New Mexico
Oct. 29th, 2010 08:48 pmI had a conversation about New Mexico, Albuquerque in particular, with a friend yesterday. He told me he had driven through Albuquerque several years ago and it seemed depressing. I wholeheartedly agreed. I've been thinking about that declaration since and have realized a couple of things.
New Mexico may not have been the home I would have chosen if I had a choice, but it is home now. I am relatively happy here.
I stood out on the front porch tonight. It was about an hour after the sun had actually set. The horizon was still yellow. The blue above that was my favorite color blue. I have never seen the sky that color blue anywhere but here. Above my head the sky was dark blue. No matter the time of night, if you aren't in a metropolitan area, you can almost always see the blue. The star show is spectacular and the moon rising over the Sandias is something to behold (not tonight, because it was up all day, but generally).
I don't live in Albuquerque anymore, but I live close enough that going *down the hill* isn't much of a burden. I always want compare it to Richmond, VA. I just discovered that Abq has over twice the population, which I found surprising. Richmond always seemed bigger. Maybe it's because Richmond is taller. We have museums of many flavors, a zoo, an aquarium, parks, hiking trails, the bosque, the river. We have restaurants with awesome food. We have a pretty eclectic art scene, whether audio or visual, or anywhere in between. We have interesting wildlife - Roadrunners for the win!
It takes almost no time to go from being in a heavily populated area, to being in The Middle of Nowhere. A place where it feels like the sky never ends. Sometimes, while traveling through The Middle of Nowhere, you stumble upon a town or a sight that you never knew existed. Road trips in this state are fun.
We have Carlsbad Caverns, which is very field trippy, but still a ton of fun. There is Roswell, which is just out of this world (hahaha, bad pun, and it's not really). Santa Fe, where art galleries and some of the residents are overly pretentious, is still a nice place to visit. I must take the Little Human on the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad in the near future - a steam powered locomotive, for those unaware. Tinkertown Museum is one of the strangest and most delightful places I have ever been. Then there is just the landscape while on the way. Odd rock formations that make peculiar landmarks.
New Mexico has relatively decent weather. I wish there was more of a spring and more of a fall, but winter is mild and summer is usually not humid. Nights are cool, so no matter what the daytime temp was, night time is at least bearable. The rain storms are impressive and sometimes scary. Snowfalls are few and far between, usually, and seem so out of place when they happen. We have enough of a fall to warrant foliage colors and enough of a spring to enjoy the world coming back to life.
I realized tonight that the wanderlust will probably fly me away from here in the future, but I think I need to start appreciating the layover more. It won't ever be my *heart home*, I don't think, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it more while I'm here...
New Mexico may not have been the home I would have chosen if I had a choice, but it is home now. I am relatively happy here.
I stood out on the front porch tonight. It was about an hour after the sun had actually set. The horizon was still yellow. The blue above that was my favorite color blue. I have never seen the sky that color blue anywhere but here. Above my head the sky was dark blue. No matter the time of night, if you aren't in a metropolitan area, you can almost always see the blue. The star show is spectacular and the moon rising over the Sandias is something to behold (not tonight, because it was up all day, but generally).
I don't live in Albuquerque anymore, but I live close enough that going *down the hill* isn't much of a burden. I always want compare it to Richmond, VA. I just discovered that Abq has over twice the population, which I found surprising. Richmond always seemed bigger. Maybe it's because Richmond is taller. We have museums of many flavors, a zoo, an aquarium, parks, hiking trails, the bosque, the river. We have restaurants with awesome food. We have a pretty eclectic art scene, whether audio or visual, or anywhere in between. We have interesting wildlife - Roadrunners for the win!
It takes almost no time to go from being in a heavily populated area, to being in The Middle of Nowhere. A place where it feels like the sky never ends. Sometimes, while traveling through The Middle of Nowhere, you stumble upon a town or a sight that you never knew existed. Road trips in this state are fun.
We have Carlsbad Caverns, which is very field trippy, but still a ton of fun. There is Roswell, which is just out of this world (hahaha, bad pun, and it's not really). Santa Fe, where art galleries and some of the residents are overly pretentious, is still a nice place to visit. I must take the Little Human on the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad in the near future - a steam powered locomotive, for those unaware. Tinkertown Museum is one of the strangest and most delightful places I have ever been. Then there is just the landscape while on the way. Odd rock formations that make peculiar landmarks.
New Mexico has relatively decent weather. I wish there was more of a spring and more of a fall, but winter is mild and summer is usually not humid. Nights are cool, so no matter what the daytime temp was, night time is at least bearable. The rain storms are impressive and sometimes scary. Snowfalls are few and far between, usually, and seem so out of place when they happen. We have enough of a fall to warrant foliage colors and enough of a spring to enjoy the world coming back to life.
I realized tonight that the wanderlust will probably fly me away from here in the future, but I think I need to start appreciating the layover more. It won't ever be my *heart home*, I don't think, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it more while I'm here...