Category: Uncategorized

ISO The Unicorn City

So, what is it that I’m looking for?

It’s a great question. For those of you who haven’t visited our About Us page, Arthur, Estella, and I are on the search for our Unicorn City. I took some time to figure out a way to determine what will constitute the particular unicorn we’re looking for.

Here’s my Unicorn City List

  • Mid-sized city. Not really looking to live in a big city or a small town. I’m ok with some high rise buildings, but I’d prefer to be in a city/town under 150,000 people.
  • College town. There’s a lot of pull for me, with my background in academia, to be in or near a college/university town.
  • Good library. I think a community with a good library says a lot about that community. I like to stop at local libraries when I’m in a town and checking out what kinds of events they offer to the local folks and buy used books.
  • Close to a major airport. Just because we settle down, I don’t expect my desire to travel will abate, so I’d like to be close (within an hour to an hour-and-a-half) to a decent airport.
  • Nice people/ Good vibes. When I visit the different cities, I’m trying not to just do touristy things. I want to see how people live in that community.
  • Home Improvement Stores. I’m likely gonna need to do some home improvements and, when getting supplies, convenience is important.
  • Decent housing prices. I’m not getting any younger, and I want to be able to travel, so I gotta find a place where I can rent or buy and not go into retirement as a pauper. I also recognize that I may be with Estella for a bit longer than the year I anticipated.
  • Climate plays a big factor in my decision. You know those people who are always cold? That’s never been me. I need to be somewhere with cooler temperatures.
  • Well-rated hospitals/clinics. I think this is also a sign of a strong community. Healthcare, especially as I age, is important. Good healthcare is even more valuable.
  • Diversity. For me, it’s not that the area has a lot of different folks around but that those groups are integrated together – not separate – or at least the community is really working on neighbors being neighborly no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you do.

I’m going to give each city a rating from 0-1 in each category. The cities that are the highest rated will get a closer examination. I’m not 100% sure this is the best methodology yet, so stay tuned.

Cities We Visited

  • Topeka, KS: 8
  • Albuquerque, NM: 8.5
  • Gilbert, AZ: 7
  • Camp Verde, AZ: 5
  • Flagstaff, AZ: 8
  • Winslow, AZ: 3.5
  • Sedona, AZ: 3.5
  • Prescott, AZ: 9
  • Morro Bay, CA: 5
  • Corvallis, OR: 8
  • Salem, OR: 8.5
  • Portland, OR: 7
  • Missoula, MT: 8
  • Jackson, WY: 5.5
  • Fort Collins, CO: 7
  • Colorado Springs, CO: 8
  • Manhattan, KS: not info to rate…although I was not a fan of being in KS during tornado season
  • Minneapolis, MN: 7.5
  • Wheeler, WI: 4.5
  • Springfield, IL: 8
  • Chicagoland, IL: 8
  • Grand Rapids, MI: 8.5
  • Ann Arbor, MI: 9
  • Syracuse, NY: 7
  • Buffalo, NY: 9
  • Shelburne, VT: 4
  • Bethlehem, NH: 4
  • Bangor, ME: 6.5
  • Prince Edward Island, Canada: 9
  • Baltimore, MD: 8
  • Greensboro / High Point, NC: 7.5
  • Myrtle Beach, SC: 6 (although the number of pancake-centric restaurants was inspirational)
  • Hilton Head Island, SC: 5.5
  • Gainesville, GA: I don’t think I explored enough to rate this one.
  • Houston, TX: 7
  • Austin, TX: 8

Over time, I did make some adjustments to my list, but the finalists are the greater Chicagoland area in IL, Grand Rapids / Ann Arbor, MI, Buffalo, NY area, and Prince Edward Island in Canada. Since I can’t work in Canada, I can only hope to visit it more often and maybe spend my retirement years there.

Holiday Cheer in NM

Have Car. Will Travel.

Celebrating the holidays was going to look a bit different this year. I did have some decorations because I love Christmas and couldn’t go without anything. While I enjoyed the glow of some twinkly lights and my Christmas countdown calendar, I made some plans.

I found a farm-to-table dinner hosted by Big Jim Farms as a part of their Winter of Enchantment holiday location off of Montano Road, and I booked that for December 28. I also found that the Albuquerque Zoo had a holiday light display, River of Lights, that was highly reviewed from prior years, so I booked that for Saturday night. Then I found a book club at the Taylor Ranch branch of the Albuquerque library on Saturday at 2.

I wish I would’ve taken a single picture at the dinner, but – alas – I did not. In addition to dinner, there was also a wine pairing with each round. The food was delightful, and I would say the soup course was my favorite dish. But the best part of dinner was the company.

I’ve never been to one of these types of dinners alone, so – at best – I thought it’d be a bunch of strangers, sitting down together and making awkward conversation. Perhaps it was because my expectations were so low or because almost everyone who showed up that night was in good spirits, but I had a wonderful time. When I first sat down, I immediately found a kindred spirit, and we started to chat. Unfortunately, we had to move when a family of five showed up. Since we were the only singles, we had to adjust.

I ended up near the family of five, two adult couples and their Mom. I was also by another young couple. The conversations ranged from work to family to adventures to school to where we grew up to why we’d moved to pets to the holidays. It was a beautiful reminder of how strangers can come together and just be open to conversation and laughter.

My well-booked Saturday also included a trip to the laundromat. Even though the RV park had laundry, it was a bit too fancy for me and required an app. I just wanted to use my plethora of quarters in a traditional laundromat, so I found one of those with good reviews, which was not as easy as it sounds. The Corrales Laundromat was clean, everyone was kind, and my laundry got clean. Perfect.

So, I only just finished The Girl on the Train before the bookclub at the library. It was a lively discussion with a bunch of folks from all walks of life. We ended up talking a lot about alcoholism and co-dependent behavior, and people were really comfortable revealing quite a bit about themselves – whether they meant to or not. The leader of the group was just fantastic at leading a bunch of different people around a complicated plot with a variety of characters as well as the book. 😉

I’ll let the River of Lights speak for itself. It was beautiful, and they had hot chocolate with Baileys.

Were there Mishaps? Of course there were.

A reminder of the Mishap Scale >>> (🍫 = minor; 🍫🍫 = ordinary; 🍫🍫🍫 = embarrassing; 🍫🍫🍫🍫 = terrible; 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫 = not enough chocolate in the RV to recover)

  • So, remember how excited I was to use my stockpile of quarters? Yea, I forgot them when I went to the laundromat. 🍫🍫
  • Also, I treated myself to some Starbucks on the way to do laundry, and I got oatmeal with brown sugar, blueberries, and nuts – my fav. I was going to enjoy this while doing my laundry but, sadly, there was no spoon. 🍫 I honestly thought I should bring a spoon just in case, but I didn’t.
  • It did get a bit colder this weekend, and my rental’s tires did not love that, so I did end up at a gas station and refilled the tires. 🍫

Key Takeaway

I don’t know if living alone in the van since mid-November was kinda starting to get to me or what, but that dinner was a glorious reminder that I do enjoy talking with people, and that – surprisingly – people like talking with me, too. Somehow, it felt like the art of conversation had left me but nah – it was just on a holiday until I decided to live in an RV and travel across the country and meet stranger after stranger.