Yesterday, January 17, 2024, was he fourth anniversary of the launching of my blog, Wandering New Mexican.
What an amazing ride it’s been.
It all started with a vicious break-up in January 2019. Between the end of that relationship, my poor mental status and even worse financial situation, I wasn’t sure I’d survive 2019.
Thanks in part to the gracious assistance provided by my parents, the wonderful support shown by Alan, the absolute joy brought to my life by Ash and the complete and utter unconditional love shown by Brandy, here I am now, five years later, a completely different person.
Taking A Look Back
As I mention on my About page, I’ve had a ton of blogs before. Sometimes just daily journals that never lasted, sometimes a periodic “newsletter” style blog in the days before social media, but this blog was something I wanted- no, I needed to do.
I’m not a writer. I never claimed to be, I suppose at times I’ve wanted to be, but never gave it much thought to put any real effort into writing. I started this blog really for one reason: to document my adventures. I wasn’t trying to drive any traffic to it, I wasn’t trying to offer any tips or tricks, or insights, lord knows, I was tragically underqualified to offer any kind of advice like that. It was meant to just be a diary of things I saw, things I did, things I felt.
I started the blog on the free version of WordPress. I didn’t have any ambitions for the site, just to use it as a travel diary, put up some pictures and periodically look back at the adventures I’ve gone on.
The very first post I made on this date in 2020 was about my plans to visit the Albuquerque Museum for the Jim Henson Exhibition, and Old Town. I was so excited to take this trip. I’d done things like this before but I’d always been saddled with someone. Being the people-pleaser I was, I would always acquiesce and go at their pace, or do what they wanted to do.
That trip was about my newfound freedom to do things on my own terms. Being able to see things with unguided eyes and experience things as I wanted to experience them was a whole new joy for me.
I wound up taking that trip the next day and quickly blogged about it, having my write-up posted the day after the trip (a far cry from the weeks it can take me nowadays.)
It was during this time that the realization really hit home: I don’t need to do things with someone to enjoy it myself. I, for the first time, went to a restaurant and ate by myself. I walked around Old Town Albuquerque by myself. And I loved every minute of it. I wasn’t rushed through, was able to slow down and take the pictures I wanted to take (and, again, looking back, I’m astonished at how far along my photography skills have come.)
My style of blogging is very “stream of consciousness”. I just write things as I feel them, as I remember them. Generally speaking, this is good enough. Sure, sometimes, I will remember that a certain event took place earlier than I wrote it, or it would make more sense if placed a thought here rather than there, but, again, I’m not trying to gain an audience here. I’m just documenting.
This credo evolved into making opinion-based posts. I made an entry called Why I Love New Mexico. It wasn’t in reference to any adventure or trip that I’d gone on, it was purely word-vomit. It was a thought I had and decided to post it.
Enter Brandy
I’d only gone on a couple of adventures, including the museum/Old Town trip, a trip to the Coronado Historic Site, and my trip to Belen to start down the Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail, and I had just adopted Ash before I met Brandy.
We met on Leap Day, 2020. Again referencing my About page, I ended that page with the sentence, “…who knows, maybe I’ll break the state line at some point in the future.”
If not for the COVID pandemic, we would have broken that state line even sooner. As it was though, we were in Colorado that June, in Brandy’s happy place, Crested Butte. Just over a month later, we were on the road to the longest road trip I ever imagined I’d be taking as we left Albuquerque to visit Brandy’s parents in Ottumwa, Iowa, swinging through Dyersville to visit the Field of Dreams Movie Site then on to Rankin, Illinois, to visit David and Veronica.
The following month, in August, we went to Cortez, CO, visiting Mesa Verde National Park while there. A week later, we took an impromptu drive to Taos, where things were still shut down while in the throes of the pandemic. Still, getting to see the Rio Grande Gorge was amazing! And yet another example of me doing what I want, and not letting someone not wanting to go stop me. Brandy had already seen the gorge, so when we got there, she stayed in the car while I walked out onto the bridge to gaze and take pictures.
Yet a few days after that, we took a trip through Colorado that included stops in Cripple Creek, Estes Park, Leadville, Salida, Monarch Pass, and Florence.
After another short trip to Gunnison, we took a quick overnight trip to Ruidoso, stopping in Capitan to visit the Smokey Bear Historical Park.
And then came the hiking…
Hiking
I had always wanted to try hiking. Getting out and into nature while getting some exercise was something I thought I’d enjoy, so I did it. After a birthday trip to Almont in November, on December 5, 2020, I took my first hike at the Copper Trailhead Loop just off of Tramway in Albuquerque. It was love at first… hike. I had bought an inexpensive pair of Columbia hiking boots and wore them for the first time on that hike. It really taxed me, being as out of shape as I was. The initial incline up the first quarter mile of the trail made me stop three times. Undeterred, I finished the mile and a quarter hike in just under 40 minutes.
And I never looked back.
I spent pretty much the entirety of 2021 looking for trails to hike. I constantly had my face buried in AllTrails, trying to find something to do the next weekend. In fact, there was a near-two month stretch where I literally hiked at least once per weekend, sometimes twice per weekend. While I remember just about every mile of every hike I’ve taken, and there’s a special place in my heart for each and every one of them, the most notable of the hikes from the Summer of 2021 include the 10K and Survey Loop, which was nearly 9 miles, almost 7 hours on the trail and over 1,400 feet of elevation gain, the Tunnel Canyon and Otero Canyon Trail, which I hiked on the 4th of July and almost killed Ash and myself from dehydration, the 4 Seasons Nature Trail, which was the hike I took at the top of Sandia Crest after my first ever trip on the tram, and the Alcove House Trail at Bandelier National Monument, which included a 140 foot vertical ascent up a series of ladders to lead to the eponymous Alcove House.
All told, in 2021, I hiked nearly 80 miles, gained over 10,000 feet in elevation in the span of 43 and a half hours on trails on 30 hikes, all culminating with a re-hike of the first trail I’d ever hiked, the Copper Trailhead Loop, where, 30 pounds lighter, I conquered the trail 7 minutes faster than I had exactly one year earlier. That initial climb only asked me to stop once, instead of three times like I had the first time up.
The Summer Without Brandy
Shortly after we’d taken a trip to Carlsbad, where I walked the caverns without her (another instance of doing something alone and it didn’t bother me to), Brandy decided we needed to take a bit of a break. On May 7, 2021, I moved out of her house and into an apartment where I continued to thrive. My hikes never slowed down, in fact it was during this time where I hiked every weekend for 7 weeks in a row. I also embarked on my first camping trip with Alan, took a trip to Tinkertown once they re-opened after COVID, finally visited Soda Dam and Gilman Tunnels, took Jarrod to Denver for a Dodger game, and finished the summer with my first SOLO camping trip.
Shortly after that camping trip, Brandy texted me asking if I had seen her pizza cutter, so we got married.
Well, there’s a bit more to it than that.
Reunited and it Feels So Good
While it is true that she did initiate conversation by asking for her pizza cutter, we did have to work to rekindle our relationship from there. It started with her visiting my apartment, then dating for a bit before we took a trip to Durango for my birthday. I had told her I was going to go for my birthday and invited her. She offered to buy tickets for the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad as a birthday gift, and in the time between making the plans and actually going, we decided to get married while we were on that trip.
So, we did.
While in that dating phase and immediately following our marriage, we also went and saw Blue October at the Sunshine Theater, hiked the Fourth of July Trail, returned to the Western Slope of Colorado, spent Christmas in Ottumwa, and I took a cold weather camping trip with Alan.
Then, we moved to Iowa.
Iowa
As a precursor to moving halfway across the country, I finally got Epic certified (after having been promised as much when I got hired at Presbyterian in 2012.) I took that certification that Presbyterian got me and took a fully remote position as an Epic Analyst for a health group based out of Des Moines, UnityPoint Health. We left Albuquerque on February 28, 2022, which is as close as we can get to the anniversary of the day Brandy and I met, as we met on leap day.
After three days of driving, we got to our short-term rental in Coralville on March 2 and I started work with UPH on the 7th.
We were barely in Iowa a month before we started adventuring. Our first outing was a trip from Coralville to Ottumwa to see Hairball at Bridge View Center.
A week after that, we went to Chicago to see Justin Furstenfeld on his Open Book tour. We didn’t get to see the actual show because the venue had us crammed in like sardines and we were both entirely too claustrophobic to sit for two hours, but that was made up for by the fact that we met Justin at a restaurant before the show.
The week after that, I took my first hike in Iowa. I was unimpressed.
Two weeks later, Brandy and I went back to Chicago with Hilary in tow for my first Dodger game at historic Wrigley Field.
On a Memorial Day weekend trip to Ottumwa, we took a hike in Fairfield, stopping in Eldon to catch a glimpse of the American Gothic house.
The following weekend, we were in Dundee, IA, to visit Backbone State Park, where we hiked a couple of trails and drove through some beautiful scenery.
In early fall, we made a trip to House on the Rock in Wisconsin. I have compared House on the Rock to if Meow Wolf and Tinkertown had a baby, and I stand my that description.
We had a houseguest with us through the summer of 2022 when Christy and Skye came to stay with us for a bit. It was during this time when we had the first instance of Two Months of Chaos. This included a drive to Omaha followed by three consecutive drives to Des Moines, then a trip to Ottumwa.
That September, we took a five day trip to Boise, Idaho, by way of Grand Teton National Park. In a trip that started as a trip to see my grandma but then turned into a visit with my parents, who I hadn’t seen in a year and a half. The week after we got back from that trip, we drove Christy and Skye to Council Bluffs where she continued on to Walsenburg to restart her life.
Becoming Homeowners
Shortly after returning from Council Bluffs, we looked at a house in Ottumwa, one that we would ultimately put an offer on and buy.
We had been planning a trip to Albuquerque/Walsenburg around my birthday/Thanksgiving that year but that would have been right around the closing on the house, so we decided to make the trip while the house was in escrow so by the time we closed, we could hit the ground running.
And hit the ground running, we did. The weekend after we got the keys, we were in the house tearing up carpet and stripping hardwood floors.
In all, we spent 10 weeks on the Green House Project before officially moving in January 27.
Let The Travel Resume
After moving in to our house in Ottumwa and getting some last minute touch-ups done, we headed out for our first trip, this time for Brandy’s work.
She wanted to visit her mobile home park in Tucson so we rented a car on her company’s dime and headed out. Our first day of driving inadvertently wound up being 13 hours (ouch) but it was so worth it to be able to spend the night at the legendary Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, a long-time bucket list item for me. We wound up visiting two National Parks on that trip (White Sands and Saguaro), the city of Tombstone, the site of the world famous Gunfight at the OK Corral, and we saw the nicest Goodwill ever.
In April, my parents came to Iowa to visit. I flew Jarrod out too, and my dad, Jarrod and I went to Chicago for a Dodger game at Wrigley. I literally just told my dad that out of the hundreds of baseball games I’ve been to in my life, that was my favorite. The Dodgers got their asses handed to them, but the quality time I got with the two of them was irreplaceable.
After another visit from Christy and Skye, we launched into another chaotic couple of months that saw me take a trip to the Epic headquarters in Verona, WI, followed immediately by another work trip for Brandy through South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.
After our return, we spent a week at home before making our fist visit to Crested Butte since the move. Christy met us there and spent four days with us, including on a trip to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
I took a trip to Illinois for David’s wedding, which included a stop in Bloomington, IL, to meet Jeff Swim.
We had a huge chunk of tree fall on our roof, necessitating the replacement of said roof.
We took a trip to Maquoketa Caves State Park in August before heading back to Albuquerque/Walsenburg for what I’m calling the best trip ever.
Autumn started off fantastic with a day trip to Madison County to tour the bridges and to visit Winterset, including the John Wayne Birthplace and Museum.
Then, four days later, we all know what happened.
Our first outing after October 11 was a drive down the Historic Hills Scenic Byway just days before Halloween.
We followed that drive up with our second wedding anniversary, my birthday and Thanksgiving all in rapid succession, and, as if that wasn’t great enough, we ended the 2023 adventure season with a drive out to Waukee to see Blue October from the front row at Vibrant Music Hall.
I started the new year off with a hike down the Pickwick Riverwalk Path before we got socked in with two feet of snow in four days.
In Summation
All told, since I started this journey, in the last four years:
I’ve visited 12 states (including states I lived in but returned to visit).
I’ve visited 6 National Parks, 12 state parks, and 5 national monuments.
I’ve gone on nearly 60 hikes totaling nearly 120 miles for over 12,000 feet of elevation gain. I climbed 140 feet of ladders to get into a cliff dwelling. I stayed on one trail for almost 7 hours at one time.
I’ve been to Coors Field in Denver and Wrigley Field in Chicago (twice). I’ve finally had Chicago deep dish pizza and had drinks at Harry Caray’s tavern at Navy Pier in Chicago. I had dinner at a heavy metal themed bar with my son and my dad. I watched a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral.
I finally rode the tram in Albuquerque 15 years after moving to the city. I finally made it south of the Sunport, again, after living in New Mexico for 15 years.
I’ve stayed in some swanky hotels and I’ve stayed in some absolute disaster motels, and I’ve had my room upgraded countless times.
I’ve gone on 4 camping trips, including one in the rain, one in the snow and one completely by myself (with Ash).
And That Leads Us Here
It all started with a vicious break-up in January 2019. Between the end of that relationship, my poor mental status and even worse financial situation, I wasn’t sure I’d survive 2019.
Here I am now in 2024, in a new, healthy relationship, with a mental status better than it’s ever been and I’m thriving financially, recovering from the poor decisions I’ve made in the past, improved credit, healthy savings, a house, and two cars (one of which I’m about to pay off in the next month or two).
I cannot stress this enough: I am so exceedingly happy with my life. With all that I’ve been through, this life is something I never in a million years imagined I’d be able to attain.
Yet, here I am.
In recapping these last four years, I’ve realized that my life since 2019 can be placed neatly into almost perfect chapters.
Chapter 1: The Breakup
Chapter 2: Starting Over
Chapter 3: Life With Brandy
Chapter 4: The Summer Without Brandy
Chapter 5: Reunited
Chapter 6: Iowa
Chapter 7, my life post-10/11/2023, is about to written and I can already tell you, it’s going to be one hell of a story.
Stick around and find out.
-Phil
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