From Sea Level to Six Thousand Feet: A Month Already!

(Just a youngster among these ancients!)

Can it be true? Tomorrow, June 14, will be a month since the moving van arrived with our things! In some ways, it seems longer than that, probably because we've been so busy--and not just with settling in, but with everyday things like grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning house, etc. as well as with spending time with Frankie and Esperanza, and getting to know our new hiking options in the mountains. In other ways, it's hard to believe that we've already been living in New Mexico 2 full months. I still find myself starting to write "Marquette, MI" when putting our return address on an envelope, or I reach for something in the bathroom where it would have been in Marquette.
     We're not quite official residents of New Mexico yet, however. We still need to get our drivers' licenses and vehicle registration changed. That will probably make it official. But we're getting awfully close--we not only have a NM address and phone number, we have finally also gotten our medical insurance switched. Last Friday, Caryl received word of her acceptance with BCBSNM and today, we drove to Espanola to get Bob enrolled in the VA system in New Mexico. (Espanola is about an hour and a beautiful drive away--much of the road travels along the route of, and sometimes parallels, the Rio Grande River.) We stopped along the way a couple of times just for the view and were treated to the sight of some rafters in a rather calm section of their ride--which would have changed soon after we spotted them.
     Santa Fe is only another 45 minutes south of Espanola, so we decided to continue on our way and do a bit of shopping there. Esperanza has been in Santa Fe a few times but this was our first time. In fact, once we left Taos county, the entire trip was all new scenery for us; we enjoyed seeing more of our new state--including "camel rock," just north of Santa Fe. On the way home, I recalled a remark Bob's sister Bette made recently--that whenever she has moved, it never quite felt like "home" until she went away and came back. I'm not sure that's quite how I felt today--I still mostly feel like a stranger here--but it did feel good when we finally rounded a bend and recognized "Taos Mountain" ahead of us.