#vanlife in New Mexico

Two weeks gone?

Fully paid?

No work laptop?

No laptop at all?

It's been over 20 years since I could do that.

Granted, for most of that I was self-employed. So paid vacations were not a thing at all.

Being back in the W2 corporate world, we decided to take advantage of accrued PTO for a full two weeks gone.

We made no plans, other than that we wanted to explore places in New Mexico we'd never been to.

We stocked up the campervan and headed out. We ended up visiting southern New Mexico because the weather was better - we aren't setup to deal with snowy forecasts!

We stayed mostly in state parks, because they are only $8-$10 per night. We don't need hookups like during our RV days, but do like having access to bathrooms and showers.

We filled our days exploring, taking photos, and either sampling local restaurants or cooking off the back of the van. We visited museums, sampled some wines, had pie on Pi Day in Pie Town, and were ordered into our van by the police while they apprehended two murder suspects a few campsites sites over.

We finished with two nights in an Albuquerque AirBnB, which gave us some elbow room and let us catch up our laundry.

I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story: