#Man there is even a side JUST for cars in shows/movies and in toa EVERY CAR BUT HIS IS LISTED | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

comebeonetwothree · 3 years

Text

Blog #3: The Fun Has Just Begun

06/08/2021

Currently camping at 11,720 feet above sea level, there is snow all around the mountains and mother nature really decided to take a shit on us with weather conditions.

New Mexico is considered a desert and you can tell why… tumble weed actually flies across the roads.

Staying in hostels generated some great people and awesome experiences… including a hitchhiker, a random roommate, and a transformed school bus. Oh, and a hot tub.

From New Mexico to Colorado, the temperatures and the altitude changed drastically, forcing us to adapt in hopes of survival… kidding it wasn’t that serious.

With little to no cell service ever since entering Colorado, there is a lot of time for self-reflecting and reading! I just dove deep into the Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer, Anthony Kiedis’, autobiography.

Who

Who wants to be friends…

Staying at a hostel I expected it to be similar to a college dorm. You basically walk around and ask people if they want to hang out.

We set out for a hike as soon as we arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico and got some food to cook up for later in the courtyard. We got out there pretty late, but the gentleman that checked us into the hostel was still out there cleaning up the food he chefed up only minutes ago.

When we started eating, a couple came outside and we invited them to join us, but they nicely declined. It began to feel like our chances of meeting people were getting slimmer.

The following morning, we sat outside our room and started making plans for the weeks to come. Exploring campgrounds, hikes and must-see places. As we are sitting there, we get a new neighbor.

She seemed to be around our age and had a friendly face that seemed like she was open to being friends.

After a little while, she came outside and sat with us and chatted us up! She was going to college in the area but was in-between apartments. She happened to be staying at the hostel for the same period of time we were.

Her roommate came out after and sat with us. They recommended some good places to eat and must-see spots in Santa Fe.

Later on, we were hanging out in the common area, and they came to join us. We re-introduced ourselves and that’s when we become friends. Misgana and Miselo, were just around the same age as us. A bit later, someone new checked into the Hostel. She soon joined us and introduced herself to us all as Deanna.

Deanna was staying at the hostel for work purposes. She was doing research on regenerative farming and had an interview with a farm nearby the following morning.

After a while we decided to get some brews and keep the conversations going throughout the night.

While we were hanging out getting to know each other more, one of the hostel volunteers came over and sat with us. She was wearing a “South Butt” sweatshirt not North Face, and I knew she was going to be fun to hang around. Aster, she soon introduced herself as, was from Wisconsin and was living and working at the hostel. She was on her way up to becoming the manager of the place soon enough.

As we are all hanging out, the newcomer of the hostel came over and introduced himself.

Christian, hitch hiked all the way from Rhode Island down to Santa Fe, on his way to meet up with his buddy from home who transformed an old school bus into a mobile home.

He mentioned he was leaving Friday to hitchhike up to the Great Sand Dunes… coincidentally Mary, Maya and I were heading to that exact location on that exact day. We offered him a ride up north.

When we dropped him off, we got to meet his buddy who owned the transformed school bus. It was painted all blue on the outside with Van Gogh’s Starry Night mural on the side of it.

Aiden (his buddy) had just recently gotten a 7-week-old puppy named Waldo. We got to play with Waldo along with the owner of our campgrounds three other puppies.

Jack, the owner of our campground was a wholesome dude. He was older and had lived an interesting life before settling down on the land he has now.

Jack gave us his whole back story and showed us around his new lifestyle. We were staying on his weed farm, and he was more than welcoming. He showed us around the grow house, all while giving us free samples of everything as we went along.

The plants he is growing were more like trees. At about 3-weeks old they were already fatter and taller than me.

Jack lived on the property alone and had his five dogs to keep him company: three puppies (Dirty White Boy, Little Man, and Boo) and their parents.

Jack started renting his land out to campers because he gets lonely and wanted to get some cool experiences in before his time is up.

Unfortunately, Jack has stage 3 emphysema, due to his history in custom car painting back in the day. He also has a bad heart, so this land was for him to settle and be there until the end

It was a welcoming and unforgettable experience staying there. Jack was a one-of-a-kind dude, and I hope he enjoyed our company for the time being.

At our second hostel in Colorado, we had the pleasure of paying for three beds in a room of six. We got lucky with having only one other roommate, Drew.

Drew was staying there for a week, as he was looking for a job in the area. He had been traveling around the world doing this kind of thing since about 20 years old. He was now in his late 40’s and was rocking the minimalist nomadic lifestyle. Also from Wisconsin, Drew was adopted at birth, and began his traveling lifestyle in hopes of finding his birth parents. He referred to his lifestyle as not normal, “There is nothing normal, except the cycle on the laundry.”

What

What is real anymore…

In New Mexico, we drove through a road that lasted 40 miles and it was straight up desert land. There was nothing but sand, wild cattle, and small bushes.

I had never experienced an atmosphere like that before, so it felt beyond unreal. It was one of those, “pinch me so I know I am awake”, moments.

There were a lot of those moments on this week of the trip. These were places and things I had only seen in movies. Trust me, cameras do not do this experience justice.

These moments are fully sensory moments. Everything from sight, to smell, to taste, to sound, all played a role in framing how unreal these places felts.

While driving into Colorado, seeing these massive mountains was the first time this whole trip I got to see a mountain range that topped the Hudson Valley.

There is so much land everywhere and the elevation is so high up you can see for miles and miles and miles.

The mountains were everywhere and larger than life itself. The land in between the roads and the mountains were long and open. You could see some housing along the way, but everything appeared to be small.

It was hard to tell how far away everything was because the only comparison was the mountains, making everything appear miniature.

Windows down, good music playing, head out the window; I was living my best life feeling, seeing, smelling all these new things.

Where

Where should we stay…

New Mexico is a totally different world, with large deserts and little to no grass anywhere. The architecture looks like a giant had a fun day at the beach making sandcastles. And there is strange wildlife too, they have prairie dogs and coyote just chilling in the daytime. There are also just free roaming cows on any open land you see.

We stayed more in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico which was “whitewashed,” also known as commercialized. It was built to satisfy the white elder rich man, with little to no nightlife and overpriced goods on every corner.

The hostel we stayed in was called International Hostel Santa Fe Pension. Upon arrival we were greeted with such a warm welcome by the staff. They even brought us a basket of food that was donated from the local Whole Foods, since this hostel was non-profit.

Our room had its own bathroom, which was nice after trying to authentic Mexican cuisine…

Throughout our time in Santa Fe, we got to see some beautiful views from our hiking experiences.

We also visited an installation art museum, Meow Wolf, that made you feel as though you were in a wonderful acid trip. It was interactive for all ages, and we got to go with our new friends!

Heading up to Colorado after Santa Fe, we stopped in this wonderful town named Toas, a small area with lots of rock shops. On our way out we hit up a natural hot spring on the border of Colorado and New Mexico.

The hot spring was HOT! I know it seems self-explanatory, but you really don’t expect it to be that hot (it had to be around 110 degrees). We even got to float around in the spring with a nudist. He was a very nice middle-aged man, with a large uncircumcised flaccid penis and three beautiful dogs!

About 20 minutes after our arrival, a group of three different families walked down to the spring and were also greeted by a flaccid penis. The nudists respectfully asked the youngest boy of the group to grab his swimming trunks so he could exit the premises, respectfully. I guess kids were not really his forte.

While heading into Colorado, you can’t help but look out the window at the insane mountain range… a big step up from flat ass farmlands. These mountains are so large they have snow tips on the top.

Our campground for the night was located right outside the Great Sand Dunes National Park, on this elderly man’s property.

We booked our stay through Hipcamp, which is like the airbnb of private campgrounds. We did not realize this meant the owner of the property would be living right out front of our tent.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the owner and handed a nug of marijuana, freshly harvested out of his underground grow farm. This weed was purpleee…It made New York weed look like dirt.

After setting up our tent, we dropped off our hitch hiker at the dunes, were we then explored the natural sand mountains and watched people board down them. I have seen boogie boarding and snowboarding before but add sand underneath, and you got a bootleg ass version of both.

After leaving the Great Sand Dunes area, we went to a waterfall that was supplied by the spring run-off from the melted snow tops of the mountains. Getting to the waterfall you had to walk through a stream of water. It seemed easy enough while wearing my trusty Teva’s. NOPE, it was so cold two seconds after my feet entered the water, you begin to feel your feet going numb. It was near impossible to have your feet submerged longer than 10 seconds, but watch out there are some slippery ass rocks, so running away was out of the picture.

After successfully making it to and from the waterfall, we headed to our next location, Blue Lake Dispersed Campground, in the Breckenridge area of Colorado. This is right in the Rocky Mountains, full of snow capped mountains.

We were actively driving into a giant storm cloud when it hit us…This massive thunderstorm was not letting up. We had to rethink camping for that night, and find a new location to sleep, preferably inside.

Our experience at the first hostel in Santa Fe was so wonderful, we decided to find another around the area we were camping.

The Bivvi hostel was right around the bend from where we were originally going to camp. Walking in we were expecting a similar experience to the last hostel, so we were confused when this place was nicer than any hotel, I’ve ever stayed in.

We got lucky enough to get three beds in a shared room. At the time there was only one person staying in the six-person bunk bedroom.

Seeing that the rain was not going to clear up anytime soon, we booked the three beds and got cozied up with a pitcher of PBR in the hot tub available to all guests.

Leaving the Bivvi was sad, but when we arrived at our campground, we were taken aback at the views.

We stayed in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, with a lake in the middle from where the melted run-off snow pooled.

We quickly got our tent set up and explored around the area… Trees, grass and abandoned mining houses were discovered along our hikes.

We even got to see a mountain goat up close and personal… where my Oats at (yah you, you know the vibe)

When

When life gives you lemons…

We had a lot of time to settle into the places we saw this week.

Being in New Mexico for three nights was a great amount of time to utilize the area around us and hang out with some cool ass people.

Colorado was spread out by towns, but we are here for a week in total, so this is just half the time being here… stay tuned for the rest of the time in Colorado in next week’s blog!

Why

Why won’t the rain stop…

I get it now, why people want to live a life on the road. A life of little distractions and full control over who, what, where, when, and how you get to live your life.

There is something so refreshing about meeting people, knowing you have little time together, and being content with that fact.

I could envision myself working at a hostel and getting to experience new people weekly and being okay when they leave. There is not a time limit on those relationships necessarily, but there is some peace knowing you have made an impact on their life and vise versa.

Life on the road doesn’t sound too bad.

How

How are we this far already…

Two weeks into the trip… How is that possible? Time is flying and I want to slow it all down.

Help how do I slow down time!!!

#travelblogger #covid made me do it #fuck it #jubilation #road trip #post grad #blogging for beginners #mountains #goats #camping #hostel

2 notes · View notes