Road to New Mexico: Long Driving Day

 From February 2022

The plan was to take three days to get to New Mexico from Cameron, Missouri.  After all, we weren't in any hurry, and our first Airbnb reservations weren't until February 3rd.  

We hit the road at 6 a.m. on February 1st, hoping to avoid rush hour around Kansas City.  That strategy worked pretty well. Traffic was heavy, but no slow-downs.  Listening to the morning news on the car radio, the weather forecast did not sound good.  A winter storm was approaching and was going to hit the Great Plains that evening.  Spending the next couple of days slogging through wintry conditions in Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, and Texas just didn't sound fun.

Early in the day, we started considering other options.  Julia first tried to see if we could get into our Airbnb in Albuquerque early.  No go.  Then she tried Santa Fe.  There was a possibility at a small, adobe casita, but it required a two day minimum and was just a studio. Could we make it to Santa Fe before the storm hit?   Julia booked it.  

I settled into driving, listening to an audio book that Julia downloaded.

During the early afternoon, we heard back from the owner of the Airbnb.   There was a problem getting our small casita ready, due to staffing and the winter storm coming.  Would we mind an upgrade at no extra charge to the larger family adobe casita, which had a fireplace and access to a hot tub?   Yeah, that would work.

We pulled into Trader Joe's in Santa Fe after dark and picked up groceries for a few days.  Our Airbnb was actually a few miles north of Pojoaque, and it was starting to snow.  The gravel driveway going steeply up from the main road was snow covered but still easily passable with the Subaru's AWD. 

It had been a really long day.  But two days after leaving Wisconsin, we were in New Mexico already, relaxing and enjoying ourselves.  Firewood was stacked in the covered porch.   A bottle of wine was opened. Sleep wasn't far away.

Wisconsin Winter: Let's Get Out of Here

 From late January 2022

With Justin safely moved back into his dorm room in mid-January, we started looking for ways to escape the Wisconsin winter.  

January 2022

Typical Wisconsin getaways are to Florida or the Phoenix area, but we weren't interested in either of those locations.  I wanted to do some hiking in the mountains, but didn't want to deal with a lot of snow.  We were seeking warmer temperatures but not necessarily the warmest temperatures.  Spring-like during Wisconsin's January would suffice.

We ended up making Airbnb reservations for two locations in New Mexico (Albuquerque and Las Cruces) and one location in Arizona (Bisbee).  Las Cruces has long been on our list of "retire-to" cities, and we wanted a week to explore it.  We chose Albuquerque and Bisbee because I knew they would be good bases to explore trails.  We would make adjustments and additions along the way.

We got up early on the morning of January 31st and drove to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a lunchtime stop at my parents' condo.  It was good to talk to them in person and see how they were surviving the pandemic.  My dad is turning 90 next month.

My parents spent their early retirement years with an ocean view condo in San Diego.  They eventually returned to my dad's hometown in Cedar Rapids and seem content with the Iowa lifestyle, lower cost of living, and down-to-earth people.  

After lunch, Julia and I drove to a small town just north of Kansas City, Missouri, where we had reservations at our favorite dog-friendly (no added fee) Red Roof Inn.

Red Roof fangirl

Heat

It's been unusually hot here for the last couple of days.  Today's activities were limited to taking Callie for a 5:15 a.m. four-mile walk and then pickleball from 9 a.m. to noon.  

 

Hiding in the cool of the basement this afternoon.  Allie is working from home this week, so we have to stay off the internet.

The next set of posts will be from our trip to New Mexico and Arizona in February.

Puerto Vallarta: Lowlights and Wrapping Up

 

From December 2021

I've covered the highlights of our trip to Puerto Vallarta over the last few weeks.  So were all aspects of Puerta Vallarta a picture post card?  No, not everything, although I liked it well enough that it would be high on the list of places to relocate, if I was going to relocate, which isn't happening in the short term.  

Mexico has a very different social safety net than the United States.  I would argue that it isn't necessarily worse--just different.  Over the last several decades, the United States has experienced a widening gap between the very wealthy and the rest of us.  We have a lot of poor people living on the edge.

In Puerto Vallarta, there seems to be a strong middle class, and people in the working class seem happy with less.  But it hasn't escaped the problems of many other cities.  Drugs and alcohol abuse is evident. There are drunks/addicts doing their thing and getting sick in public and bathing in the fountains.  There is petty crime, but I did not hear of violent crime.  We felt safer here than we do in U.S. cities of comparable size.  People look out for each other. 

For the severely disabled, there is free medical care via a second tier health care system.  Waits are long, and not everything is available.  

Perhaps one of the most initially disturbing sights to me were disabled children on the Malecon, begging throughout the day with the parents standing behind the wheelchair. Young children are also put to work to help support the family.  The most visible example of that  are the dozens of kids selling trinkets at the beach to tourists eating dinner.  Those are things you don't often see in the U.S., but different is not necessarily worse.

There is urban sprawl here, especially to the north of the city--developments and gated properties catering to Americans and Canadians.  Puerto Vallarta is getting to be more expensive with growing tourism and the influx of dollars.  We come for the beauty at cheaper prices, and end up driving the prices up for everyone. 

We are already planning our next trip to Mexico sometime in the next couple of years.  While we loved Puerto Vallarta, we're going to explore a new destination and hopefully stay for a longer time (months instead of weeks). 

 

G5 Brewing Company

 

Yesterday, after the cancellation of the minor league baseball game, we headed for G5 Brewing Company, located near Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 2019, the modern building is nestled between an Amazon Fulfillment Center and other large industrial complexes.  

It was actually a nice space, indoors and outdoors.  I wasn't expecting much after reading the reviews.  But as sometimes happens, I was pleasantly surprised.  

A warm, sunny day--perfect for sour beer on the patio.  Yes, I said sour beer.  It seems that beer aficionados either love or hate sours.  For me, it depends on what I'm looking for.  The main criticism that I read about sours is they don't taste like what beer is supposed to taste like.  One of the things that I like about fermented substances in general is that there are a wide range of flavors and products.   I ordered a Bramble Brawl, a dark purple beer full of berries.  To me, it tasted like fermented fruit smoothie and weighed in at exactly 5% alcohol.  

A German law from 1516 says that beer must be brewed from only four ingredients:  water, hops, barley, and then yeast.  This beer broke the law but passed my taste test.

It's all good

 

 

A Minor League Kind of Day

Today, the plan was to pick up Justin in Whitewater and take him for an early Father's Day celebration at a minor league baseball game in Beloit, Wisconsin.  It was to be a battle of the Beloit Flying Carp vs. the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. 

Two vehicles were going to be necessary because someone was going to have to pick up Allie from the Chicago airport, due to changes in her European travel itinerary.  Julia met us in Beloit at the City Hall parking lot, which is next door to ABC Building Supply Stadium. We arrived about 45 minutes before game time.  Julia was waiting with Mexican food, and we had a nice meal before we heading to the game.

Just as we started across the parking lot, two guys were walking to their car.  One guy said, "Were you folks planning on going to the game?" "Yup, we are," I responded.  "The game has been cancelled due to an outbreak of Covid" he replied.   "Hmm," I mused.  

We walked over to the stadium to confirm, and sure enough, he was right.  No game, and lots of disappointed fans finding out at the last minute.  The gate attendant didn't know any of the details of the outbreak, but confirmed that there was no game.  Tickets could be exchanged for a future game, and we were invited to come into the stadium for a free 30 minute batting practice.  "Hmm,"  I mused.  But that's what we did.

It was a very nice stadium for a Class A minor league team. It was built for $37 million dollars by ABC Supply, which is locally owned, and opened last year.  Someday, we hope to see a game there. 

Just outside the stadium was a walkway along the Rock River.  After watching batting practice (Justin was the recipient of a ball hit out of the park), we took a short walk  and then headed over to a new-to-us Beloit brewpub to make the best of the situation.

That part of the trip will have to wait until the next post, as Julia has those photos on her phone, and she is picking up Allie at the Chicago airport.