went downstairs to survey the situation, I realized that things seemed so much drier. And the air smelled so much nicer. Really?

You know, it's funny how you don't always realize how a stressful situation is dragging you down until the stress seems to subside, and then you feel so good. Wow, did I feel good. I noticed that the sun was shining. I had energy to do some laundry! It was amazing.

It's also the first day of Spring.  💕💕💕

Twenty Days Until Spring

Oh, my goodness, but it's been a long February.

I'm sure more than one record has been broken as far as snow fall is concerned, but for the first time, maybe ever, major roads in southeast Minnesota were shut down for two days because of the blizzard conditions, ice, wind, and drifting snow. The National Guard had to rescue hundreds of stranded people! We were going to drive down to Winona to visit Nick this past Sunday but had to postpone until Tuesday as the roads were still closed. And then when we did drive, the roads were a little scary.

I'm so tired of winter.

However, I've been celebrating the bright sun when it's out. I've been frying fish, making big pots of soup, and experimenting with making jelly. Bruce has been writing songs and singing them at Open Mic nights. Last night we drove to south Minneapolis for one, which took quite a bit of energy to go to because it was so cold and dark, and in the city. Are we getting old? 😉 But then a guy sang a couple of old songs the MONKEES did a long time ago, and that was exciting!

We're planning a little road trip to Albuquerque soon to see Jake, and THAT is exciting, too.

Only twenty days until Spring! Can we make it? You bettcha. 😜