Why am I starting this blog? Why did I go with the name New Mexican Mom? Who the heck am I?
Let’s explore these and many more questions here on this page.
I’m a mother of three teenagers living in Albuquerque, New Mexico who loves to travel and is a (very) amateur photographer. I’ve been with my husband for 20 years which has been a fun and eventful ride. Most of my travels include my wonderful family.
I’ve started this blog because I was looking for more in my life and needed an outlet besides Facebook. While I enjoy staying up to date with my friends and showing off my pictures to them, I’ve felt restricted by my small following. I don’t know if anyone will even read these posts, or look at the photographs that I take, but I hope that I can bring enjoyment to at least one or two other souls out there that come across this page.
In the process I will share in the random and eclectic fashion that I live. I will vent occasionally about my life, past and present. But mostly I will share my travels to places near and hopefully far (eventually).
I’m not a luxury traveler by any means. We have always struggled and with three kids it’s not cheap to feed them, so budgeting for that alone is difficult. Our most recent trip was absolutely AMAZING! We did a 10 day camping trip from Albuquerque to San Diego then up the coast to L.A. and San Francisco finished with a trip back through the Grand Canyon (COLD!) This was done in a used pop up camper. I’ll go into more detail in a later post with more pictures there.
My husband is an avid gym goer, I try to be one occasionally. But what this means is that he eats, a LOT. Add this to the three teens and a low budget and you’ve got yourself a high food bill. Pinterest has been my friend so I’ll add some of my favorite recipes here with links to pinterest.
As mentioned, three teens. Me eldest I had at 17 is a boy and is currently attending the local community college. The middle is 14 and is a trans boy. I hope to address some issues other parents of transgender kids might be going through in later posts. My youngest is a 13 year old girl with a rockin smart ass attitude.
I hope you find something you like here. Please subscribe!
2018 was the worst year of my life up to this point. I dealt with hell at work along with the death three animals and one of my best friends. I want to start with saying that I have lived with depression my whole life and have worked very hard to learn the skills to deal with it instead of simply struggling through it. When you understand this difference in thinking about what life throws at you, you can understand just what that first sentence means.
While dealing with a highly stressful job, working for a boss who cared little to none about people in general, I was coming home to a house of mostly geriatric pets. We had Mufasa, the cat that I had gotten Jake before our first child was born who was now 17 years old. Our frail little black kitty. Then there was Loki, my first dog and the American Staffordshire that taught my friends and family that pit type dog breeds were wonderful dogs, who was reaching 13 but had never been expected to pass eight due to health issues. Last of the old group was Bartleby, who was 11 and a big shepherd mix that loved to love everyone.
Mufasa had been getting skinny and ratty looking, as cats do in old age. He no longer liked to play and was having a hard time making it to the litter box.
Loki was developing tumors suddenly on his head which grew rapidly. He lost his vitality.
Bartleby was doing better than the other guys but was starting to limp around some, the weight of his large body obviously beginning to wear on his legs.
From the end of December, when we almost cancelled our 2017 Holiday vacation because we were worried one of them wouldn’t make it until we got back until February, Loki’s tumor’s grew at about the same rate, albeit rapid. We knew it wasn’t going to be long for him but we always maintained that as long as he was happy and wagging his tail we would keep him as comfortable as possible.
Then one day in late February I got a text from Jake that it was time. Loki’s tumor on the top of his head had grown exponentially almost overnight and he could no longer close his eyes. I rushed home from work, opened the door and could see it in Loki’s eyes. It was time and he knew it too.
As Jake and I always do, we offered the option to the kids to make their own decision in a major life moment like this. Did they want to go with to the vet or did they want to say their good bye now and stay home? The younger two chose to stay home and Nikko went along with us. I have always maintained that the worst thing you can do to a kid is take away their option to choose how they will react to a situation. Just because you want to hold the dog as he passes does not mean your child does. Likewise, just because your kid is under 18 does not mean that they should be denied the option to hold them simply because it will be difficult. Life is difficult (as we’ll find out later) and you can never prepare them for everything to come, no matter what you do. You can simply give them the tools to work with what they are given.
At the vet’s it felt like I was in a trance. I could see it in Loki’s face that he knew what was happening, that he was afraid but ready to go. We talked about the good times with him. How he was the only dog we had ever seen climb trees and walls and just about anything put in front of him. How he loved to go to the playground with Nikko when he was little and go down the slide like he was a kid instead of a dog. We held him and cried together as the vet injected him and we saw him take his last breath.
Initially we were going to have him cremated and had left his body with the vet to be picked up. I thought we were all going to be ok with this option. But then I get a call from Jake the next day saying that he wanted me to go and pick up Loki so we could bury him in the yard. After me asking if he was serious and him insisting he was, I called the vet. Well of course he had already been picked up by the cremation company and I needed to call them. I call them and find out I can’t go pick him up until the next day, but that they will let me pick him up.
Next day I get the joy of picking up the now two day old body of my late loving dog Loki, who is wrapped in a black trash bag because they hadn’t expected to have to release it back to the owner. (I mean, WHO DOES THAT?!) Then, because we love rose bushes and they line our yard anyway, I go to buy a rosebush to put above the buried dog. Jake then comes home and begins digging the hole for Loki. Throughout this stage I’m pretty sure there was wine and tears flowing the whole time. When the hole was done Loki was lowered in, it was filled back up with dirt and topped with the rosebush to mark his grave. At this point we are now past the crying uncontrollably and can laugh about the good times, the act of burying the dog had been cathartic for Jake and I. Ok, Jake did more of the work. But it was still cathartic.
We went back to our daily lives, one dog less and one big hole in our hearts. Our attention back to Mufasa who hardly got up anymore and didn’t even want to be pet like he used to.
Mufasa was my first real gift to Jake when we moved in together. He was this little black kitten that I went and picked up one day without Jake’s knowledge and then locked in the bathroom while I went out, with a note saying there was a surprise in there for him. Being a guy, Jake had assumed that the surprise in the bathroom would be a clogged toilet. So when he opened the door and was greeted with a tiny black face and a ‘Mew’ his heart melted. The bond between Jake and this cat was like none other. Mufasa was and will always be, Jake’s kitty.
We had started to make a routine of walking to a nearby bar on Sunday’s to get exercise and give us something to do. One day in early April our close friend Chandora was going to come over and go with us. She had just arrived when Jake said he didn’t really think he should leave, he thought Mufasa wasn’t doing good that day. Chandora is very much a ‘cat lady’ and understood so we agreed that we would just get a glass of wine and sit on the back porch for the afternoon with the cat.
Sadly Jake’s bond meant that he was spot on with his decision to stay home and hold Mufasa in his lap that day. As we sat on the porch drinking our wine and talking, Mufasa suddenly started to gasp. Jake held up his head slightly to try and help him out and then realized that it was the moment. Mufasa was passing right there with his favorite person holding him, while sitting in the warmth of the backyard. We all were silent as Mufasa drew his final breath.
Then Jake and I sprung into action. We picked a spot along the yard to bury Mufasa next to the other rosebushes and Jake grabbed a shovel. I took Chandora with me as we went to the store to pick up another rosebush to mark yet another grave. In the 20 to 30 minutes it took us to get the bush Jake was able to nearly complete the hole for the cat. He gently lowered Mufasa into the hole, filled it and topped it with the rosebush. To this day the three of us joke that we know someone who can bury a body in less than an hour.
That May I decided it was time that we get another kitten. We still had two dogs but only one cat, and that is just not like us. I had an old friend who happened to have kittens she was trying to get adopted out, so I reached out and said I would take one. As with the hard life decisions I offered the kids the option to go along to pick out a kitten. Of course all three kids (teens I might remind you) wanted to go along for this decision. When we got there we made the group decision that Nikko would need his own cat and we should get two instead of one. I may or may not have had a hand in influencing this….
We brought home two sweet sisters, Raven and Shiro. Bartleby being the loving dog that he was immediately began to play with them.
The summer and fall were rough at work. I was constantly stressed with the amount of work I had to do in addition to hiring and training pretty much every new employee coming through the door. I tried to stay positive and just keep going as things were seeming to look up.
Then November 29, 2018 came. As is normal, Jake and I were texting some before he came home from work. He told me to look up an accident that had occurred at the intersection of Eubank and Central the evening before, so I did. As I read the information my heart fell to the floor. Even though there were no names mentioned, when it said that there was a father with two children in the car I knew immediately it was our close friend Moe. Of course I didn’t want to believe it. I tried asking Jake who was in the accident, why did he want me to look it up? He wouldn’t respond until he got home. Then it was confirmed. Moe had been killed in the car accident. The kids were at the hospital.
I had known Moe since I was 15 years old. He had worked at the same Disasters/Twisters that I started at for my first job. He also went on to date and then marry my best friend, Candy. After Jake and I got together and had Nikko, Candy, Moe, Jake and I started getting together regularly since they had a daughter about 10 months older than Nikko. Moe and Jake grew to become extremely close friends and after Moe and Candy divorced we remained closer to Moe. Candy and Moe had a total of four children, their first 10 months older than Nikko, their second five months older than Aryn, their third born the same day as Kimira and then their youngest that was born two years later. These children are like nieces and nephews to us and our kids the same to them.
When we heard of the accident I immediately started calling Candy to find out about the kids and what had happened. I will not go into their story here as it is not mine to tell. I will say that the two youngest were in the car and that they survived with minor physical injuries, considering.
We were reeling in sorrow. All of the normal thoughts were going through our minds, like that we had just seen him. Moe had been 39. He was only a few months away from his 40th birthday. He never got to remarry after the divorce. He was such a nice guy. How could this happen? It was some stupid druggy who stole a car that had done it. And Karma was sure a bitch in this case because when the woman fled the scene she was caught at the Twisters just down the street. We still laugh that Moe put his foot down there because he had worked there for many years. But we were angry too. How could such a nice guy and father of four be taken so young?
Two weeks later we were still reeling. The services had been the Friday before and we barely felt that we were getting back to a normal work routine. Jake had worked with Moe at the post office and was back at work, though it was still hard. I focused on work as best I could, trying to not let the bad get to me and only worry about the good.
On December 13, 2018 I got back to my office right before leaving work to find multiple missed calls and an alert that someone had called 911 from our account. I tried listening to messages while at the same time rushing home. Writing this now I realize I don’t quite remember who I got a hold of first, I think it was Jake, but I’m not sure it’s such a whirlwind of a memory. I just remember being told that there was a shooting in our yard and that Bartleby had been shot.
I didn’t think I could hurt any more than I already had that year. I didn’t know what it was like to fully shut down yet, but this did it.
In the 30 minutes before Jake or I got home a guy had jumped our back wall (we don’t have back neighbors, we share a wall with an arroyo and walking path) and had ended up shooting Bartleby in the head and then fleeing to the neighbors yard.
Nikko, Aryn and Kimira had all been home. Aryn and Kimira were in their room and Nikko in the kitchen doing dishes. The dogs, Bartleby and Snoopy, had obviously heard the intruder come over the wall and went to investigate and found him hiding in the corner of the yard. Bartleby being the guard dog that he was had done his job to protect the house. The guy had shot off 4 rounds, 1 of which went into Bartleby’s eye. Luckily Snoopy was not hit. It was about this time the guy ran, jumped over our divider fence and then over the wall to the neighbors. Nikko saw him as he went over the divider fence and called the police as Bartleby was running into the house, bleeding everywhere and searching for his family.
The blood trail and the story from the kids tell a very sad tale of Bartleby’s last moments. Nikko called the police and told them where they were, Kimira tried getting a hold of both myself and Jake and Aryn held Bartleby as he passed away on the dining room floor.
They were then faced with a rush of being told to leave the house by police and about this time Jake got home and they met him down the street. I followed a few minutes later. We could hear Snoopy crying from the house, not just whining, but screaming like she didn’t want to be alone in there. The street was blocked off as the police had to also deal with the fact that there was now a police shooting that had occurred, the guy had been shot by officers in the neighbors yard and killed.
I saw a pain and anguish in the faces of my children and my husband that is indescribable. At this point not only had they just lived through an extremely traumatic event, but that was in addition to all of the other losses this year. We were all broken and we couldn’t move on right away any more. It was no longer possible to just suck it up and go about our days.
The next day, after all of the police were gone and they had taken Bartleby’s body for evidence, we were finally let back into the house. This is where we were faced with the task of cleaning up the blood ourselves. Aryn chose to help with this task, though we made sure he knew that it was going to be one of the most difficult things he would ever do and that he did not have to, he still wanted to. I don’t think I have ever cried so much in my life as I did that day.
Collectively we needed to grieve as a family. We agreed to take some time off and both Jake and I spoke with our bosses about getting the next couple of weeks off. This time was a fog. I know that in order to take my mind off of the grief I would watch TV, but I don’t think any of us actually paid attention. We agreed that everyone should talk to a counselor at least once as this was more than anyone was expected to deal with.
The Albuquerque Police Department was extremely kind to us during this time. They came and checked on the kids multiple times throughout the next month or so and gifted us with a certificate for a new dog from the city pound. I never thought I would be so happy to have officers randomly knock on my door.
We ended our two weeks of grieving with our holiday vacation. It had already been paid for and we all agreed that we needed this time together as a family more than ever. Those days of laughter reconnected us more than anything else possibly could have and reminded us once again that it is the people and time together with those you love that matter the most.
The day after we got back we picked up Ace, our blue nose pitbull, who helped us in healing even more. A month after that we found Harlequin, or Harley, at the pound and Ace fell in love with her even more than we did, so she became the last addition to our family.
After all of that pain and death I hated going back to a job that caused so much stress. It was the events of 2018 that made me realize that absolutely nothing is as important as quality time with those that you love. I started to work towards quitting my job so that I could spend time with my family at this point and I am pleased to say that as of November 1, 2019 I now work for myself. I don’t make as much money, but I’m a whole lot happier and I get to spend far more time with all of my family, friends and animals.
What does that mean? Green chile capital of the world. Had anyone else even claimed it? Does anyone not from New Mexico know what green chile is? If you don’t, you should!
I actually didn’t like chile growing up here. My mom never seemed to like much spice in her food and my dad rarely encouraged me to try the spicy dishes. While I’ve lived my whole life in New Mexico, my parents are from the mid-west. It wasn’t until I was a teen that I started to realize how wonderful our local food was.
My first job was at a local restaurant called Disaster’s, since renamed to Twister’s. I still remember my friend and coworker telling me that I really needed to try their breakfast burritos because they were THE BEST. At the time I had no idea if I would like red or green chile and so I was told to go with the red since it wouldn’t be as hot there. One bite and I was hooked! To this day Twister’s breakfast burritos are still my absolute favorite, day or night. (Best hangover cure of all time.)
While working there I tried all of the various breakfast burritos and the namesake Disaster burrito with both red and green chile. This is when I came to realize that the flavor of the green chile was more up my alley.
Smothered burrito
A few short years later I became pregnant with my first child and that’s when the chile addiction really took off. Many women say that they get cravings while pregnant and I was no different. Except mine wasn’t a specific food, it was anything spicy. The spicier the better. We lived across the street from a New Mexican restaurant and would go there on a weekly basis for a giant burrito smothered in green chile.
Now if you’ve gotten this far and are wondering, what is red chile vs green chile? Why are you smothering a burrito and how do you do that? Is there a pillow involved? LOL, I’ll help you out. Chile, not chili, is a green pepper grown in New Mexico that has been grown here since the first Pueblo and Hispano communities. It is a staple in nearly every New Mexican household and restaurant.
When the chile is ripe it is a beautiful green color and can turn to red at a certain stage of ripeness. The red chiles are also hung on ristras to dry. You can find many art pieces depicting ristras here in Albuquerque and around New Mexico. To smother something is to pour chile over the top. This is typically diced chile that is usually in a sauce of its own juices, though I’ve seen many just smother with diced chiles alone. If there is a pillow involved it’s a sopapilla.
As I was typing this I realized, this is probably the most boring and basic way to describe chile. What chile really is is the food of New Mexico. We put it on everything. Eggs go hand in hand with chile. If you haven’t had a New Mexican breakfast burrito you are missing out. Steak, pork, chicken, really any and all meat can be cooked with chile. Hamburgers, yes please. You can even go to a McDonald’s in New Mexico and get green chile. Thanksgiving many people put red chile on their mashed potatoes. Green chile goes wonderfully in lasagna. Posole is a must-have during winter. I could go on and on.
Chile is not only amazingly delicious, but it’s also extremely good for you. Chile has far more vitamin C than a glass of orange juice. The average glass of orange juice has 43 mg of vitamin C compared to 181.9 mg in 1/2 cup of green chile. As stated above, it’s not hard to get a large helping of chile in daily since we enjoy putting it on everything. One burrito could have 1/2 in it alone.
If you have a cold you’ll be told to go and get yourself the hottest green chile you can find. Not only will the vitamin C help you, but the heat will clear up any sinus problems you might have. The vitamin C also helps with recovery.
Many of you are probably thinking that you’ve never seen green chile anywhere at the grocery store, and you would be correct. It is extremely difficult to find anywhere outside of New Mexico. Even for those of us here in the state, we still don’t always like to buy it from the store throughout the year. We love chile season!
Fall brings three distinctive things to Albuquerque in particular. We get the State Fair, Balloon Fiesta and chile roasting season. During chile roasting season you can drive by just about any grocery store, chile supplier or farmers market and catch the sweet scent of chile roasting in the air. If you’re in the market for your annual stock, stop by and pick up a bag. If you are from out of state you can go to the chile suppliers and many of them will ship it to you, frozen and all.
When I decided I wanted to write a post about this food staple I asked my Facebook friends for some help with pictures of their frozen green chile. The responses were overwhelming! Not only did my fellow local New Mexican’s share pictures, so did some of my friends that have moved away. I loved hearing the stories from them about how they get it back home since it’s not usually available locally. One friend would pack a suitcase full when she lived in Portland and had to bring a second suitcase to bring back more for their boss one trip. If you know the smell you could only imagine how wonderful that cargo hold must have smelled!
When you buy a bag of chile fresh it is in the pre-roasted state and you then take it to the person who is doing the roasting, unless you do it yourself. This is half the fun since you get to stand there and take in that sweet smell up close for the entire time they are roasting your bag. Once they are done they put it in a bag for you and you’re on your way. If you really want to keep that smell going leave your windows up in the car and drive around for half an hour, it will take a week for it to get out after that.
Once you get it home it’s up to you as to what you do next. Some people insist that you need to peel the skins off of the chiles before you bag them up, others say to leave them on. Personally, I do a little bit of both simply because I get tired of pulling the skin off after a while. As you can see from the previous pictures, a ‘bag’ of chile can yield quite a bit of frozen chile depending on the size bag you purchased, 10, 20, etc. These pictures were taken in January and I couldn’t tell you how big of bags each house started with or how much they have used since. This is also only half of most of the pictures from each individual. When you need some chile just pull some out of the freezer and thaw.
The unfortunate thing about New Mexican cuisine is that if you don’t live here and get recipes from locals, it is next to impossible to find authentic ones online. There are a few good sites that I have found, but when I say few I mean like three. I will start to try and post some recipes in the future for anyone interested, but in full disclosure, I have learned all of mine from friends. I don’t have any family recipes to pull from that include green chile but I’ve got some awesome chefs for friends that have taught me some tricks along the way.
Frozen green chile
If you do come to Albuquerque, New Mexico and try our food in a restaurant, please keep in mind that it is New Mexican food and not Mexican. The food has a slightly different style than what you get at Mexican restaurants throughout the rest of the country. We love it and we hope you will too!
Some of the local, and my personal, favorites include Twisters, Sadie’s, Garcia’s, El Pinto, Los Cuates (though I don’t like their salsa) and Garduno’s. Of course, there are many, many more that I couldn’t name here and if I left any of your favorites out please comment.
Update: Right after finishing righting this post, without even thinking about it I went to make myself some lunch and grabbed a green chile cheese bagel. As I was putting it in the toaster I realized how ironic it was.
Over the last few years we have been going on a trip for Christmas in place of any presents. Because of my (now former) work schedule we were often limited on where we were able to go due to needing to keep the trips shorter than 4 days. After an awful 2018 I made the decision to finally start planning on leaving my job to pursue happiness, even if it meant not knowing what was to come and not always having a net to fall on.
When it came time to start planning our 2019 Christmas trip, which I do tend to not plan until August or September, I realized that if I was going to be leaving my job before the trip we could make it a longer one. But here in lied a few challenges. The biggest of which was money.
We had already mostly stopped staying in hotels, three full grown teens plus the two adults just don’t fit in one room. Paying for two rooms just wasn’t feasible. So we had already found that AirBnB and VRBO were much better values for our family. But when we were trying to figure out where to go we couldn’t quite decide on a place. We’ve always enjoyed camping so I started looking into RV rentals in place of hotels.
As it turned out, the RV rental was going to allow us to go multiple places while also covering the sleeping arrangements for everyone. The only problem? They are not cheap, especially when you factor in the mileage for a long trip. We had already been thinking about buying a pop up camper for the past few years so I decided to reach out to a friend and former employee of mine who works for a RV dealership.
She said that they had one that had just been traded in that met all of our basic requirements and was right in our price range of about $3000-$4000. While we don’t normally have that kind of money just laying around, I was willing to take money out of my 401k since I was quitting my job (financial advisors pick yourselves up off the floor). My theory being that, I had recently lost a friend to a car accident before he even reached his 40th birthday, how does money sitting in a 401k help you build memories when you could use it to spend time with family?
After much discussion Jake and I went to the RV dealership to check out the pop up. It was just what we were looking for to start out. We wanted a pop up because neither of us had towed anything before and we were worried about something with a higher profile, we needed to see behind us on the road and when backing up. We also figured that we wouldn’t be going many places besides tree’d campsites, so a pop up would suffice. We had always camped in tents as far away from people as possible, so holes in the ground for bathrooms weren’t a problem. No toilet in the pop up was no problem for us. The dealership even agreed to take our old car for the kids that hadn’t been in use as a trade in. We put our deposit down, signed the papers and set up a date to come back and pick it up.
When the day came to pick up the pop up unfortunately Jake had to work later than expected, so I had to ask my dad to help out since we had to drive the trade in there. We took my 14 year old along with to learn the details of the walk thru with me since Jake wouldn’t be there. This would also be his first time getting to see the pop up for Aryn. We got inside and said hello to Denise, my old friend and current saleswoman. She introduced us to the woman who would help with the paperwork which took no time at all since we weren’t financing this camper. We were now the proud owners of a 2009 Coleman Yuma!
Once the paperwork was done we got the walk thru instructions from the dealership manager. I’m not sure if this is standard practice for all dealers, or just the one we went to, since this was our first experience buying a camper. But either way it was extremely useful! I only wish I had thought to film the whole thing so that I would have remembered everything that they covered, because the kid didn’t remember as much as he said he would and neither did I.
My dad, whose parents had a RV for many years after he was grown, had never desired to have a trailer or RV of his own. When I was very young we did a lot of camping, primarily with Boy Scouts, but my mom never went with us. I guess it just was never much of a consideration for them. So when I told them that we were buying the pop up and he went along to see the walk thru, he was surprised by the room inside.
The pop up is not exceptionally large nor small, it is simply average for a pop up. There is a queen bed slide out on one side and a twin on the other. The dining area is designed to seat four people, which is not quite enough for us but there’s another spot someone else can sit to be ‘at’ the table. The table then converts to a bed. There is a small sink and fridge as well as a two burner stove for the kitchen area. The storage looked adequate for our family, under the sink, under the seats of the dining area and a couple spots along the opposite wall. There is also a small heater and thermostat. On the outside there is a small shower head for washing and a spot to hook up an additional two burner grill which came with the camper.
After the walk thru and demonstration of how to light pilot lights and open and close the pop up it was time to hook it up to the truck and take it home. At this point I was extremely grateful that I had brought my dad along so he could talk me through towing for the first time. The drive home itself wasn’t bad, our F-150 has a V8 and the pop up is light so it barely felt like anything was there. It was backing it into the driveway that was nerve racking! Let’s just say that when your first attempt includes the possibility of damaging your house or just purchased pop up it makes you even more nervous about mistakes. After a few attempts I was successful in getting it parked correctly. The pop up was home.
We now had about six weeks to get used to how to put up and down the camper, turn on the pilot’s and generally use the camper. We opened it up in the driveway so we could practice and Aryn took on responsibility of a set of keys.
As the weeks led up to the first trip we had the kids sleep in the camper a couple of times to try out the heater, which was good since we found that the sensor was sensitive. By using it early we also discovered a leak in the propane connection that had to be fixed.
The week before our trip we closed up the camper and hooked it up the truck for some practice driving. Up to this point Jake had not yet driven with it, much less tried to park it. We took it over to a local parking lot and practiced backing up into spaces for about an hour, switching off between Jake and I until we felt confident in our ability to do it at a camp site.
Finally the time came to get the pop up packed for the trip. Aryn helped keep things organized as we filled every storage area and quickly came to realize that the storage was not as much as we thought it was. We were planning a 10 day trip to California which included visiting everything from beaches to snow so we had to account for all kinds of weather.
Being a pop up the kitchen sink and stove fold over in order for it to be closed, which means that the storage immediately in front of and under the sink is extremely limited. We also are limited to about two feet in height for any items that could fit on the floor. About half of the luggage was able to go in the camper and the rest along with the coolers went in the back of the truck.
When the day of our vacation finally arrived we were ecstatic to finally get to really put the pop up into action. We did the final checks to confirm everything was packed and closed up the camper then hooked it up to the truck. We didn’t arrive at our campsite until after dark that night, which made us even more grateful to have a pop up instead of tent camping. Now to try our hand at parking and setting up in the dark!
Let me tell you, it was extremely nerve-racking to try and back up into a space, in the dark, when you don’t know where things are. After I initially started to back in in complete darkness, I sent the kids and Jake out with flashlights to light up the edges of the campsite. I then had to verbally talk myself through backing in the trailer. Let’s just say that it was pretty comical! Once the camper was finally in place we could disconnect from the truck, open the top and extend the beds. Followed by turning on the propane and lighting the pilot for the heater. This first night it took us about 45 minutes to complete the entire process from start to finish. By the end of the trip we had it down to about 20 minutes.
Once we finally had everything in place we sat down with the kids in the pop-up and took a huge sigh. We had made it to our first night of camping out in our new camper. It wasn’t anything new or fancy, but it was ours and it had allowed us to travel all day and stop at a campsite after dark without worries. The heater was working great and we started cooking on the stovetop. Unfortunately, we discovered that without being hooked we couldn’t use the electrical outlets, so no charging phones overnight (sorry kids). After dinner and some joking around with the kids we all turned off the lights and went off to bed in our sleeping bags.
The next morning we woke up early and got started on coffee and breakfast so we could get on the road again. We had found that although the beds had a couple of inches of padding, they weren’t exactly comfortable to all of us, me in particular. Throughout the remainder of the trip, I would end up using blankets to try and add additional padding to the bed. After breakfast it was time to do everything in reverse to close up the camper.
By the time we ended our first camping trip with the pop-up, we had made a few decisions about traveling with a camper or pop-up.
First, we absolutely loved the option to pick up and leave with everything on hand with us and go anywhere. Jake and I had discussed RVing in retirement after the kids were all moved out and gone and now we knew that we weren’t going to wait for that to happen it was going to start right away while they could enjoy it too.
Second, towing and backing up, while scary at first, are not as bad as they seem. We had limited our options for the first camper to a pop-up out of fear of a high profile camper and now we knew that was just silly.
Third, we knew we needed to upgrade for a couple of very big reasons. The first being the bathroom. While we thought that it wasn’t a big deal, it does affect where you can stay for some campsites and RV parks such as along the coast. We had found that five people in the pop-up was just a little too tight unless a couple of people were sitting down. The soft walls didn’t retain the heat as well as we would have liked when we pushed the temps at the last stop, where they fell to around 17 degrees overnight. We will be upgrading as soon as financially possible.
In the meantime, we are going to get as much use out of this pop-up camper as we possibly can! On the next trip we intend to do some regular camping, in the forest, with no hookups and away from everyone. We have some wonderful places within just a couple hours of Albuquerque and I’m just waiting for Jake to say he’s ready to go.
For anyone considering an RV or pop-up here are the things I’d recommend considering before purchasing.
Where will you be using it? Do you intend to go to the RV parks or just out in the wilderness? Some RV parks require bathrooms on the camper and others have age limits.
Do you want to have another vehicle with you? We loved being able to disconnect the truck and drive around without the pop-up attached and would never consider anything other than a tow-able trailer. We also don’t want to have to pay the gas on a motor home.
How much space do you need? How many people will be sleeping in the camper regularly and how big are they? I have tall teens that are bigger than some adults, small beds do not work for our family.
Do you want to be able to just park and relax or are you willing to put in some work when you arrive. As I said earlier it took us anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes to go from parking the camper to being able to relax inside, and that was with all five of us helping.
What features matter most to you? Do you care more about a comfortable bed, a low price tag, a bigger kitchen? Look around at all of your options and don’t be afraid to check out multiple dealerships, they don’t all sell the same brands.
A used pop-up is a great first time camper for anyone thinking they want to give it a try. The biggest advantage is that they are much more affordable than more traditional travel trailers or RV’s. If you give it a try and find that you really don’t like it, you can always sell it. Or you might find yourself like us and wanting to upgrade after just one trip.
I should have been born a nomad. I have always loved to be on the move. When someone asks the question, where would you want to go in the world? I can’t answer with just one location.
I blame my mom for this addiction, she got me hooked before I was even born. She loves to tell me how I have been to Australia, I was just in her belly still. So of course I don’t remember any of it. I do however remember growing up with stuffed koala’s and kangaroos, and stories and songs from Australia.
Throughout my entire childhood my mom traveled either by herself or took my brothers and I along with her. Every once in a while my dad got to go along too, though typically only if it was for a work trip. One of the longest work trips I can recall my parents doing was to England when I was in preschool. They came back with the soundtrack to Cats after seeing it in London, which I must have listened to 1000 times over the course of the next 15 years.
During the summers she would pack us up in our big 80’s Ford passenger van with a mattress in the back and take us across the country. We would stop at random roadside attractions, tee-pees, biggest ball of yarn, odd museums, historical sites, you name it. She has a large number of cousins and friends all over the country who we would stop and visit or stay with and typically one of us got to pick a route we wanted to try that was different. Her dad lived in the upper peninsula of Michigan so we worked our way from New Mexico to there and back. This was all before the age of handheld video games. We had Archie comics and those wonderful little magnetic beard guys to keep us occupied.
When I was in about 4th grade my father lost his long time job that had allowed us this luxury of being gone almost all summer and my my had to go to work instead of staying home with my brothers and I. After a few jobs she landed at a travel booking company that gave her some nice perks like discounted flights and hotels. Out of this one brother and myself got one on one trips to anywhere in the world of our choosing, so in 7th grade I got the trip of my dreams (up to that point) to Paris, France.
As many teens do, I rebelled, though probably far more than I needed to. I ended up on my own and pregnant at 17 with a new boyfriend who I had barely been dating. We made it work and have now been together for just over 20 years, married 17 of those years. We eventually had two more children. But it’s been a huge struggle mentally and financially. Especially for someone who is addicted to travelling. Though we did do our honeymoon up with some vacation rental trips that got us to Florida and on a cruise for cheap.
I always knew I had a calling to get away and go somewhere but could never find the money or time to do so. Sadly for many years the only time I got out of the state was when a relative passed away and of course that is not any way to enjoy travelling. There was one trip to visit Jake’s family in Ohio when we only had one kid, which was a nightmare due to car problems.
After my youngest was born I started to want to really push to go places. We were blessed with my husband landing his job with the post office shortly after she was born which allowed me to stay home with the kids. One of my brothers had just moved to Portland, so when she was about 9 months old I decided we were going to pack up the kids in the van and going on a road trip. This was the trip that I learned that my oldest gets car sick.
After the Portland trip there were sparse trips due to money and time. I was finally able to convince a friend and her husband to go camping with us which began our new travel method. Camping can be one of the easiest ways to get away from everything without spending an arm and a leg.
When our friends got divorced we met another couple who enjoyed short camping trips, stay-cations or even going off to Vegas which is only about an 8 hour drive away. Jake and I were also getting to a point that we could leave the kids and go away for 2 or 3 days just the 2 of us or with our friends.
I’m going to stop here for a moment and say, I’m a pretty stubborn person. When I decide something I will stick to my guns no matter what. This is not to say that I am close minded as that is totally separate. What I’m talking about is more morally or consumerist. Examples, I have refused to shop at Walmart for about 8+ years now. It is due to their poor treatment of employees combined with the complete clusterf**k that occurs every time I would go in or try to check out. I decided my sanity was worth more than the few cents I saved going there. Second example is holiday consumer greed. I absolutely hate the way that everyone acts starting in November getting ready for, primarily, Christmas. It’s all about sales and what does everyone want. The problem is no one actually needs any of that and everyone ends up broke by the end of the year except the corporations that encouraged it. So we did away with traditional Christmas in our family.
Around the same time that my mom had to go back to work my parents also decided that we were going to start going skiing for Christmas and reduced the presents to one or two. Those trips were some of my favorite memories from my childhood.
About 4 years ago I approached my own family with the same idea about replacing traditional Christmas with a trip. At the time it was that we would have a 4 day weekend due to work schedules and the holiday and I pointed out how much I loved those trips growing up. We don’t have much money so we couldn’t swing skiing, none of my kids nor husband know how and we would have to pay for lessons on top of gear and tickets. The kids were hesitant about the idea but agreed to give it a try.
Our first year we went to Pagosa Springs and stayed at the hot springs resort. It was an amazing trip filled with some trials. For instance, when you travel for Christmas, you need to account for eating on Christmas day. We learned that some smaller towns do not have many places open that day. At the end of our first trip, on our drive back home, we asked the kids what they thought of replacing presents with a trip. They unanimously agreed that the trip was far better than any present they could possibly open. Thus began our annual tradition.
Around that same year we also started meeting Jake’s family, who lives in Ohio, for a summer vacation so that we could see each other. This has not quite become annual yet, more bi-annual. The first 2 trips were also up to Colorado to a wonderful little town called Grand Lake.
We have progressed from staying in traditional hotels or resorts (SUPER EXPENSIVE) to vacation rentals to our most recent adventure, a pop up camper. For the large family vacations with extended family we still prefer the vacation rentals and our long term goal is to own a few of our own. But for Jake and I or with the kids, we are going to start camper travelling.
My goal on this blog is to share some of the fun as well as the trials of camper travel and vacation rentals with you all. Currently we are in the process of planning a trip with the Ohio family this summer, most likely to Arkansas. We have a 2009 Coleman pop-up camper currently which I’ll share more about in another post, but are going to be looking at upgrading as soon as we are financially able to.
I am looking for sponsors so if you happen to own a vacation rental and would like to sponsor me and get some reviews, I’m willing to travel anywhere in the U.S. to check them out. Same goes for campers. We are looking for a travel trailer, so if you are a RV dealer looking to sponsor someone I’d love to talk!
At the end of 2019 I quit my management job in the mortgage servicing industry to begin working for myself and to pursue travel as a career and passion. In 2018 I lost too many loved ones, both human and pets, while also being faced with absolute hell at work and it had made me realize that life was too short to spend doing things you hate.
Let me start with a little introduction of our dogs. We have three wonderful fur babies, Snoopy 8 who is a female Australian Shepherd/Pitbull mix, Harlequin (Harley) 1 who is a female German Shepherd mixed with we don’t know what and Ace 1 who is a male bluenose Pitbull. We got Ace and Harlequin within about a month of each other shortly after one of our older dogs Bartleby was shot by an intruder in our backyard.Harley is spayed but Ace is not neutered yet as we have always wanted to breed him.
Snoopy is our high anxiety sweetheart. She has a very hard time leaving the house and meeting new people or new dogs, but once she gets to know them she is a sweety. Though she’s no beagle, she’s got the color of Snoopy, hence the name. This girl doesn’t really know how to play with other dogs or with toys but shows signs that she would have made a wonderful herder if she had been raised on a farm. Snoopy was also in the yard when Bartleby was shot and we got ‘the puppies’ right away partially so that she would stay social.
Ace is an absolutely gorgeous dog with a wonderful, kind and loving temperament. He’s a large gray bluenose who loves to sleep and gets extremely happy when you get him new dog toys. As Ace has grown he has shown odd behavior when getting….’excited’. He was always ashamed of us seeing it and would face the wall or a piece of furniture until it went away, which of course we found hilarious.
Harley on the other hand is a rambunctious mountain goat of a dog that seems to think that she is somehow also a cat. That last sentence may not make sense, but it would if you met her in her environment. This dog can leap tall couches in a single bound. When I sit down at my computer she seems to think that is lap time. She is NOT lap dog sized, but we can’t seem to convince her of that. She likes to kiss, we do NOT want to kiss. She is currently ‘going to school’ and is doing fairly promising.
We have always preferred to raise our animals in as natural a fashion as possible, which for dogs includes a pack mentality. With larger dogs that also means a lot of rough play and occasional play mating, not unusual. Harley has an alpha personality and used to hump Ace quite often when they were playing, but had stopped that over the last few months.
This is where the real story begins.
Currently Ace has a ‘girlfriend’ staying with us to try and mate with. But either because he is a bit too young still or because of his shyness with his masculinity, he’s not been as into it as we thought he would be. Not to say that he hasn’t at all, when she and Snoopy got into a tiff that seemed to get Ace going.
So Jake and I are sitting on the couch last night watching TV, enjoying a glass of wine like most nights, when we see Harley and the girlfriend go outside for a few minutes then come back in. Then the girlfriend gets Ace to go out and they come back even quicker, which we commented at that point how it was odd that the dogs were going out in pairs like they were gossiping. Then suddenly Harley gets on top of Ace and starts humping him, first time in months, and here comes his girlfriend running and putting her tail aside like that just turned her on!
Then for the next few minutes we proceeded to watch as Harley tried to keep Ace in the room and close to the girlfriend so that he would mate with her. A few times he looked like he was going to, but never did. He tried to escape to the couch but we stopped him and the girls continued to gang up on him.
This was the funniest shit I have ever seen dogs do in my entire life and I wish I had my phone next to me to film it. I keep saying Ace looks like a lion amongst all these lionesses, he’s a big lazy lug while they’re the tough one’s. Now I wonder if lionesses ever gang up on males to get them to mate like that??
Maybe it’s just my newsfeed on Facebook, but I’m feeling like it’s the same old shit.
Why do people feel the need to post about what it was like growing up in the 70’s or 80’s? I was there too. I didn’t die either. I did break some bones and get molested along the way, is that what we wanted?
Anyway………
So I love my pitties along with my mutts and we’re trying to breed Ace. More to come. 🙂
