6 Month Road Trip Off to a REALLY Rough Start!
Black Rock Hot Springs - 10 miles north of Taos.
6 month road trip - Day 1.
Location: Taos, NM Area - camping along the Rio Grande near the black rock hot springs.
Yesterday was a bit rough. I woke up at 5am and hit up the local McDonalds to grab a coffee (Craig, Dunkin’ Donuts is way better) and finalize the school bus video for my friend who’s selling it. I opened up my computer to find my screen was broken…not awesome considering I spent $700 having a replacement screen installed on my MacBook Pro six months ago. On to my service appt at the local truck repair shop. I originally thought my truck repairs would just be a quick $200 brake job but quickly turned into $950 worth of expenses. My truck was in the shop for 7 hours and once in my possession I couldn’t wait to get my extended vacation started. I pull over at a gas station outside of town to fill up and thought I’d check the work I had performed. To my complete disappointment I found one of the boots installed on my rack and pinion was completely mangled. I’d have to drive back into town and have the shop make the corrections…on a scale of 1 to 10 being annoyed, I’d say I was sitting at a solid 4. BUT people make mistakes so I figured I’d have the shop at least try to make it right. I pulled up in front of the shop but not in a specific parking spot, went inside and informed the team what I found when doing the vehicle inspection. I went back to my truck, pulled my new awesome hat down close to my eyes and lowered my head to send a long text message. Once the message was sent I thought it would be a good idea to pull into one of the open parking spaces as to avoid blocking traffic through their busy parking lot. Unbeknownst to me, one of the mechanics had crawled underneath my truck while my head was down. As I began to backup I heard someone yelling and then a slam on my front bumper…I had no idea what was going on so I hit the brakes. Up jumps the mechanic to send a few choice words my way…to which I responded in kind. I suggested he give clients a heads up before crawling under their running vehicles. After a cool off period, I hit the road and just wanted to put all of this in my rearview mirror. The drive to Taos was nice, the scenery along the way is incredibly beautiful. Once you hit New Mexico and start climbing up the Taos Plateau the mix of desert rock and juniper trees, you get the feeling you’re entering a place with some special energy. The hot springs were definitely needed after the extremely challenging start to my day so I couldn’t wait to get there!
Arriving at the canyon rim of the Rio Grande at sunset was incredible, the canyon landscape and river were breathtaking. After driving a bumpy road to the hot springs parking lot, I was met by a friendly couple and their inquisitive 3 year old son who’ve been traveling full-time for 110 days in a Sprinter van. We chatted about various topics of nomadic living, hot springs in the area, and since their son wanted to see my truck I let him romp around in the cab while I set up the back to show everyone where I sleep. I love the good vibes from truly awesome nomads who respectfully conduct themselves on the road, some of the best people I’ve ever met.
The couple retreated to their van to cook dinner so I grabbed my day pack and headed to the trail hot springs along the Rio Grande with Sierra on leash. The couple told me there was one individual still down at the hot springs with a dog. This always concerns me ever since Sierra was viscously attacked in Sedona earlier this year by those German Shepherds. Seeing her neck ripped apart was horrible and I vowed to never allow that to happen again. As we approached the hot springs, the dog approached in an extremely aggressive manner. Sierra crouched behind me as the dog drew near. I yelled out to the individual who I could see in the hot springs…nothing. I kept yelling, no response. So I approached the dog in an overly aggressive manner and that’s when it lurched at a me and Sierra snapping it’s jaws. I had no choice, I tagged it with a short burst of bear spray and decided to leave but not before giving the owner a piece of my mind. He seemed completely out of it…maybe he was on drugs or something. I had to seriously restrain myself when he said he “didn’t feel like” putting his dog on leash and that I just “need to deal with it”. I thought about giving him a Kansas tune up but used my better judgement and decided to leave. This is the part of living on the road which you don’t hear about on IG…the days where it seems the Universe has dealt you a raw hand and frustrations just continue to mount. It’s hard to keep your cool when the entire days efforts were spent to reach this hot springs only to find a completely irresponsible and disrespectful individual with an aggressive dog hogging the hot springs.
Welcome to the other side of Nomadic Living. Things will be better tomorrow.
Click here for more information on the Black Rock Hot Springs.