New Mexico: Farmington, Chaco Canyon, Albuquerque

As soon as I crossed the Colorado-New Mexico border, there seemed to be a noted difference in the landscape. Whereas in Colorado I had driven through some fairly mountainous terrain, with many buttes, mesas, and sandstone rimrock, New Mexico appeared more flat and there was more growth to be seen. This part of New Mexico is in fact still quite mountainous, so perhaps it was just a feeling I had, combined with the smaller, less deserted highway that I found myself on.

The last place I had visited in Colorado was the town of Cortez and Mesa Verde National Park, where I had seen the impressive cliff dwellings of the ancestral Pueblo people, also sometimes known as the Anasazi. There were two other locations where I wanted to visit this type of architecture, and they were both in New Mexico. The first one I went to the day after leaving Mesa Verde. This was Chaco Canyon, and it is located just south of the city of Farmington. I spent one night in this city and there isn't much for me to say about it. I went for a bike ride to find food but only ended up getting a bag of chips at a Natural Grocers dumpster.
Chaco Canyon National Historical Park is in a very remote location accessible only by one road, and it is one that is not well maintained, unlike the one leading to Mesa Verde National Park. Most of it is unpaved and feels like driving over a washboard. Once in the park, there is a 9-mile loop that can be driven, biked, or walked, and it showcases various pueblo settlements and ruins. This type of construction is very different from the cliff dwellings however, as it is built not into rock but right on the ground. Presumably the same culture built in both styles, and they each served a different purpose. I spent a few hours there cycling and walking around the ruins, and after seeing three or four of these settlements, felt that I had seen enough, so I got back to Dharma and we continued on our way.

Once in New Mexico, I stopped at the Apache Nugget Casino to get some food, then continued on. My original intention had been to go to Santa Fe first, then from there to visit Bandelier National Monument, which is the last of the three Ancestral Pueblo sites I had wanted to see. I also wanted to stop by Los Alamos and Taos, then make my way down to Albuquerque. As it turned out, I had no signal in most of northern New Mexico so I missed the turn I was supposed to take in order to get to Santa Fe, and by the time I regained a connection, I was closer to Albuquerque, so I went down there instead. This seemed like a good idea anyway, as I was running low on funds and Albuquerque, being a much larger city than Santa Fe, seemed to be a better place to replenish my finances.

Once in Albuquerque I drove to the northeastern part of the city as I wanted to visit Tim's Place first of all, and I thought I'd try to find an overnight spot nearby. Tim's Place is a restaurant I discovered online a while back, and it is probably one of the only reasons I wanted to go to Albuquerque. Tim Harris is man with Down's Syndrome whose parents bought him a restaurant which he owns, and what makes it unique, at least in my opinion, is that Tim makes a point of hugging everyone (if they are willing, of course) when they come into the restaurant. This struck me as a very touching (no pun intended) and heartwarming gesture, full of the kind of genuine affection and innocence one often finds in people with certain types of mental disorders, and I wanted to be part of the experience.

As I arrived in Albuquerque quite late that Monday night, the best place I found was in a credit union parking lot adjacent to a library, where I got free wifi. In the morning, as I was preparing my breakfast, there was a loud knock on my door, and a police officer was standing outside. She mentioned that someone from the bank had called in saying there was a strange van in their parking lot, and asked me when I was leaving. I explained to her what I was doing and promised to be on my way in a couple of hours. She was very courteous and understanding, and told me to be careful on my journey. This somewhat surprised me as I don't have the highest opinion of police officers, especially not American ones. So far my experience of Albuquerque and New Mexico in general had been quite pleasant, and I had a good vibe about it. Ironically enough, Albuquerque has the highest rate of police-inflicted shooting deaths in the entire nation, and I later joined a small protest at the new Albuquerque Convention Center, focused on this issue. It seems I was oddly lucky when it comes to police encounters in this city.

Out of the ten couchsurfing messages I had sent out to people in Albuquerque, I had only heard back from two, and only one was willing to meet with me. This wasn't very promising, but I looked through the events page and found Nikki, who had just moved into a new house and was looking for people to help her set it up. I promised I would be there. This was on the evening of my first full day in Albuquerque. I spent the day biking around looking for food, and did end up hitting a bonanza at a small food coop dumpster. That day I found three packs of deli lasagna (vegetarian), some wraps, lots and lots of bread, and some smoked turkey slices. After lunch I even found an apple tree in a park and picked up a dozen small green apples which were quite tasty.

I went to Nikki's house in the evening and met a few other people who were helping her out, and her aunt Mary. We did a few things around the house, like installing ceiling fans, light switch covers, closet rods, etc., and then we had a feast, which Nikki and Mary had prepared. I brought them some of the bread I had picked up that day, and we had great beer to wash it all down.
In the morning Mary invited me to have breakfast with her, and she made us French toast with more of the bread I had brought. I helped her with dishes and then left to try and find some work. In the next few days, while I was parked in front of Nikki's house, I spent a good few hours sitting at Starbucks looking for jobs, and trying to set up an account on a translation site I had decided to try.
I also made a call to my friend David in Edmonton, with whom I hadn't spoken for a while.  It felt great to talk to someone I feel close to.

My second evening in Albuquerque I met up with Efrain, who was the one couchsurfer who had agree to meet with me. He invited me to a local brewery where a band was playing. I don't think Efrain and I hit it off very well, to be honest. I found him difficult to talk to and quite self-absorbed. His friend, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, joined us at Marble Brewery, and we sat there chatting until late. The next day I texted Efrain about something we'd discussed the previous night, but I never heard back from him. Perhaps he felt the same about me as I did about him.

I didn't have any luck finding work, and this was causing me some worry. In fact, I was once again finding myself in a slump, and again it was due to lack of money, inability to displace myself, and little meaningful human contact. These are things which have been plaguing me since I was in Saskatchewan, and I've been thinking about how to address them. I'll write more on this topic later on, however.

I moved to a different spot in Albuquerque on my third day. I had found a Wal-Mart part of whose parking lot abutted on a Krispy Kreme, and there I got free wifi. I was happy again. I walked to a park nearby in the evening and set up my slackline for the first time since arriving in the city. A middle-aged lady walked by at one point and started chatting with me about her life. She asked me if I had everything I needed and made me pinky-promise. I wonder if my promise to her was false. She insisted that we meet the next morning to smoke a joint, so we set up a date for 11 o'clock. The next day I was at the park at 11, but Julie was nowhere to be found. I waited until 11:30, then set up my slackline. I had a great session, then went in search of food and to meet a man who offered to pay me $300 for helping him buy a phone. I know, I was getting semi-desperate. I ended up meeting him much later than we had originally agreed, and couldn't get the phone for him, so I went back to Dharma. I spent the rest of the day in a low mood as I felt like I'd been disappointed twice that day. I replaced a fuse in Dharma with the help of my friend Ras in Calgary, and then drove to Bernalillo, a town just north of Albuquerque, next to Rio Rancho. This was Friday night, and Saturday I had found work holding a sign for five hours, and the same on Sunday.

I wasn't too excited about the work, nor the pay, which was $10/hr, but it was better than nothing, and so far that had been exactly what I had found: nothing.
When I arrived at the appointed location on Saturday morning, it was on an expensive estate which was being sold, and an auction was being held there by a liquidation company from Houston, TX.  As I stood waiting for the person I was supposed to meet, I chatted with a few of the workers setting up the auction, and eventually negotiated with the foreman so that I ended up working with him and his team instead of being a sign-holder. They had many hours of work on both days, and paid $12/hr, which at that moment sounded amazing to me. The work promised to be hard, but still more rewarding than five hours of standing on the street.

I had never been to an auction before, so this was a new experience for me. It was very fast-paced and exciting in its own way. The foreman, Moses, whom I was constantly tempted to call Mohammed, was a hard-ass and worked his team efficiently but not unfairly. We got fed lunch and supper on both days, and though I was drained by the time we were done each day, I felt satisfied. The people I was working with were a fun bunch, and I got to practice my Spanish all weekend as they were mostly Hispanic from El Salvador, Mexico, Ecuador, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. The company owner was Egyptian, so with one Canadian in the group, we were quite the multinational assortment.

Biking over to the estate on Saturday, I had ridden over some thorns and had a slow leak in my front tire. By the time the day was done, my tire was flat, but Moses offered to drive me home. I filled up my tire the next morning and figured that as it was a very slow leak, I would be ok for the ride. This was true, but by the end of Sunday my back tire was completely flat in turn. Pesky thorns. I didn't get a ride home this time around, but since I'd brought my pump with me, I made it back to Dharma at midnight, with my wallet full of money.

Those thorns had actually pierced both my inner tubes in multiple places, so after spending a couple of hours Monday morning meticulously pulling them out one by one, I decided I need new tubes. I cleaned up Dharma, and we headed back north to Santa Fe to meet Rob from couchsurfing. I felt positive again :)

Before I forget, I never did end up meeting Tim Harris. He isn't at the restaurant on Tuesdays, which was my first day in Albuquerque, and subsequently I didn't think I could afford to eat there, so I didn't go. I will, however, be passing through Albuquerque again on my way south in a few days, and this time I will definitely get a hug from Tim!