It's not a slow car, it's a fast house

September 2021

Answer – Housesitting and build another rig, of course!

It’s 2021 and there we are, back in the USA with nowhere to go and nothing to do.  We took a housesitting gig in Prescott, Arizona and enjoyed it. https://slowcarfasthouse.com/2022/12/10/arizona-time-usa-rig-1-0-and-2-0/   So we applied and were accepted for another!  This time we were off to a small town outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, called Bosque Farms.   We arrived with HIHoSilver (Lance camper and silver Dodge truck) and our two dogs.

The motorhome and horse trailer are not ours! They belong to the house.

Yes, ABQ is the setting for Breaking Bad, and you can take a motorhome-based tour of the filming locations. While we didn’t do that, we did lots of other fun stuff in the city and in Bosque Farms.  Our fun included hours and hours of playing with Brandie and Panda, our two furry charges. These two sweet dogs came with a huge yard, large house and all the tasks related to such a place.   House sitting is like short term home ownership, but without all the bills and fewer hassles !

 

Mowing the yard, opening a jammed drain, shopping for groceries, playing with dogs.  This list became our routine for almost two months.

 

We also squashed a few bugs and Pacha stayed busy chasing lizards.

 

The neighbors had a bumper crop of apples, so we gathered wagonloads of them and whipped up some yummy stuff.  We made freezer apple butter, spiced apples and apple cake. All of it was delicious, and perfect to share with the neighbors and save some for ourselves

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The big city was about 25 minutes away, so we planned our visits to include fun stuff to explore.  We found two, cool UFO type houses using the app called “Atlas Obscura”

Check it out, it’s great for finding unique things to see and do.  We also visited a terrific science museum.   Check out this display on the storage of radioactive materials. These are representative of just some of the junk that is dropped in the ocean or buried in the deserts. So sad and scary!

 

Another of our trips to ABQ centered around some live music at an amphitheater outside the zoo, a trip to Costco (green chili bagels, mmm), geocaching at the art park near the big art museum and playing bingo at the nearby Isleta Casino on the reservation.

Back at the house we studied the local farmers market schedules. We learned that New Mexico has a fantastic program for supporting local growers in selling at farmers market type settings. This could be a model for other states to consider!   Buying fresh fruits and veggies gave us ingredients for delicious meals and homemade salsa.

And of course, we played with the dogs some more.   Sometimes we took the dogs to the farmers market with us!  We found this area to be very dog friendly.  We even spotted a dog (not ours) shopping off leash in the grocery store!

Our favorite activity turned out to be the all-American favorite …… baseball!  We discovered cheap, fun baseball games at the local farm team field.  We became Albuquerque Isotopes fans!  The winter weather was perfect and the crowds were fun to participate with!

And did we mentioned that we played with dogs in the big, beautiful back yard?  We also played with them in the house.  We played with them along the banks of the canal behind the house. We played with them in the sprinkler.  We played with them in the side yard.  We played a lot with dogs!

 

But, there was one other thing we did with our time in the ABQ area.  The moment you have been waiting for………

We built another rig!

Yup, now we have constructed slowcarfasthouse V3.0.  I will place a few teaser photos here, and then a follow up story with more details.  ( Be sure to sign up to follow the blog, so it is sent to your email inbox.)

First we went to Albuquerque and bought a flat bed, 3500, dual rear axle, Chevrolet work truck.  This ol’ girl was basic……. plastic floor mats, vinyl seats, roll-up windows and steel flatbed with a headache rack and a gooseneck hitch.  But she was a gasser (our preference) and had low miles and a tough suspension.

 

Then Mike drove to Colorado and purchased an AlpenLite camper to place on the truck.  And now, slowcarfasthouse version 3.0 has begun!

 

A couple of other things we did while in this region of New Mexico were a community sidewalk sale, fitness classes at the senior center and exploration of nearby geocaches.  At the community sidewalk sale we purchased an adorable piece of art.  We had the opportunity to meet the artist and learn that all the proceeds were going to the local animal shelter.  And while geocaching we found a bizarre, huge radio telescope dish that is part of the VLBA (Very Long Broad Array) across the globe.  This one is located near Pie Town, New Mexico! Of course we had to take a funny photo with this dish as if it is attached to HiHoSilver and Lance.

Our housesitting commitment wrapped up and we had a new truck camper rig to take exploring.  But first let us introduce you to slowcarfasthouse Version 3.0 in the next story.