As most of you know, I have had quite a bit of free time on my hands. I say, “most of you” because, sadly, most of you that read this either gave birth to me or just happen to be there whenever I need you to be. This hasn’t gone viral…yet. But my mom says, any day now I will be writing for the New York Times. So yeah. Anyways, with all of this free time, I wanted to get out and travel. With me having an absurd amount of airline points and gas being so cheap, I thought it would be a good idea to travel the west. To clear up any confusion, I don’t consider the west coast a part of the west. The west consists of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. Since I had already been to Montana and Wyoming (See MANtana blog post), I thought I would fly out, rent a car, and drive to the remaining 5 states. I stayed with friends’ families and Airbnb. If you haven’t used Airbnb, I highly suggest doing so. Airbnb is to hotels as Uber is to taxis. I had multiple Airbnb coupons, so I used those while I was out there. I’m going to break this trip into 5 different blogs for each of the 5 states I visited. Here we go.
Albuquerque, New Mexico was my first stop. Before I go on, let me include that I flew into Denver and drove straight from there to Albuquerque. Let me also include that I was at, what I thought to be, the peak of my sickness that was bestowed upon me. After 7 hours of flight time, I was praying that this drive would pass by as soon as possible. I guess my specific prayer was for a cinder block to be dropped on my right foot. I was weaving in and out of traffic like woah. Btw, if you just watched that whole clip, we need to be better friends than what we are. Anyways, truth be told, the only traffic in my way was the tumbleweeds that were flying in front of my car, but that’s not the point. I had been driving for about 4 hours with no signs of humanity until I see the red and blue lights in my rear view mirror. I guess I was so excited about the speed limit being 75 that I thought there is no way I could possibly get a speeding ticket. Well, I proved myself, and others, wrong, which is one of my best qualities. However, I was pretty upset. Not necessarily at the speeding ticket, but at the fact that I believe the cop was there to stop me from setting some sort of record. I’m actually thankful the cop just gave me a speeding ticket. In a weird way, I feel indebted to the officer, which reminds me, I still need to pay that damn speeding ticket.
I finally made it to my Airbnb destination in Albuquerque. I stayed at a place that rented out the a room in their house, not the entire home. The couple’s names that I stayed with were Tom and Norma. They’re retired entrepreneurs, and by the looks of their place, successful ones at that. I suggest staying with Tom and Norma if you want to make your way down to Albuquerque. Norma was a chef back in the day and Tom brews his own beer now. Here was the first conversation I had with Tom when I first stepped foot out of my car:
Tom: (Hand-shake offer) Tom
Me: (Accept offer) Josh.
Tom: How long have you been driving?
Me: 6 hours. All the way from Denver.
Tom: Well you like beer?
I had killed 3 beers before I saw the room I was staying in. Tom was very generous. During the third beer, I feared that Tom was almost too generous. I wasn’t looking to get weird with Tom and Norma, but one more of Tom’s brews could have got me there. I declined his offer to the fourth beer, however I needed food stat. I ordered a pizza, actually scratch that; Tom ordered a pizza for me. He asked me what I wanted and I said, “A small meat lovers pizza.” He said, “No let’s get a medium, I’ll have a piece.” I agreed, assuming he was going to pay for this pizza. The pizza guy shows up, and no signs of Tom. I paid for the pizza, then Tom finally showed up, as did Norma. Tom had TWO pieces and Norma had one. You might have thought that I was upset, but no, I do this ALL OF THE TIME. For years, my reply to “Hey you want to get a pizza?” has been “Nah but I’ll definitely take a slice if you get one.” Tom, you son of a gun. You beat me at my own game.
Anyways, there’s not much to do in New Mexico. For all of you Breaking Bad lovers, I did see Walt’s house in Albuquerque, which you can see on my Instagram. If you check out the picture and you’re not following me, please give me a follow. I’m dying to get to 200. Anyways, I saw the owner come out of the house. I asked her if I could throw my leftover pizza on her roof (only Breaking Bad fans will get this), but she said, “No.” Some people man. After being in New Mexico for about 12 hours, I get why someone made a show about a large community of people abusing meth. I know I just made New Mexico sound like a drag to visit, but it’s really not. If you’re looking for touristy things to do, then no, stay away from New Mexico. Actually, if that’s what you’re looking for, you might as well stay away from the west, except for Colorado. That’s what the west is about, and it is possibly my favorite feature America has.
