25,000 Days

Symbol of New Mexico

 Today, I am 25,000 days old, which I calculated a long time ago and remembered because it happened to coincide with the last day of 2025. On average, people live about 30,000 days, so yeah, I am getting up there. However, another 5,000 days would be over 13 years, so I do not need my last rites quite yet, and of course your mileage my vary. 35,000 days is possible (that will put you into your mid-nineties.) Do not hope for 40,000.

Dad lived 25,026 days, so I will catch him by the end of January. Mom lived about six and a half years longer. If you try to use the Internet to calculate your expected lifespan, how long your parents lived is a big factor in how long you are expected to live. I do not believe that my siblings and I are necessarily doomed to short lifespans though, because arguably both of my parents had issues that were preventable, although Mom's situation was more complex than Dad's. Certainly, I am in better shape that Mom was at this age, so there is reason for optimism.

2025 was a terrible year for the United States, the worst of my lifetime I would say, but all of the politics did not have a huge impact on Jackie and me. The year was dominated by The Move, which started maybe in February and continues still, as we purchased a few things for the house this week, and we are still hanging pictures, which are the last thing we have to unpack.

Jackie bought me two New Mexico books for Christmas - one about hikes near Albuquerque, the other a travel book for the whole state. We have a lot of exploring to do. Also, we are also already planning a trip to Oklahoma, which is only one day from here, and a cruise through the Panama Canal if we can find one cheap enough.

The other day, we had a gray day with rain off and on all day. We joked about it being just like Washington, but it was just one day. A couple of days later, my bridge partner told me that kind of day never happens here, that it was so unusual to have clouds and rain all day. Wow, in Washington, that's the kind of day you expect most of the year, and it can happen ten days in a row easily.

It really is different here.

Last, a quick word about bridge, because we are at the end of the year. Last year, I scored 182 master points and made it into the Bridge Bulletin that goes out to all ACBL members each month, because 182 points was fourth in the country for my grouping. This year, I got almost 198 points, which may put me about 35th or so, because the competition gets tougher as you move up, but still not a bad year. Next year, Life Master. I start tomorrow.

More About New Mexico

I call this one Giant Santa, because...

Let's start with walking. Given my new, more modest walking goal, this month is going reasonably well, at least on average. This is because I started the month really well, walking over 11,000 steps each day for the first five days as I walked a half hour each way to get to and from BART from my hotel while I played in the national bridge tournament in San Francisco. However, that was followed by a lot of driving days to Washington and then back to New Mexico, and I barely walk at all on driving days. In any case, I will put in more steps this month than in any month since July, and Arlo and I have settled into a good pattern when I am home.

One evening in San Francisco, we walked from Market Street to a restaurant in North Beach, a 20-minute walk over a moderate hill. One of my bridge partners is very fit and walked fast, while another really could not walk that quickly. We ended up walking in two groups of two, and I stayed with the fittest person. I did not have any problem going up the hill or keeping up with her, so all my walking the last few years seems to have made a difference.

I have covered over 3,000 miles now, and I am more than halfway across Colorado, with still over 1,800 miles to go to the West Coast. At my current pace, I will reach Utah by the end of April, then get through Utah to Nevada by the end of the year. Right now, I am close to Leadville, Colorado, the highest incorporated city in the US at 10,152 feet.

Today it rained, and it was overcast all day, not so different from Washington. However, that was the first rain we have seen since we got back on the 13th. The plants in our yard do not need a lot of water, so one rain means that I can skip watering them for a week. The weather report says tomorrow starts another week of sunny days.

The balloons continue through the shortest days of the year. There were lots this week, more than ten some days. Jackie theorized that some people want a ballon ride as part of their Christmas holidays.

I keep waiting for the day a balloon lands in the lot behind our house. This one came close, landing briefly at the Savings and Loan on the other side of the lot, about 1/10th of a mile away, before taking off again. Arlo and I walk past that spot a few times a week.

I decided that the Roadrunner should be the state bird of New Mexico, and it turns out someone thought the same thing back in 1949, so it is the state bird. They are comfortable hanging around the neighborhood and are not very afraid of people. The Internet says they eat carrion and little animals like mice and snakes. They can run 20 miles per hour. Contrary to the cartoon, coyotes can actually run much faster, but don't worry. Roadrunners can fly when they want to, and coyotes, just like in the cartoons, cannot.

There are not many Christmas lights in the neighborhood, but inflatable decorations are all over the place. I have no idea why this is, but it is really different from Washington, where lights are more common.

This neighbor apparently went to the Christmas inflatable store and bought one of each item.

Home

 

Wild clouds over Mount Shasta

When we left Washington on October 2, headed for New Mexico, we already had plans to go back. Jackie had to return for a couple of medical appointments related to a kidney stone, and I wanted to go to 
San Francisco to play in a national bridge tournament, so even selling our house and moving our stuff did not feel quite complete. Now, we are back from our three-week trip to Washington, San Francisco, and Washington, and now... we have plans to go back again, but not for a few months, and this time just to visit. We live in New Mexico now.

It is cold here during the winter, down into the 20s at night sometimes, but as high as 60 in the afternoon. It has not rained since we got back, sunny nearly every day. We have only seen a few balloons - maybe it's too cold, maybe too windy. But when we were in Washington, it was gray most of the time, and it rained most of the time, and it was starting to flood in several counties. The Wednesday game at my bridge club in Olympia was cancelled this week due to flooding and a power outage. It's different here in New Mexico. We like it.

The trip was a great success. Jackie's kidney stone is gone, and Russ and I scored the most points we have ever gotten in a tournament. Also played a couple of games at the Olympia club and saw my old group. All the driving went smoothly, as we put in maybe 3,500 miles just on Interstate 5 and another 1,500 on Interstate 40. No more big trips until...well, at least March or April.

My bridge partners, Alice on the left, Russ, and Kathi. I played with each of them.

Christmas Tree near our hotel in San Bruno. Jackie went to the tree lighting. The mayor made a little speech, lots of folks showed up.

The view from near Mom and Dad's grave. Would be more impressive without the fog - you can see Mount Diablo, as I recall.

Buildings on the hills in the desert. Not sure what those are about.

We stayed at a cool, edgy, and chic Best Western. Not our usual style. And yes, gas was $3.099 next door, and actually under $3 at most stations in Arizona and New Mexico.

Stan, a guy I used to play bridge with, who died a few months ago, had a large collection of cookie jars. His sisters are trying to distribute them among his fellow bridge players, and I took this one. I figure the cactus fits with our new home.

Road Trips

Argentine Pass

First, a few words about walking. It is hard to say with great accuracy where I am on the American Discovery Trail, because Google Maps and the Trail website have a profound difference of opinion regarding the walking distance between Denver and Winfield, Colorado, but a little calculation suggests that, maybe, I am about 5 miles short of the Argentine Pass, highest point on the trail. It is in the thirties there now, at least during the warm part of the day. Cold at night.

I noticed that I forgot to mention an important milestone on the trail. This may be a bit of review of earlier posts, but there are two ways to cross the country on the American Discovery Trail. Just west of Cincinnati, the trail splits into two routes, one more northern, the other more southern. The northern fork goes through a bit of Ohio, then Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska, then into Colorado, and that is the route I took. The southern route goes about one mile in Ohio, then through more southern Indiana and Illinois, then Missouri, Kansas, and into Colorado. The two forks meet in Denver, and then there is only one trail the rest of the way to the Pacific Ocean. I passed Denver about 80 miles back, so now the people who took the southern route are walking with me, probably walking past me since I am slow.

Jackie and I both like to travel, and we both enjoy road trips. It's good to be compatible, at least in some manner. Road trips are comfortable, and there is a lot to see across the country, and we have fun. It is not the most climate-friendly option; that would be something like walking or biking, but a bus or train is a good option too. Driving is better than flying though, maybe. The Internet seems a bit conflicted about that, especially for long trips.

Anyway, we're driving, to Washington for a medical appointment and Thanksgiving, to San Francisco for a bridge tournament, back to Washington, then back to New Mexico. 23 days total.

On our trips, Jackie does the driving. She does not like being in the passenger seat all day, and she gets impatient with my driving because I do not drive more than about 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. She drives faster. I, on the other hand, do not mind being a passenger and do not mind Jackie's driving. Look at me, so easygoing.

We have determined a favorite path from here to Washington and back, based on a few trips. It is not what Google Maps or our car's navigation recommends, which would be through Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. Instead, we will take Interstate 40 from Albuquerque to Barstow, California, then some smaller highway from Barstow to I-5 near Bakersfield, then I-5 all the way to Lacey, WA, so just under 1,000 miles on I-5. The reason for that route is that the more direct way, especially through Utah, involves smaller roads, getting stuck behind slow traffic and trucks trying to pass each other, and Jackie doesn't like those roads. When you are driving all day, it helps to be relaxed, and smaller roads stress her out.

A little more detail about how we split the driving: in a typical 9-hour day driving, the driving time will be split about like this:

Jackie: 9 hours

Me: Maybe a minute.

I usually drive a little because when we stop for gas, usually at a big stop like a Love's, Jackie goes inside to use the bathroom, while I pump the gas. Then I get in and move the car from the pumps to the front of the store. And that's pretty much it for my driving. Maybe a minute if we stop a few times.

I will try to take pictures.

It Isn't SAD Here

 

November in Washington had a definite dreary feel to it. In Olympia, November is the rainiest month and the beginning of the rainiest season. It also gets colder, of course. But most importantly, it gets dark. The days get really short in Washington, and the time change makes it seem worse. But beyond that, it's dark even during the day, as it is very common to have clouds all across the sky for days at a time, so that the sun never even peeks through.

According to the Internet, average rainfall in November in Olympia is almost 10 inches. In Western Washington, that much rain means that it's cloudy and rainy, then just cloudy, then cloudy and rainy again, then it's night. It's a bit depressing. The winter weather affects some people enough that they have a name for it: Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. I was never affected at anywhere near a level that would be diagnosed as SAD, but let's just say that I always liked it when we got to February, and the weather got warmer, and the days got longer.

Several people I knew in Washington only lived there part of the year and bailed out during the winter, spending a few months in places like Palm Springs or Arizona.

New Mexico is a little different. This is the type of place someone from Washington might want to stay from November to February. Here, November is the start of the dry season. Although all 12 months could be called the dry season, November is the first of eight straight months with average rainfall of less than one inch. (The other four months get less than two inches each.) The Internet says that today was only 15 minutes longer here than it was in Olympia, but by December 21, the difference will be an hour and 15 minutes. (That seems like a lot of change in a short period of time, but hey, it's the Internet - must be right.) It's warmer here too, with daily high temperatures around 70 degrees this week. But the biggest difference is that it is not overcast here. I took the picture above the other day at Cabezon Park, near my house, just to illustrate what it looks like nearly all the time. It's sunshine and little white clouds day after day after day. Nothing to be SAD about.

Next Friday, we will head back to Washington for a medical appointment for Jackie. She had a kidney stone, and they installed what amounts to a temporary fix back in September, but the stone is still there. She flew back today for a pre-procedure appointment and is flying home tomorrow. When we drive back next week, it will be for another procedure to break up the stone. Then will have Thanksgiving with the boys, then drive to San Francisco for a week for a national bridge tournament, then back to Washington for a final procedure to remove a stent (the temporary fix.) In all, it will be 23 days of travelling, and it will feel good to get that done. Since September, Jackie has had some discomfort with the stent in, so hopefully we can get back home, she will feel better, and we can begin to travel around our new state.

Changing Goals

I have not gotten tired of the balloons yet, and I take a picture or three almost every day. This one flew almost straight over the house. Yesterday and today were the first days we have seen balloons launched in the afternoon, and some of those launched from a site very near us.

For those of you who read my blog on occasion - I think that there are at least three of you based on the feedback I get occasionally - you may have noticed that I have not posted about walking much lately. I would give two reasons for that: one, I have gotten tired of trying to get 10,000 steps every day, and two, I have been moving for the last seven months, and that has consumed my energies.

Well, I am ready to declare the moving over. It isn't really, but there is always stuff to do even when we are not moving, and we have settled in enough to call it done. As for the 10,000 steps, I am scaling back, setting a new, much more modest goal, of 6,000 steps per day. The trip from Washington to Miami that I finished in 2023 was really amazing, and I can hardly believe I did it, but it is not like me to sustain my interest at that level forever. And after all, I am four years older than I was when I started that walk. Anyway, 6,000 steps is not such a bad goal.

Now that we are settled in, Arlo and I take a 4,000-step walk, more or less, each day, and the other 2,000 steps cone from normal activities. So, with that goal in mind, my current streak is - 4 days! Even that won't continue too long, because I have a bridge tournament next weekend, and it's hard to get steps in when you sit at a table and play cards all day.

Today was the first time in months that I have looked at the American Discovery Trail website to track my progress, and it turns out that they have revamped the website. The new look is much better, with more consistent and up-to-date descriptions of the trail segments, so I should have a better idea of where I am and what sites I am passing. It turns out that I am past Denver, Colorado, in the portion of the trail that crosses four passes over 12,000 feet in elevation, including Argentine Pass, the highest point of the trail at 13,107 feet, at the Continental Divide.

My next goal is to make my way west of my current location in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and this point is still about 200 miles down the trail, somewhere west of Winfield, Colorado. Sometime next year...

Some of the walls in my neighborhood are decorated.

The Sandia Mountains from my neighborhood. The Sandias stand up to the east of Albuquerque, more than 5,000 feet over the city, which is at 5,000 feet elevation. They are not the tallest mountains in New Mexico, but around here they dominate the landscape.

Settling In

 

Every morning, when I get up, I do a balloon check, looking south out of the bedroom window. Most days, we have balloons - there were five this morning. The day I took this photo, a couple of them drifted relatively close to the house, though usually they are far in the distance. I have been up around 7:00 most mornings, which is prime time for balloons; by about 9:00 they are all down.

Our belongings are all here, boxes are all over the house, and we are unpacking room by room. Our bedroom is mostly unpacked, and the kitchen and the dining room. I got the garage organized to the extent that I got the car in. We have hardly started on the living room and the office. The guest bedroom will have to wait for now.

We had our old couch and loveseat from Washington hauled away before we moved. They both were duct-taped on the bottom, and it did not seem worth the money to have them moved. We also left our main television behind, and we disassembled our office furniture and took the pieces to the dump, so we needed a new living room set, a TV, and a computer desk. We already ordered a sectional and recliner, to be delivered Friday, and a desk, to be delivered Thursday, and we are looking at televisions and TV stands.

For now, the main task every day is to choose a room and get it set up. We still get to look forward to the first day that unpacking is not the main order of business.

Some other notes: Arlo and I have found a nice walk that includes a little-used trail down the street, then over to Cabezon Park, which includes a dog park that we have had to ourselves so far, then back home via a different trail that goes by the mailboxes. It takes about an hour. We have to walk during daylight hours, though, which is different from Jubilee - there are no streetlights here.

The sun here is relentless. It has been in the forties each morning, but sunny and clear day after day. The temperature rises quickly to seventy or so by the afternoon. I wear a hat during my walks to keep the sun off of my face, and I think I felt a little sunburn the other day when I forgot to. I cannot remember the last time I got sunburned in Washington.

I already have a bridge partner for Thursdays, and I already played in a tournament in Santa Fe. My partner needed a couple of silver points for her Life Master, and we got those on Saturday. She still needs some gold points though; I might help her with those as well.

So far, we are happy here.

Early Impressions

There were at least 180 balloons visible when I took this picture. I couldn't get them all in a single photo.

Maybe the biggest thing you notice about New Mexico that is not like Washington is the weather. It is definitely warmer here, but also much sunnier, lots of clear days. We have gotten some rain, but unlike that place I still want to think of as "home," it can rain here and then be clear soon after. We have seen a couple of gray days, but only a couple.

The landscapes here look completely different. In Washington, undeveloped areas are usually forests. I am convinced that all of Western Washington would be covered in pine trees if people had not intervened. Not so here. You get long views unobstructed by trees, and the land is covered with scrub. It's not the sand you get in really dry places, but it's very dry - not trees, not fields of grass. You see an occasional line of trees where there is a creek or river.

The trees in my balloon picture have been watered, by the way. Stuff will grow if you water it.

Mexican food is everywhere. I think more than half of the restaurants in Bernalillo are Mexican. What we have tried so far has been very good. They have Taco Bell here too, which seems funny to me, but they are pretty common. Maybe white people have to have something to eat.

We are at about 5,000 feet elevation, although it would be hard to tell if I did not know. I have not noticed any thinness in the air. However, there are hills and mountains all around us. The views here are great.

Speed limits are 75 on the freeways away from Albuquerque. Gas costs under $3 per gallon. People run red lights here - you have to pay attention. Church's Chicken is everywhere (this is a good thing.) Lots of places and streets have Spanish names, similar to California. Arlo has gotten stickers in his feet about five times already.

People from Albuquerque are called Burqueños or Burqueñas, just so you know.

No rattlesnakes, tarantulas, or scorpions so far. It's early days.
 

Motel 6

 

We have been spending lots of money recently, and we cannot move into our new house until Thursday, so we decided to stay somewhere cheap for a few days. Motel 6 in Bernalillo fits the bill.

I have stayed in Motel 6 before, and I really don't mind. If I am travelling by myself, I am happy to stay at one, because they are cheap. You sleep, you take a shower, you leave.

Another thing, this is definitely not the worst motel ever. That was the Best Western in Bishop, California. Jackie and I managed to go to sleep that night to the sound of crickets chirping, crickets that sounded like they were in the room with us, but I assumed were just outside our door. In the middle of the night, I woke up and started hunting them down, and it turned out they were in fact in the room. I killed about eight of them and took them to the manager, who nonchalantly told me they went into the rooms when it was hot. No big deal.

I did not tell Jackie about the one I found in the bed until we were well down the road. So that motel was the worst.

The one we are in now might take second place to the Bishop Best Western. Where to begin? Well, it is on the northern edge of north Bernalillo, which is a suburb north of Albuquerque. North of here is nothing, so we are on the edge of the wilderness. Freeway on one side, train tracks on the other. Beyond the train tracks, miles of scrub, hills in the distance. No one even uses the road in front of the motel. Arlo and I have taken several walks along the road, and we have seen three trucks and one car pass the motel in three days. Anyone who comes this far stops at the Motel 6, because there is nothing else down this road. In fact, there is nothing else on this road in either direction, except the gas station and attached store next door, but that is shuttered and looks like it has been deteriorating for a long time.

OK, that's not so terrible, what else? There is no place in the bathroom to place any bathroom stuff. I balanced my toothbrush and toothpaste on the back of the sink - no room for anything else. On the back of the toilet is a roll of toilet paper and some drinking cups(!) They brought me a shower curtain after we checked in, and I hung it myself. The handle on the shower that controls the water temperature is missing, but there is a plastic piece that goes behind the handle that I was able to turn. They don't serve breakfast. There are no comfortable chairs, just two wooden ones that might remind you of high school. The key entry to the outside door nearest our room does not work. We don't have enough electrical outlets to charge both phones at once. They are remodeling while we stay here, and as a result, the water was turned off for several hours, then rust poured out when it restarted.

The bed is comfortable enough though, and we will be fine for the next three nights. We got the keys to our house today and set up Internet. We have signed our lease, paid our rent, contacted utilities, arranged for a house cleaning, POD delivery, and moving help. Tomorrow, we will visit the water company.

We are getting close, so close.

Downsizing

Over time, you accumulate stuff. Neither of us is a hoarder, and we are mostly unsentimental about throwing things away, but stuff accumulates anyway.

Moving is a chance to take an inventory. We had about 20 screwdrivers. Maybe eight hammers. More than a dozen clamps (thanks Dad.) Somewhere near ten measuring tapes. Three hacksaws. That's just the tools, just some of the tools.

We made about ten trips to the dump. We had a garage sale - very successful, got rid of a bunch of stuff, I can't even remember what off the top of my head. We threw away two La-Z-Boy chairs, gave another to Lucas. Jarrod took two bikes. Our outdoor furniture did not make the cut. We paid to have the piano hauled off. We threw out plates, bowls, Tupperware, glasses, coffee cups.

Honestly, we still have too much. However, we did try to lighten the load. Some guys came and picked up all of the things pictured above, plus the outdoor furniture and indoor furniture pictured below. We would have kept more, including that table in the foreground, but it did not all fit, and we had to make choices in the end.

We got rid of these two items. Kept the dog and that red cup though.

Wanted to keep these chairs, but we ran out of room.

Sold!

We actually got the call from our agent on August 23, the same day I last made a post, noting that someone had seen the house that Wednesday, but with no word from them by Saturday morning, we figured it amounted to nothing. Turns out, that was the second time the couple had seen the house, and they wanted to look again after we installed the carpet. So, the offer came in on Saturday, and we accepted it right away.

We knew that the inspection could be a significant hurdle, but now that has passed, we have agreed to adjustments, and chances are very good that the sale will close on October 1.

We have been busy, again, packing everything, getting ready to move. Jarrod came on Sunday to help me bring all of the stuff from the storage unit back to the house, and to help organize things for loading. Then Thursday, our first PODS container was delivered, and Lucas came over to help get it packed. We finished loading it on Friday, and they hauled it away this morning. Another, smaller POD will be delivered Tuesday, picked up Thursday.

That means we will be out of the house by the 25th. We have an Airbnb in Olympia booked through October 1, when the sale closes. Then it's off to Albuquerque October 2. That's the plan.

Even though the house was on the market for 85 days, we feel fortunate. Many of our neighbors have houses on the market. People I talk to say they have never seen so many houses for sale at the same time in Jubilee. A couple of the other houses in the neighborhood have sold since ours did, so maybe the market is recovering, but prices have fallen since January, and sellers have been lowering their prices. The market is jittery, shall we say.

There will be some small amount of sadness, leaving my bridge buddies, Jackie's friends, Joel, and the boys. Pat and Susan will be farther away. Still, I think both of us are excited more than anything else, looking forward to a really different part of the country. I just wish it was done. Lots to do still.

 

More From New Mexico

Kokopelli

The most important news: Someone looked at our house on Wednesday, but they have not expressed any interest since, so the house is still not selling.

Moving on...

We came to Albuquerque to look at housing options, and we have walked through four homes for sale, two apartments, and one house for rent. We are settling into the probability that we will rent a house eventually - the cost is not very different from apartments, and we will get more space that way. Renting is a way to get the money out of our house and invest it in a way that returns some income, so all part of the retirement plans.

The Kokopelli figure above was in front of the rental home we toured.

We went out for Mexican food on Thursday, and I had pork adovada enchiladas, calabacitas, and fideos, all new to me, all good. Jackie wanted me to remember calbacitas, because she had a bite and loved it. Next up is Cracker Barrel, a visit we were planning before the logo change hullabaloo, because it is a regional place we don't see in Washington.

We are walking distance from the famous Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park, but we have not seen even one hot air balloon. Very disappointing. I just looked it up though, and unsurprisingly, hot air balloons don't do well in hot air, so that explains that.

Weather has been over 90 degrees every day, but it's more tolerable than we expected. You go from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned stores and back, and it is usually comfortable enough in the shade. (It is not comfortable in the afternoon sun.) We have had some short thunderstorms.

I visited the Duke City Bridge Club and managed to win half a point. I'm playing again tomorrow, but no great expectations.

I made a list of 19 places in New Mexico that we may want to see, anywhere from here in the Albuquerque area to as far as five hours away. (New Mexico is a big state.) These are just natural sites, so nothing like Taos or downtown Santa Fe. There will be a lot to do if we can ever get here.

Dispatches From New Mexico

Shiprock, from a distance

We made it to New Mexico today, though only to Gallup. Albuquerque is still 140 miles down the road, but our Airbnb rental doesn't start until tomorrow, so no rush.

We already like this part of the country. The scenery is stunning and very different from home, with huge rock formations, big valleys, lots of sun, very dry. Also very hot - 90 degrees or so every day. There are mountains every way you look; sometime tomorrow we will cross the continental divide between here in western New Mexico and Albuquerque.

We are also seeing paces we want to return to, like the Valley of Dreams, figuring the distance from Albuquerque to whatever site. There is a lot to see, and we have not visited this part of the country much.

The idea behind this trip is to look at places we may want to rent, although we will also do some sightseeing if we can, and I will play some bridge if I can.

(I get tired of pointing out that we have not sold the house yet, but, you know...)

 Arlo is a pretty good traveler, hanging out in his kennel in the back of the car most of the day, laying on hotel beds all night. He gets very excited when I let him out of the car for a walk, but then he also seems eager to get back to the car, maybe because it's the only familiar object around at the rest stops, maybe because he knows that's where Jackie and I will be.

New Mexico is full of interesting geological sites. The one pictured above is called Shiprock. It is in the Northwest corner of New Mexico, and it's 1,583 feet tall. Very cool, but in this part of the country (and especially in Utah), there are hundreds of amazing places that would be major attractions in Washington but are just part of the background here. After Shiprock, I took a couple more pictures of big, impressive rock formations that do not have any towns named after them and may not even have names. Just big rocks.

I tried naming some of them myself: "Pointy Rock." "Flat Rock." Jackie says I lack imagination.

Right side of the car, with power lines in front.

Left side of the car, across the street from the one above.

Birthdays

Today is Jackie's birthday. I will not write how old she is, but she is at an unusual period in her adult life when birthdays are happy occasions, because each year she is getting closer to Social Security, Medicare, and retirement. Actually, I have tried to tell Jackie that she is already retired; she was laid off, with her last day at work being last Friday. I want to make that work for her, because trying to find a new job at her age after having her work shipped to India twice is just an ugly prospect.

We need to sell the house. It will work if we can sell the house. It will also work if we do not sell the house, but not as well.

Lucas's birthday was yesterday. He turned 30, so now I have a kid in his thirties. You just get older from here dude, sorry to tell you.

I turned 68 a couple of weeks ago. Someone once told me that 65 was the last good birthday, because you get Medicare. However, I still look forward to 70, because I have not taken Social Security yet, and I hope to start at age 70. After that, I suppose that you can celebrate every five years because you made it that far, and it beats the alternative.

Some people looked at the house on Monday, their second time visiting. They stayed two and a half hours, so we were hopeful, but we are learning not to be too hopeful, and they appear to have backed away. I wonder if people are cautious about buying when the market is declining.

New carpets are going in next Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, Jackie and I plan to take Arlo to New Mexico, where we will have a look at places we might rent if we sell the house and all goes according to plan. While we are gone, the house will be empty, with new carpets and a couple of new windows, and people can walk through at their leisure, and maybe someone will want it.

Colorado!

I noticed, after I posted my last post, that I did not mention walking at all, so this post we will talk about walking.

My walking has been terrible. It's too hot. I play bridge on Tuesday mornings, and that messes with my schedule. I play bridge all day at tournaments. I have to do stuff related to selling - or not selling - the house. I'm tired. I will be 68 tomorrow - I'm old.

The heat thing, just so you know, is very real. I can deal with heat pretty well, go on an hour and a half walk with no water and be fine. But I took Arlo on a shorter walk the other day when it was mid-eighties, and he lay (lie lay lain, right?) on the neighbors' grass on the way home, which he never does, despite my giving him water three times during the walk. He really does not do well when it's that hot.

Most of the other stuff is just excuses.

On good days, we still take a long morning walk and a shorter evening walk. Today I was good, and I have 9,800 steps. The last two days, I played bridge all day, and I managed about 2,000 steps each day. The bridge went well though.

Thursday, I took a walk with Arlo, then went to Costco (good for about 2,000 steps), then walked to a Democrats of Jubilee event near my house, then went to the carpet store and the not-Costco grocery store, then took Arlo for his evening walk, for a total of 15,447 steps. There are still good days. That day, I also left Nebraska, land of Runzas, and entered Colorado.

For the next 1,369 miles, I will be in Colorado, then Utah. Getting past these two and into Nevada will take forever, more or less, or maybe a year at the rate I am going. Just Colorado amounts to 776 miles, including lots of zigzagging through the Rocky Mountains and crossing the highest point of the American Discovery Trail at the Continental Divide.

I am already ten miles into Colorado, working on those 776 miles.

 

Dispatches From Portugal - Or Maybe Not

Pena Castle

We changed gears for a while, talking about moving to Portugal when Jackie retires, which could be as soon as a year from now. This is not, as you might think, a response to the current situation in the United States, but rather a potential adventurous opportunity to travel, live in Europe, and possibly even become an EU citizen.

Why Portugal, you ask? They do have some pretty castles, but the more compelling reason is that they make it easy for foreigners to come and stay and even get dual citizenship within five years.

Requirements are not very restrictive; you have to have a little more than $1,000 income per month, so that you will not have to work. You have to arrange a place to stay before you go. You have to stay in the country 183 consecutive days per year. Cost of living sounds like it's cheaper than living where we live now. We could probably even take Arlo.

However, taking Arlo is one of the logistical problems we would have to resolve. It is possible to take a dog to Portugal, but realistically, it is hard to imagine that would be an easy trip for him. Then, if he were over there, what would we do with him while we travel around Europe? That has to be a big reason why we would go, right, so we could travel in Europe? So maybe we would find another solution for Arlo.

Here is another issue: if we go to Portugal, we will not take any furniture with us, so what to do with it? Well, we could store at least some of it in a storage unit, in case we come back after a few years. I have to say, I really do not like this idea, but if we get rid of everything, it could be expensive to replace it all one day, if the day ever comes when we need it. Maybe we need a good solution for all of our stuff, too.

A thing that this talk of Portugal has surfaced is that we could sell the house and then rent in Albuquerque, because why buy a house if you are going to move overseas in a year? So rent a place, move all of our stuff, put some of it in the place we rent, put the rest in storage, live for a year or more, put the rest in storage, move overseas. Why not skip the Albuquerque step? Because we just still want to move there, and it puts us one day's drive away from Jackie's family.

It is possible, though, that we could skip the Portugal step. We could travel up to 90 days at a time in most European countries, and that might be logistically easier than moving overseas. What about Arlo though? Since we will only be one day from Oklahoma, maybe Jackie's family can watch him. They have the time and a lot of land for him to run around on. Renting and travelling would be more expensive than moving to Portugal, except that in Portugal we would also probably be renting and travelling a lot, so maybe not so different.

One thing that has me intrigued now though is the idea of renting. I never gave it a lot of thought before, but when I started looking at the affordability of it, I realized that living in a house is about as expensive as renting. You pay property tax, insurance, homeowner's dues, maintenance, and more, plus a good chunk of your money is tied up in the house. Take that money out of the house and invest it, and now you have significantly more income, and if you rent, your costs may actually be lower. You lose out on the appreciation of your home, but the way things are going, that looks like it won't amount to much for the near future, and more likely will be negative.

OK, that pretty much games out where things could go in the future, but first we have to sell the house. Someone came to look today, but my hopes are not high. The market is soft right now, and I am reading stories about falling demand and people taking their houses off the market, and that may be us soon enough. All of this trying to shape the future may be for naught, or at least may be put on hold.

We will see.

Dispatches From New Mexico - Or Maybe Not

 

Sutherland Reservoir

Close to no one is coming to look at the house, I am seeing stories about how the real estate market is cooling, mortgage interest rates are expected to stay at 7%, Redfin projects that housing prices may drop later this year, and a home in our development with the same floor plan is now listed at $33,000 less than ours after the price dropped twice.

We may not be moving. Anyway, Jackie is talking about moving to Portugal now. Maybe next time, I'll write about that.

My walking has taken me to Sutherland Reservoir, with about 450 Nebraska miles behind us, and 75 more to go. I have been in Nebraska since the beginning of March. It is time to move on.

We are near the town of Sutherland, which, I am sorry to report, does not contain a Runza restaurant. However, there is one about 20 miles down the road in Ogallala, the last one between us and Colorado, and probably the last one all the way to Point Reyes.

Penticton

Art next to Okanagan Lake

Last week, we drove to Penticton, British Columbia, for a bridge tournament and vacation. The bridge only went so-so: I got 6 points total, with 3.6 of those being red points, which are awarded to people toward the bottom of the leaderboard, and 2.4 gold, which are harder to get. We earned some points in every game we played except one, but a few red points are not really what you are looking for. Alice and I earned the gold on the last day, so that was a bit of redemption.

Eight bridge players went, plus Jackie, and I think we all had a good time. The nine of us had dinner together twice, and some of the players took an evening off and toured a winery. Jackie toured a historical house, went through an art gallery, shopped, saw a movie, and got a lot of reading done. I played bridge.

While we were gone, someone looked at our house, the only bite we have gotten so far. Word from our agent is that the people who came through are just starting to look around. I am beginning to settle in for the long haul, not worrying about whether the house will sell quickly, or even at all. Wait and see. We are in the fortunate position of not needing to move on any schedule.

On a couple of the bridge days, I walked over 10,000 steps, including over 13,000 one day. As a result, I passed another milestone by making my way to Lake Maloney, Nebraska. We are now over 2,500 miles into the walk, definitely west of center in Nebraska, and 112 miles from Colorado as the trail winds.

 

Camping at Lake Maloney.

The Wedding

 

56 ft tall, 18 ft wide, once used to make wood pulp

This weekend, we went to a wedding in Bellingham, Washington. My niece got married, only not really, because the happy couple was already married so that she could be covered by his health insurance. Welcome to America.

The only pictures I took all weekend were at the brunch venue the day after the wedding, this morning. We brunched at a place called The Portal, an old industrial area near the water, now outfitted with various containers that have been turned into eateries, a beer garden, and a bar. The industrial remnants, especially these post-apocalyptic looking tanks, make for an interesting setting for the coffee place, fish and chips, the pizza joint.

When we left town on Friday, the house went on the market. It has been viewed hundreds of times on Redfin, and Zillow says it is more likely than 94% of the houses in the area to sell, for what that is worth, which is not much. The reality is that apparently no one has looked at the house yet, because we expected to be notified if anyone was going to come by, and we received no notification. The handful of people who assured me that we would get a lot of immediate attention and would get offers right away are in the process of being proven wrong already.

We do not have any desperate need to move, so if, for example, the price is too high, we will take the house off the market rather than lower the price significantly. We may yet end up staying for a couple of years. Patience, I need to let this play out.

I am back to playing bridge and walking on my normal schedule starting tomorrow, but we are leaving for a week in Canada this Friday.

A tree stump sculpture.

Whatcom Museum of History and Art, in the distance

Dispatches from New Mexico

Well, not quite to New Mexico yet, but we are checking things off the list, moving forward. The sign went up today, though the house will not be listed until tomorrow. There is a lock box on the door.

The cleaners came, the fence guy worked on one side of the yard, the other fence guy came to work on the other side. The furnace passed inspection, they took photos yesterday. We have taken signs of the dog out of the house, cleared almost everything off of counters, gotten rid of furniture, gone to the dump at least half a dozen times. I mowed three times this week.

Our neighborhood contains a limited number of floorplans, and there are two other houses for sale with the same floorplan as ours. Our agent says that ours is the best of the three, but who knows?

And now, we wait to see if someone wants to buy. The best plan we have now, until we think of a better one, is to get an Airbnb near here while we move out of the house, so that Jackie can work while I move furniture (with Jarrod?) into U-Pack boxes, then take a long weekend to move from the Airbnb here to another in New Mexico. Once we get settled there, we can relax a bit and look for a home.

Weather this week in Albuquerque is around 90 degrees every day, with lows in the mid-60s at night. Arlo and I may have to change our habits and walk earlier during the hot months, as the temperature rises quickly during the day. I took him for a walk yesterday, and I could tell he did not like the heat. It was in the mid-70s. We will both have to adjust.

 Today, we are near Gothenburg, Nebraska, a town of about 3,500 people. The town was named after Gothenburg, Sweden, and has a Swedish heritage.

For those of you who remember what the real attraction in Nebraska is, the nearest Runza to Gothenburg is...in Gothenburg! It's on 1st Street, on the south end of town, near the Platte River.

Still more than 150 miles to go before Colorado.

Johnson Lake, Nebraska

Not Johnson Lake

I searched Bing Images for a picture of Johnson Lake, Nebraska, and this picture came up in the third row from the top of the page. The picture is from a home for sale in Butler, Tennessee. Nice picture, but, huh. A real picture of Johnson Lake is posted below.

I decided a long time ago that Johnson Lake would serve as the halfway point of my walking trip. However, in truth it is not quite halfway; instead, it is 1.6 miles short. So I actually passed Johnson Lake a couple of days ago, and now I am five miles into the second half of my walk, 330 miles across Nebraska with 190 miles to go to the border.

 Just tonight Jackie and I were talking about the reality that we may not move to Albuquerque at all. We are moving somewhere, unless no one wants our house. However, we are not exactly tied to Albuquerque for now. Maybe we will change our minds once we see it.

The realtors came Friday. This coming Friday, someone may come to see the house, even though it is not listed and not completely ready to show. Monday, the cleaners are coming. Next Wednesday is the photographer. After the photos are taken, the house should go on the market within a few days.

After I tried Bing Images, I tried Google Images, and plenty of pictures of Johnson Lake showed up, with no pictures of houses in Tennessee.

Johnson Lake, with fireworks

The Move

The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. Maybe.

The Move is everything right now.

The Move does not take all of my time, because bridge is still taking half a day several days a week, but bridge is not important. It's just that I have scheduled days with a number of partners, and I want to play with those partners while I can, and I have a new partner whom I really want to play with, and she is taking days in the schedule that used to be open. As a result, I am playing a lot of bridge.

When I am home, however, I work on The Move every day. Today, I replanted a plant, edged the yard, and weeded, and there is more to do, always more. I find myself exhausted at the end of each day. Yesterday, I fell fast asleep at my computer at 4:00 in the afternoon. When the last piece of furniture is placed in a new house in New Mexico, when the last box is hauled into the garage or a closet, it will feel very good.

 The realtors are coming on Friday, and we treat the realtors a bit like they were actually buying the house, cleaning up and decluttering before they come, inside and out, doing every little thing to make the house look desirable. Jackie's theory is that we need to make the place attractive to them, maybe so that they will feel good about selling it, maybe just to show them that we can make it look nice when we have to. Whatever the justification, most of the work we are doing now will need to be done before we show the house, and that is coming.

For the first time since Arlo and I started walking in 2021, I am skipping my morning walks. My steps counts are pathetic. I have ten miles to go before the next milestone and the halfway point of the walk, and it will probably take me four days to get that done. With some luck, I can get back to my regular life, at least most days, starting Saturday.

Fifteen Miles West of Nowhere

Fort Kearney

Well, I was wrong about reaching the halfway point of my trip last week; I was looking at the wrong segment. In fact, I will be halfway at the end of the current segment, which leads from Fort Kearney to Johnson Lake and follows parts of the Oregon Trail. We are 15 miles along this segment, walking past some of the best corn farms in the US, or so says the trail description.

Life right now is consumed with The Move, trying to prepare the house for showing. Some days The Move has gotten in the way of walking, though most days I am still putting in the miles. Today, I walked 11,000 steps.

There is always a little more to do to get ready for The Move, and I am at Jackie's mercy when it comes to timing. We cannot start the clock (the realtors need about two weeks to clean, stage, and take pictures) until Jackie thinks we are ready, and we are not ready yet. I need to pack some items on the bookshelves, clean the carpets in the second bedroom, do some work outside, take clothes to the cleaner.

We got the furnace maintenance done, I finished my puzzle, Lucas moved to an apartment. Jackie says she will call the realtors Monday. Things are proceeding.

All done.

Steps

I have walked up these steps

Moving to Albuquerque is a project. Some of the milestones in that project are under our control - getting the house ready to sell - and some of them are not completely controllable - getting someone to buy it for the price we want, for example. Here is the plan and some of the biggest potential obstacles:

We actually passed a big step today, when Lucas was accepted for an apartment. We really did not want to put the house on the market with him staying here, because we want to take some of his things out to show the room, and because he sleeps during the day, which makes it difficult to find times to show the house. His bedroom is very small, and we need to reduce the amount of furniture in it as much as we can. We may even empty the room completely.

Once he is out, we can list the house. The realtors will pay for a thorough cleaning, we stage the house the best we can, then we have a picture day, then we list.

Then we cross our fingers and hope someone wants it. It's a nice house in a good location.

Assuming it sells, the next thing is the home inspection. This one is a little out of our control, because you never know what they may find. Worst case, we pay some money and fix any problems.

Then we move. Our thought is to have a Pod delivered, and we can fill it ourselves. We cannot, however, move the piano, even from the house to the driveway, without piano movers, so that will be the first thing packed. Then, worst case, we fill up one Pod and have to get a second one. The Pod(s) go(es) off to storage.

The plan, because there is always a plan, is to get an Airbnb in New Mexico, someplace Jackie can do her work. From there, we can look for houses. Jackie already has picked out some possible places, so I do not expect that part will be too difficult.

I am not looking forward to changing our mailing addresses twice. So very many different places to notify. For the Airbnb, I think we have to get a post office box until we find a permanent home.

Once we find a new place, we have the Pod(s) delivered, empty it/them out except the piano, then call the piano movers. Once the piano is installed, I think the move is done.

If all goes well, we may move out in July, move into a new place September-ish.

I will hit my new, more modest walking goal of 270,000 steps this month, but not until tomorrow. As of now, I have walked 264,000 steps in April, and Arlo is whining at me to do a few thousand more. Thursday, I will finally get to the halfway point of this trip, 279 miles into Nebraska.

Five Reasons This Is Taking a Long Time

 

When I walked from the northwest corner of Washington state to Miami, it took me about 20.5 months, which included a few weeks in which I walked less than usual after I was run down by a van. Now, I am walking back across the country, and I started almost 22 months ago, and I am hoping to finish in another 20 months. So why so slow? I have a few excuses.

1. More steps to cover the same distance. On my last walk, I measured my steps and then translated the number of steps into miles, using 2,000 steps per mile. I had calibrated that number when I lived in Snoqualmie, and I walked on trails that were marked every quarter mile. I counted my steps as I covered a quarter mile (more than once), and I consistently counted about 500 steps per quarter mile. Then, by the time I started this walk, I had a new phone that measured both miles and steps, and it thinks I take 2,200 steps per mile. Maybe my steps are getting shorter, maybe the phone apps are different. In any case, I only move about 90% as far now for each step I take.
2. Missed days. Before October of last year, I decided not to count days when I was involved in another activity, such as a bridge tournament or a vacation, and wanted to focus on the activity rather than on my walking. In the second half of 2023 alone, I did not count half of August and September, nor all of October and November. In 2024, I left out 28 days, mostly for bridge tournaments. Starting last October though, I started counting every day, because it is easier.
3. Other activities. Most of my previous walk took place during the Covid pandemic, and walking was my main focus. Bridge is a big focus now, and on tournament days, I rarely get more than a few thousand steps in. But there are other things, like getting ready to move, or I have an appointment, or the weather is terrible. I don't try to make up for those things anymore.
4. Getting older. I am only four years older than when I started the last walk, but I think I have less energy. I look back at my Miami walk, for example December 2022, when I walked more than 13,000 steps average for the month, and I cannot see doing that now. I just checked my March step counts, and I walked more than 13,000 steps three times. And that was a really good month.
5. This path is really long. If I were using Google Maps again to walk from Delaware to California, instead of following the American Discovery Trail, I would have just crossed out of Utah today, into Nevada, and I would only have 650 miles still to go. Instead, I am less than halfway across Nebraska and 40 miles from halfway across the country. I have 1,645 miles to go before I reach the Nevada state line, and another 874 miles from there to get to Point Reyes. I guess the "Discovery" part of the American Discovery Trail means you get the chance to wander all over.

Just a few more days, and I will start the second half.