Goodbye Saint Louis, Hello Albuquerque!

This morning, we got up early and I said goodbye to all the wonderful things about Saint Louis. Or at least all of the wonderful things that I happened to pass as I drove to the airport.

Anheuser Busch and the Clydesdales



Bud Light Billboards, Bridges, and the Mighty Mississippi



And who can forget the Arch?



The flight to Albuquerque was smooth and relatively quick. I saw lots of fancy geographical things such as these. Of course, out-the-window-of-airplane pictures are never as good as witnessing these things with your own eyes.





Slowly but surely... the flatlands gave way to foothills and the foothills gave way to big hills and the next thing I know we're swooping over the Sandia Mountains and landing in Albuquerque.



The Albuquerque Airport Sunport was nice and offered plenty of opportunities to buy DreamCatchers and Burritos and other Southwesty sorts of things. We passed on the Handmade Indian Drums and headed on over to the Car Rental Center. The lady told me I was down for a PT Cruiser but she could upgrade me to a Mercury Milan. I was like...uh... I'll take the PT Cruiser. And then I go out to get the car and she sent me to the Milan. So I go back in and tell her I wanted the PT Cruiser... and then she claimed that there weren't any. Despite the fact that I saw no fewer than six sitting in their parking lot. I was tempted to argue with the nice lady but...

I didn't want to get off to a bad start in Albuquerque, so we hopped in the Milan with it's black leather seats and contrast stitching and off we went. (Side note: Black leather seats in a super sunny place is never a good idea.)

We cruised down to Central Avenue to find my new apartment and the Tamarind Institute. Then we stopped for a Breakfast Burrito at Bumble Bee's. Carrie has been talking non-stop about burritos for the past month or so, and I'm glad that we got that first one out of the way.





After eating, we called up my landlord and headed over to the new place. It was about what I expected, but I was a little overwhelmed by being there. The Guest House I'm living in is a converted garage. They did a pretty good job with it. It's got "cathedral" ceilings and a nice little kitchen area with a breakfast bar. The place was furnished, and while I'm glad to have a nice dresser and a bed and everything, I could've done without some of the extra decorations.

Here is a picture of the little bed alcove, with corrugated metal walls, bad art, and a skylight (=annoying).



This is looking from the living area into the kitchen through the breakfast bar/dinner table.



And this is looking from the bed alcove into the living area.



There is also a bathroom with a shower and toilet and a good size closet and that's about it.

I felt a little sick from the flight (and the altitude) and I mostly just laid around moaning and groaning while Carrie made a giant list of things that I needed for the new place. (I knew there was a reason I brought her along.) The list was so massive that it required us to make three shopping stops: Wal-Mart, TJMaxx, and Target. The shopping spree was costly, but I was able to get all of the essentials. Basically, all the things I didn't bother to ship because I figured I could just buy them when I got here. My biggest splurges were on new bedding, a Britta water pitcher, and a few sharp kitchen knives.

After hauling all our purchases inside and putting them away, we gathered up our things and went to dinner at a good Thai restaurant on the NW side. Now we're at a hotel for the night. We washed my new sheets and are cleaned up and enjoying being at the hotel. It's sad when you'd rather be a hotel than at your new home... but I guess I'll have to get used to it at some point.

Tomorrow we grocery shop.

P.S. Sabrina, if you're reading this... this is for you: