Joey worked 5 days a week at the hospital, 8 hrs a day. This was his first travel job, but of course he caught on quickly and started to build amazing relationships at his hospital. Day to day, Olivia and I really just did a lot of low key exploring around town, mainly checking out as many playgrounds as we could. This was within my first 6 months of being a stay at home mom, not working for someone else, so it was so strange for me to make my own schedule and be able to do really whatever we wanted. Covid was still lingering everywhere, so the library was super awkward, and I limited this to me picking up books from time to time for myself.
Activities Otherwise, as far as activities went, we did quite a bit of hiking in the Sandias, with and without dogs. The Embudito trail was a fan favorite, as well as the Embudo trail. It was basically hiking on a desert mountain, zero trees, just brush and dirt. But the views of Albuquerque were amazing. There was a trolley that we took to the top of the Sandia’s when Joey’s parents were visiting, and that was incredible. We hiked a loop where you could see century old petroglyphs, these were in quite a few places, but I favored this loop as it was easy to do with Olivia. We also found a loop called Contemplation Trail, and super interesting trees grew in this park. I actually went back with my mom when she came into town because it was so cool! We also joined a gym with childcare, which took some load off of me during the week, and gave Olivia a chance to play with kids. We took a few trips to Santa Fe (loved), Madrid, and Jemez Springs for some hiking. Actually, driving back from Jemez took us through Los Alamos, probably one of the most famous nuclear plants in America. We had to stop at what looked like a toll booth where they checked our IDs, and asked us a few questions about confidentiality before we were allowed to continue on the road. It was a little creepy!
Downtown Albuquerque was a really cool place to visit every once in a while! They had ice cream, bbq, shops, churches, and a square where musicians would play occasionally.
Hotel Living. At one point around October, we had to take our camper in for some warranty work. We quickly learned that campers built any time after 2019 were basically garbage. Manufacturers weren’t getting parts in, and labor was terrible quality, so dealers were throwing campers onto the lots basically unfinished. The problem is, that our beautiful Montana just wasn’t the right camper for us. From a design perspective, there were parts that we really didn’t feel comfortable with Olivia, and we decided that at the time it was best to trade in for a 2021 Jayco North Point. Personally I liked it, there was a little bunk room for Olivia, lots of storage for us, and cool features. A few weeks after we took it home, Joey started noticing little things that he would have to fix, as well as parts that would break off easily. So we found a 10 day stint that we could get some warranty work done with parts that had gotten in, and we stayed in a hotel. Let’s just say we basically never wanted to stay in a hotel again. Just trying to do day to day life in the same room as a 1 year old on a sleep schedule, you’re limited to doing nothing after they go to sleep. And then surprise, surprise, once we got our camper back, we were still missing half of the parts, and the work that was done was crap! I could go into a whole schpiel about buying campers, what to look for, brands, years, ect. Come with me down that journey some day.
Random Side Note
Something that I had observed at one point was that I NEVER saw police cars. There were some, but back home you would see Sheriff’s deputies, state patrolmen, local police everywhere. Here, hardly ever! One day, I was driving home, traffic was decently heavy (probably rush hour). All within 2 minutes, probably 5 (not exaggerating) random cars, minivans, and suvs, lit up and started driving the same direction! It ended up being toward a random theft, but at that point I realized that a lot of law enforcement in the county must be undercover. I have heard that crime in ABQ has increased tremendously in the past few years, overall when we were there I didn’t feel super safe all of the time, but I think I was on edge having Olivia with me all of the time.
One minor extra that was not mentioned (….. to anyone…. Until it happened), I was pregnant! I basically spent my final 4.5 months being pregnant in Albuquerque. It wasn’t as complicated as one would think, really. I found a midwife at the hospital that Joey was at, and simply went for checkups! I’m high risk, however am also super conscious of my health and am in good health, so my OB at home was on board. I guess the main challenge was hauling Olivia around in the heat being 7-9 months baked, but staying active helped. My mom flew in at the end of October, and drove back with us, as I was 37 weeks on the drive home.
Drive Home
The trip home went smoothly, our favorite stop was in Eureka Springs, AR! The town is definitely not big rig friendly to drive through, but the campground we stayed at was in the woods on a mountain, and the town of Eureka is so cool. It was founded back in 1879, offering springs that travelers would go to for healing. Now, it has a hotel famous for its hauntings, as well as so many fun shops and restaurants. Its just so unique in the layout and beautiful because of surrounding woods and mountains. I think at this point, we had decided that we wanted to spend time in Arkansas for a job. Super fun stop – Terre Haute, Indiana!! We stayed here again later on, because they had two of the sweetest donkeys on their campground. Olivia obviously loved them, and so did we.
The Nomadic Rodeo 