After a 3-Month Hiatus, Here’s a Glimpse of Life in New Mexico & Spain

Long time no see, eh?

Since full-time RV life ended with we former nomads buying a house in New Mexico at the end of August, I’ve been at the crossroads of an identity crisis. Traveling around the country in a camper defined much of my existence for over three years. With that suddenly gone, I’ve been getting used to new routines and not entirely sure what’s blog-worthy. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve been sitting around twiddling my thumbs and bored out of my wits. A ton of stuff has been going down over the past three months, including…

Filling an entire house with furniture (much assembly required)

Muddling our way through never-ending DIY renovation projects

Getting in my outside time doing yard work (I always thought my mom was crazy for saying she enjoyed pulling weeds, but I totally get it now)

Running (and winning a medal!) a local trail race with Monkey

Getting to know our local area with fun events

Finding out I’m pregnant with a baby boy!

Experiencing our first snow, which turned our property into a winter wonderland over Thanksgiving

Hosting three sets of visitors in our Placitas casita

Attending Albuquerque’s big hot air balloon festival for the second time

Celebrating holidays in our own weird ways

Getting back into crafting with some new artsy projects

All of this (especially this whole crazy-awesome pregnancy thing) has been a big learning experience and a welcome change of pace for me. But there are definitely some things that I am missing and feeling nostalgic for about our old RV life days.

It’s sad but true that our beloved home on wheels hasn’t moved (except for a trip the DMV to get it registered in our new state) since we pulled up to our home on closing day. I really expected that we would take it out for a camping trip or two by now, but it just sits in the driveway unused as we continue to make monthly payments on it. We do want to sell the RV and downgrade to a smaller size trailer in the near future, but that’s just one of many things on a long list of things we can’t seem to get to.

Easy access to ever-changing outdoor recreation was one of my favorite things about full-time camper life, but that has been lacking somewhat since plopping down in one place. The good thing is that we are just a couple minutes from an awesome national forest trail system with lots of rugged trails. We’ve been there lots over the past few months for short hikes and runs. But our weekends lately have been more filled with DIY house projects than epic long-distance hikes and exploring new places. I must say though that I do love getting in my outside time while working around my property on nice days. Meanwhile, our long-time, full-time jobs have been the great constant in all of this transition and keeping us on a pretty similar routine as we were living during camper life.

We have yet to explore too many new areas of New Mexico or the greater southwest region, but we did recently “go big” with a super-memorable travel excursion. Before moving into the house, we toyed around with the idea of taking an international trip in the fall but tabled the idea because it seemed like too much to plan (and possibly afford) with everything else going on.

Three days after our house closing, I found out I was pregnant, and as my checkups revealed that everything was looking good and healthy, the idea resurfaced in the form of a babymoon. After weighing a few options, we decided upon Spain for eight days during my early second trimester.

Baby boy has been very chill so far, so I was excited to take him on his first international trip. Although someday he’ll probably be so pissed to learn that he went to Spain and never got to see a damn thing! Meanwhile, Monkey was having a blast at her favorite local dog sitter’s house while we were gone, playing with an adorable 11-week-old puppy and getting cuddles from a family who adores her.

These were my favorite parts about the overseas adventure!

Madrid, Spain

  • Beautiful Christmas light displays in all the plazas
  • Our accommodating and affordable private room in a quiet, conveniently located hostel
  • Finding random free museums on our own
  • Artwork at the Reina Sofia museum
  • The impressive Royal Palace self-guided audio tour
  • Delicious paella
  • Finding a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in this very meat-heavy and not-pregnancy-friendly food country
  • Buying myself a cool new ring from a street vendor

Granada, Spain

  • Lively plazas with music, outdoor dining, and endless activity
  • Ease of public transportation to get around
  • Getting outdoors to hike in a huge public park filled with olive trees
  • Tile work and food in the Arab Quarter
  • Wandering around the hilly, stone streets
  • Architecture inside the Granada Cathedral

Bubión/Capileira, Spain 

  • Crazy-scenic bus ride through the mountains to get to the Sierra Nevada region
  • Adorable villages tucked into the mountainside
  • Peaceful vibe away from city life
  • Still able to get by in small mountain towns with our mediocre Spanish language skills
  • The hostel we booked turned out to be an awesome villa with a separate living room and private patio
  • Hiking from one village to the next at sunset
  • Finding a restaurant that served alcohol-free wine, a safe-for-baby treat after being surrounded by Spanish wine every day and not being able to drink it
  • Being able to catch our bus out and flight home despite getting insanely cold/flu sick here

So, while I’m still not entirely sure what to make of this blog in these days after RV life, I finally felt inspired to create an update. BAM – THIS IS IT! In the interim between the Spain trip and Christmas, I’m basically just catching up with work, fighting the tail end of this cold, and soaking up the comforts of my New Mexico home – which I’m still totally into and so happy that we made our own.

Until inspiration strikes again, happy all the holidays and thanks for reading, my dear friends!

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