West, or bust.

After over eight years living in NYC, and in a flurry of recent events, I now live in south cental Colorado.  Forgive the scarcity of posts regarding the transition, as we still do not yet have internet. I am instead pecking out this post on my phone.

We live in the San Luis Valley, the highest alpine desert in the world.  The valley is also deceivingly wide.  Locals describe the area like a tea cup.  The county and valley seat is Alamosa, population somewhere between 8500 and 10,000, which is the tea cup's saucer. That is where I will work in a mix of inpatient and outpatient settings at the San Luis Valley Medical Center.  It is coldest in Alamosa, often rivaling parts of Alaska and the quasi-Canadian Adirondacks of NY with winter lows to -40º due to the "low" elevation of 7500 feet. 

Originally Nathan and I expected to live in Alamosa, using weekends for excursions to the fun mountains at the edge of the teacup - there are, I believe, nine mountains reaching at/over 14'000 feet (aka 14ers) and many more lower peaks accessible to the valley. 

Then I went for a run in Alamosa during our 3-day whirlwind search for housing. I barely made it four and a half miles.  The valley is FLAT, so much so that mother nature rivals the best civil engineers for its widespread accuracy.  In short, I hated it.  The town is proud of its cross country team, which always wins thanks to thorough altitude training.  Me?  I have no interest in flat and fast racing.  That's not why I run.  Accessing incredible locations by foot, exchanging energy with mother nature (who always has a sense of humor!), creating that warm bubble of everything-is-right-with-the-world amid a cold winter run, the challenge of hills and terrain ... that is why I run.  I was not sure how I would withstand the fact that I had significantly better hill training opportunities in NYC than in this Colorado valley.

So while waiting for return calls for a few more apartments, we decided to pass time by taking the 45 minute trip to Del Norte, a town of 1500(?) that sits at the tea cup's curve.  Think of it as the valley's western edge of the foothills, at 8000' elevation.  Welcoming you to the town is Lookout Mountain, a small peak of (I'm guessing here) 8500-9000 that immediately abuts the south end of town. It even had a white D on its side.  Per locals, Del Norte stayed about twenty degrees warmer than Alamosa on those cold nights, since the super cold air tends to sink down into the saucer instead.  

We expected to have lunch there and maybe hit an antique store or two.  As I exited the car I realized we parked in front of a realtor.  Why not?  We inquired for shits and giggles, but they only do sales, and they directed us just around the corner to a realtor who rents.  Lisa was very personable, and before we knew it we were off viewing a rental house on a ranch just outside of town. 

Three hours later, we signed the lease.

Three bedroom farm house (functionally more like two), one bath, rather clean well water, propane tank for cooking and hot water, heated only wood stove.  It has a doorless garage, so at least our vehicle will be decently covered.   A mere couple hundred yards from the super friendly ranch owner (it has been in his family for multiple

That D mini-mountain is now my local training ground.  I've been on it twice already for over an hour each time, and it was profoundly rejuvenating.  There's even a local vegan friendly cafe on the west side of town (Peace Food Cafe, part of The Organic Peddler), and a micro-brewery (Three Barrel Brewery, I think it is called?).  Instead of trudging through the week and driving all over to make up the difference on weekends, we now have a great version as our homestead.  On weekends, we are a mere 10ish miles from Penitente Canyon, and can run from our house once we figure out what is public land and what is private.  (And once the government decides it needs to function again and federal lands open up again.)

Since integrating photos is not the same on the phone app of blogger, here's what you will see below:

- Bedroom window view to the west.
- Bedroom window view the next day, with snow.
- My hearty breakfast at Peace Food Cafe.
- Day 1 in the house's project: stacking a cord of wood, completed by me while Nathan and our rancher landlord wete inside waxing philosophical (sharing notes, not adversely!).
- Sadie and Nathan checking out a bird.
- Merus, warming up to her new abode.  Why my kittehs love sinks I still do not understand.