Well! So much has happened, where to start!
Tuesday afternoon I left Cedar Crest, NM... Thursday night I was checking into a motel in Sweetwater, TX... Right? Lol Big jump in a few days..
As I left John and Becky's house in Cedar Crest, I made my way on Highway 14, heading North East and got to about Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club when I managed to hitch a ride with an elderly man, couldn't catch his name, accent too heavy. He was fairly quite, and his truck was old, full of tools and reminded me of my grandfather's truck, on my dad's side. It was comfortable, it was nice having a break from my backpack. We drove through Madrid, a place I initially planned to stop, but upon seeing it, I realized it would be somewhere I'd rather go back to later in life, when I have more than just myself to enjoy it with. It was a nice little artsy town, full of color, little shops, and touristy things to do.. I don't regret passing through, loneliness is probably one of the hardest parts of this trip. We drove to a spot where the 284 meets with the 599, outside Santa Fe, where we parted ways and I started walking in to Santa Fe. Ended up catching a bus, the bus driver was named Chris and he was extremely helpful and friendly, told me about his own travels when he was younger, and travels he hopes to some day go on, to Ireland! He said Alaska was by far one of the best experiences he's had, so I'm thinking at some point, I'll have to get there.
I ended up staying the night at a Motel 6, unpacked my bag and started trying to shave weight down anywhere I could, and eventually I lost interest in the task and went for a walk to find somewhere for dinner. Little did I know, pretty much EVERYTHING in Santa Fe closes at like 10pm... so as I walked, about 3.5 miles from my motel, I ended up running to a Security Guard, and asked what the deal was and if anything was open. After informing me that everything is pretty much closed except Denny's, he offered to give me a ride there. With it being roughly 25 degrees, I graciously accepted. His name was Angel and I'm guessing he was around my age, maybe a little older, told me about Santa Fe, how crazy and cold the weather had been lately, and some things to keep in mind when walking around, at this point I had my camera around my neck, just out in the open, something I would later not do if I were just wandering that late at night. I thanked him and gave him a card to follow my adventure, and he's been checking in, making sure I'm doing alright. I have got to say, Santa Fe has some really nice people, I never expected such caring and concerned people. I'll be keeping in touch with Angel, he was a good guy, he told me about when the weather was bad, he ended up helping out some high school kids, their truck died in the middle of the road, cops just drove right passed them, didn't even care to help them, but he did. It's cool, we need more people like that in the world. Throughout the night I talked to my friends back in Utah, catching up on things, Anna, and Molly. Feels like it's been a while since I seen them, for Anna it has been a while, for Molly, it's only been a few days at this point. After food at Denny's, I walked back to my room and finished getting my stuff organized and ready for the morning.
The morning of the 30th, I hit up a UPS Store and sent roughly 5lbs of stuff back, clothes and art stuff mostly, to Utah, for safe keeping till I return for a brief time at the end of February. Afterward, I finished packing up my backpack and headed to the Santa Fe Depot, where I would later catch a shuttle to Lamy, the furthest public transport would take me in terms of South and East. The shuttle ride was honestly a fun time, the drivers were great to talk to, Don and... ah, the other guy's name escapes me. Anyway, Don was previously a cab driver for a while, so he knew all sorts of facts about Santa Fe, and commented, ask me anything and I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't know it, I'll make something up haha, or something along those lines, it was pretty funny. The other guy use to drive a bus, I want to say, and it was his first week on the Lamy Shuttle route. They were great to talk to and gave some great advice about how to proceed past Lamy; hitchhike. we stopped for a bit in Lamy and they let me wander around to take pictures, got a few good ones I'll be posting before long. My original plan was to try to get to Roswell that day, so they dropped me off just outside Lamy on the road, where Route 33 and 285 meet, by a historic marker sign.
I walked a few hours, I can't tell you how long or how far, but I was eventually picked up by a mother and her two kids, Wera, Brandon, and Destiny. They are headed home to Kansas, and were willing to let me hitch a ride. We stopped in Roswell to have a bite to eat and let the kids burn off some energy, then it was back to the road, stopping for the night in Seminole where I grabbed a room at the Seminole Inn while they left to stay with a friend. After getting situated in my room, I went for a walk to see what I could find.. what I found was that everything closed at 10pm... It was weird... I eventually found a bar that was open, so I popped in there, part of a hotel where I met a rather attractive, but married, bartender named Meagan. She had purple hair and we talked about what kind of weather I should expect, about where I'm from, where I'm going, just very general things. I would have liked to talk with her more, but you know, that's life. Maybe she'll checkout the site and leave a comment. After returning to the room, I just reflected on things for a bit, really took stock of the fact I'm in Texas, when just a week ago, I was waiting to board a plane, sitting in Utah.. Crazy how quickly things change.
Thursday rolled around and I mostly relaxed, nothing super special about that day.. Wera called and asked if she could use the shower, the friend she was staying at was having issues with their water heater, so she swung by, I went back to sleep haha. I did end up getting my day going though, and my pack situated again. Later that night I would end up leaving for Sweetwater, TX, the furthest point Wera could take me, where I am currently updating this. I am very thankful for Wera helping me get this far, it would have been tough to walk this far, seeing that endlessly flat horizon as the miles collected... I will say that it was something else to see the horizon so flat and never ending, I hadn't realized how much I'd gotten use to seeing mountains around me with a lake on the other side. Wera kept laughing about my expression when I'd lean forward, peering out the windows, just in awe of how endless the horizon looked, in all directions, just flat, the sky so clear of any clouds I had trouble telling if it was foggy in the distance or just an illusion. On that, I believe I'll end my post, sorry for taking so long to post, but the past few days have been quite the blur, with how quickly I've gone from Cedar Crest, NM to Sweetwater, TX.
PS, I have a few blisters, a few bruises, but the thing that really makes this feel real is just walking, with my cell reception, with nothing around except endless road and horizon.. When I realize just how alone I am.
“She thinks I’m much too thin
She asks me if I’m sick
What’s a girl to do with friends like this
She let’s me drive her car
So I can score an eighth
From the lesbians
Out west in Venice”