Most of my friends and family who may read this blog already know that my new adventure began about a week ago, traveling by plane, then bus to New Mexico to work as a seasonal Front Desk Associate at a remote hunting and fishing ranch! The flight was uneventful until the last 45 minutes when we hit 40-mile-an-hour winds and bumped around like we were on a roller-coaster ride until we landed in the Denver airport!
Whew….made it off the plane and down to baggage claim where I found one of my suitcases had lost a wheel! Now this wouldn’t be a big deal except that I had a 50-pound suitcase, another smaller suitcase, and a backpack to bring everything I might need for the next 8 months (including sheets, a warm/heavy blanket for the cold nights in the mountains, and everything else I could think of for this journey)!
A friend of mine who lives in Denver was going to pick me up so we could enjoy dinner together before she dropped me off at Greyhound (which didn’t leave until seven hours later), but just as I got settled in with my bags and was waiting for her to pick me up, she texted that she had just been in a car accident and wasn’t sure she was going to make it…. bummer for her AND for me!! I got a little worried about how I was going to make it to Greyhound dragging around these bags with a wheel missing, but when someone at ground transportation suggested I take the city bus (bags and all!!), I just had to laugh and trust that I would get there one way or another!
The one thing I know about myself after some of the “over-the-top” challenging experiences I had in Guatemala is that if I could handle THAT, I could easily handle this challenge! Because of the crazy storms blowing into Denver that night, I wasn’t even sure if Greyhound would be taking off at midnight – but I hoped for the best (that we would beat the storm that was supposed to bring in 6-12 inches of snow) and waited for a bit to see what was next! I knew that sitting in the airport for the next 7 hours would be better than in the bus station, so I just settled in and waited…trusting that all would be well and remembering that worrying about it wouldn’t help one little bit!
Fortunately, my friend was able to pick me up (after dealing with tow truck and rental car challenges), and we had a lovely dinner......then off to Greyhound we went! Waiting for the bus, then dragging my bags TO the bus were challenging (it's not like at the airport where you check in your bags and don't have to deal with them until you get to your destination.....everywhere YOU go in the bus station, your bags also have to go!!). But here’s what I found all along the way (in the airport, bus station, and even on the bus)….people are basically good, kind people! If they see someone in need, they will reach out with a smile, information, or a helping hand! Kindness permeates our experiences (I think) when we expect the best of others, and I found this to be true on my travels that day!
Although I was exhausted from my day, there was no way I could get comfortable enough to sleep on the bus….but I did my best because I could barely keep my head up! Add higher elevations and heavy winds to the exhaustion of travel, and I was feeling pretty nauseous by the time we arrived in Raton, NM at 4:45am!! The “bus station” was a trailer with some outside seating….but fortunately there was a McDonald’s across the parking lot (with free WiFi), so I drug my bags from the bus to their front door and waited for them to open at 5:00am!
(Now just to give you the full picture, it was barely 20 degrees, cold, bitter blowing winds along with some rain/sleet/snow, and I was huddled outside the door waiting for the workers inside to decide it was time to open!! Needless to say, I was never so happy to get inside and have a warm cup of coffee than I was that morning!!)
With all my bags tucked around me in a corner booth and my laptop up and running, the next three hours passed quickly (and uneventfully)! A lot of locals came in for their morning cup of coffee and conversation with other locals, and I realized then that I was in “cowboy country”….hats, boots, belt buckles, and lots of facial hair!! But all of them were friendly and discussing amongst themselves the “big storm” up in Denver and whether it was going to hit New Mexico!
As an interesting side-note, this random stranger (someone who was obviously just passing through because he definitely didn’t have the look of a local) asked me what my laptop said about the weather and road conditions heading towards Denver. After a few minutes of conversation, we realized that we had a lot in common – he was a student at Whitworth years ago, and his mom still lives in the Tri-Cities, WA. Weird how small this world is sometimes!
My ride to the ranch finally arrived at 8:00am and by this time I had been awake for more than 24 hours. We picked up a couple more seasonal workers at a local hotel (and they brought LOTS more stuff than I did, so I didn’t feel too bad about my big ‘ole 50-pound suitcase), then headed off for the ranch (finally)!! Let me just say…..this ranch is VERY remote! It’s only about 30 miles from Raton, but the road getting there is quite bumpy and “rustic” (to say the least)! Then again, the ranch DOES sit on the largest privately-owned piece of land in the United States (on almost 600,000 acres), so it’s only logical that the roads might be more like big gravel driveways than city streets or highways!
After about an hour of bumping along the roads, we arrived at the ranch – a series of houses and cottages surrounding the main lodge and the 2 other buildings (Casa Grande and Casa Minor) that were built years ago by the original ranch owners. The next step was to fill out a bunch of paperwork (which is NOT a good idea when you haven’t slept for 24 hours), meeting lots of new people along the way. I think there are about 40-45 full-time employees who live and work on the ranch year-round, then another 35-40 seasonal employees who work from April to the end of November (like me)!!
So that, my friends, was my first day just getting TO the ranch! I’ll try and write more as time permits about my experiences here….and as always, feel free to email me or post comments to stay in touch!
Whew….made it off the plane and down to baggage claim where I found one of my suitcases had lost a wheel! Now this wouldn’t be a big deal except that I had a 50-pound suitcase, another smaller suitcase, and a backpack to bring everything I might need for the next 8 months (including sheets, a warm/heavy blanket for the cold nights in the mountains, and everything else I could think of for this journey)!
A friend of mine who lives in Denver was going to pick me up so we could enjoy dinner together before she dropped me off at Greyhound (which didn’t leave until seven hours later), but just as I got settled in with my bags and was waiting for her to pick me up, she texted that she had just been in a car accident and wasn’t sure she was going to make it…. bummer for her AND for me!! I got a little worried about how I was going to make it to Greyhound dragging around these bags with a wheel missing, but when someone at ground transportation suggested I take the city bus (bags and all!!), I just had to laugh and trust that I would get there one way or another!
The one thing I know about myself after some of the “over-the-top” challenging experiences I had in Guatemala is that if I could handle THAT, I could easily handle this challenge! Because of the crazy storms blowing into Denver that night, I wasn’t even sure if Greyhound would be taking off at midnight – but I hoped for the best (that we would beat the storm that was supposed to bring in 6-12 inches of snow) and waited for a bit to see what was next! I knew that sitting in the airport for the next 7 hours would be better than in the bus station, so I just settled in and waited…trusting that all would be well and remembering that worrying about it wouldn’t help one little bit!
Fortunately, my friend was able to pick me up (after dealing with tow truck and rental car challenges), and we had a lovely dinner......then off to Greyhound we went! Waiting for the bus, then dragging my bags TO the bus were challenging (it's not like at the airport where you check in your bags and don't have to deal with them until you get to your destination.....everywhere YOU go in the bus station, your bags also have to go!!). But here’s what I found all along the way (in the airport, bus station, and even on the bus)….people are basically good, kind people! If they see someone in need, they will reach out with a smile, information, or a helping hand! Kindness permeates our experiences (I think) when we expect the best of others, and I found this to be true on my travels that day!
Although I was exhausted from my day, there was no way I could get comfortable enough to sleep on the bus….but I did my best because I could barely keep my head up! Add higher elevations and heavy winds to the exhaustion of travel, and I was feeling pretty nauseous by the time we arrived in Raton, NM at 4:45am!! The “bus station” was a trailer with some outside seating….but fortunately there was a McDonald’s across the parking lot (with free WiFi), so I drug my bags from the bus to their front door and waited for them to open at 5:00am!
(Now just to give you the full picture, it was barely 20 degrees, cold, bitter blowing winds along with some rain/sleet/snow, and I was huddled outside the door waiting for the workers inside to decide it was time to open!! Needless to say, I was never so happy to get inside and have a warm cup of coffee than I was that morning!!)
With all my bags tucked around me in a corner booth and my laptop up and running, the next three hours passed quickly (and uneventfully)! A lot of locals came in for their morning cup of coffee and conversation with other locals, and I realized then that I was in “cowboy country”….hats, boots, belt buckles, and lots of facial hair!! But all of them were friendly and discussing amongst themselves the “big storm” up in Denver and whether it was going to hit New Mexico!
As an interesting side-note, this random stranger (someone who was obviously just passing through because he definitely didn’t have the look of a local) asked me what my laptop said about the weather and road conditions heading towards Denver. After a few minutes of conversation, we realized that we had a lot in common – he was a student at Whitworth years ago, and his mom still lives in the Tri-Cities, WA. Weird how small this world is sometimes!
My ride to the ranch finally arrived at 8:00am and by this time I had been awake for more than 24 hours. We picked up a couple more seasonal workers at a local hotel (and they brought LOTS more stuff than I did, so I didn’t feel too bad about my big ‘ole 50-pound suitcase), then headed off for the ranch (finally)!! Let me just say…..this ranch is VERY remote! It’s only about 30 miles from Raton, but the road getting there is quite bumpy and “rustic” (to say the least)! Then again, the ranch DOES sit on the largest privately-owned piece of land in the United States (on almost 600,000 acres), so it’s only logical that the roads might be more like big gravel driveways than city streets or highways!
After about an hour of bumping along the roads, we arrived at the ranch – a series of houses and cottages surrounding the main lodge and the 2 other buildings (Casa Grande and Casa Minor) that were built years ago by the original ranch owners. The next step was to fill out a bunch of paperwork (which is NOT a good idea when you haven’t slept for 24 hours), meeting lots of new people along the way. I think there are about 40-45 full-time employees who live and work on the ranch year-round, then another 35-40 seasonal employees who work from April to the end of November (like me)!!
So that, my friends, was my first day just getting TO the ranch! I’ll try and write more as time permits about my experiences here….and as always, feel free to email me or post comments to stay in touch!
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