Santa Fe and Albuquerque and saying goodbye to familiar things

Well it's been a few days since I've written anything here and that's because I've been in Santa Fe and Albuquerque! (I'm in Texas right now but that's a whole other blog entry, coming soon).

So after an awesome few days at Sonlight I loaded up on chips and goldfish and cookies and scored myself the new Sonlight '10 T-shirt which I may or may not be hip enough to wear, but we shall see... anyways, then on Wednesday I set off (after almost being held hostage by Dani) for Albuquerque! Turns out the drive from Pagosa Springs to Albuquerque is actually quite pretty and way better than the drive from Denver to Albuquerque via I-25. So as I listened to my newly downloaded podcasts I drove along into New Mexico and took a few pictures along the way. I then ventured into Albuquerque where I thought I was all set with my google map directions to get to the house of the fabulous Gorvetzian family. This is when things got tragically interesting. First, I missed my exit. So I thought "ok fine, I'll go to the next exit and get back on the highway and take my exit from the other direction" So I did this and ended up on the longest road in the history of the world (Tramway Rd.) and after about 50 years of driving on Tramway I thought to myself "I must have passed my road by now. Seriously." So I gave up and turned into a very wealthy-looking neighborhood where rich people and their slightly pompous but cute dogs stared at me in my dirty Chevy Cavalier with a bike with the duct-tape seat...I parked in front of a gigantic house and pulled out my map. Of course, the road atlas people made a close-up square of Albuquerque and I seemed to be about a milimeter off from that square so I was nowhere to be found on my map. I decided to get back on the highway and try again. So I got back on the highway going back towards Colorado and...yep, you guessed it, I missed my exit again. I then discovered that it was pretty much the last exit to Albuquerque for another several miles, so I traveled a lot farther than I needed to and finally got back on going in the right direction and paying uninterrupted attention to where my exit was. I got off on my exit and of course ended up, once again, on the Longest Road In Albuquerque. I finally gave in and called the lovely Dr. Nancy for help since I'd told her about an hour and a half ago that I was an hour from their house. Anyways long story slightly shorter, I found their house (after accidentally driving a ways up into the mountains and calling Dr. Nancy again) and turns out when I'd first given up on the Longest Road In Albuquerque I had given up one block short of the road I was looking for. Sigh.

After that things got much better. I got to hang out with, and stay in the house of, the Gorvetzians which was tons of fun. I got to walk around Santa Fe for an afternoon which I've been meaning to do for a long time! And I got to visit some of the other awesome people in Albuquerque. I unfortunately didn't get to see everyone, including my awesome roommate from Semester at Sea, because she was busy graduating from college! Would have been great to see her, but I did seem to be in the 505 at a sort of ridiculous time of year and people were busy. BUT I had a great time, saw cool people, went for an exhausting bike ride, hung out with an awesome dog named Lotus, and generally had lots of fun! I did, however, seem to fail at taking very many pictures. I'll try to do better in the future.

Unfortunately my computer battery is running low and this Barnes & Noble I'm sitting in doesn't seem to have power outlets so I guess I'll just upload a few pictures and then leave my Texas blog for another time, perhaps later today.

I hope you're all doing well and please send me emails and things so I know what you're up to!

My trusty car Baxter in New Mexico

Me at an art garden in Santa Fe