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Green Chili Cheeseburger

Henry

Day 1

After 3.5 hours of sleep I was off to the airport at 6am. Traffic was just starting up in Boston, but Mom and I had no trouble getting to the airport. I decided to check my bag to save the hassle of potentially running through the Chicago airport with it if I happened to be running late.

After getting through security I got a donut and a bagel with cream cheese from Dunkin’. I mean…what Bostonian can ignore a Dunkin in Boston?

I spent some time playing games and then we were off! It took about 2 hours to reach Chicago and on the way I watched The Hitman’s Bodyguard. 5/5 from me! One great thing about Southwest WiFi is that while you can’t play YouTube, you CAN watch a movie in the background while playing clash of clans. Doing 2 things at once is just the kind of stimulation my brain needs. Also there were 40 ish extra seats on the plane so the seat next to me was empty. Nice!

We landed at 9:45am ish, so I had plenty of time to saunter to my next gate. It was about an 8 minute stroll from the end of A to the end of B. Luckily I didn’t have to run because it was pretty far. I decided that I’d get a light lunch so I wouldn’t ruin dinner. I got an original burger from M Burgers. It was delicious. The next leg of the trip was on the right side of the plane since I discovered that if I got a window seat there I’d be able to see Philmont from above. Pretty neat on a clear day.

The money shot! (Sadly Philmont was behind clouds)

Ok so it was super cloudy and thus I couldn’t see Philmont. By around 1:45pm we were on the ground and around 2:35pm I had picked up my rental car and was on my way to Paul’s house.

After getting settled I went to go visit Nana. It had been over a full year since I had last seen her in person and that felt like a rather long time so it would be great to see her again. You see, I’ve been working on my family tree a lot and it’s nice to share it online / through texts, but wow it’s so refreshing to share it in person. She has been a huge help in my quest for knowledge.

Later it was time to go and I went right to Monroe’s for dinner. I was late since I prioritized a fun goodbye vs a fast good bye at Nana’s. Eating at the restaurant was Brenda, Paul, Sara (Paul’s sister), David (Sara’s son), and Cambri (David’s daughter). It was great to meet David and Cambri for the first time. You might recall that I met Sara in Waco, TX on my trip to Philmont in 2022.

One of the main reasons for this trip was to have a green chili cheeseburger for my birthday and what a burger it was at Monroe’s! Boston doesn’t have hatch green chili’s so it’s sort of impossible to get a green chili cheeseburger at home. I also tried queso for the first time. (Also not really a thing on the east coast.) It’s kind of like a cheese soup for dipping tortilla chips into. The one at Monroe’s was great.

After dinner Brenda, Paul, and I went back to Paul’s house to chill and everyone else headed to their hotel. I watched a little bit of YouTube and ended up going to sleep shortly after. It was a mighty fine day 1 to the trip!

Day 2

On day 2 I got to sleep in a bit. I’m an expert on that at home. At around 12:50pm everyone except Brenda left in David’s luxury rental car to go see a movie. (It seemed like luxury compared to my Chevy Malibu haha). Brenda met us there since she was out adventuring that morning. We saw the movie The Fire Inside, which is about the legendary olympic boxer Claressa Shields. It was pretty good and so I gave it a 4/5 on Letterboxd. (Movie review website.)

After the movie we headed back to Paul’s house and then we split up. I was off to see Nana again! You can’t expect me to be in Albuquerque 3 days and only see Nana once. That’s crazy! I’ll gloss over the details here, but just know we had a great time talking as usual. Later that night I had to leave for dinner and this time we went to D.H. Lescombes Winery & Bistro (aka “the bistro” to the locals). I once again got a green chili cheeseburger and Cambri picked out a random beer for me since I was late again, heh. Thanks! I’m glad it wasn’t a dark beer haha.

After dinner we each went our separate ways again. Back at Paul’s house I spent like 25 minutes scanning a family tree book (that I borrowed from Nana) into my phone with the iScanner app. It’s been super helpful since there are a lot of documents and pictures I’ve been trying to add to the tree. The more sources the better. After that I went to sleep. Day 3 would be a big day after all.

Day 3

Ok so I had to get up around 8:30am to have time to shower, eat breakfast, and freshen up before the big event of the day: the Lobo’s basketball game at The Pit. Paul had wanted to leave super early to beat the game traffic / rush for the seats. It was a good call because there happened to be a car crash on the main route and so we had to detour.

We got there pretty quick and I had seat 16 in row 21 of section F. Before leaving home I searched just about everywhere in the house for my Lobo’s sweatshirt, but I came up empty handed. Not wanting to be outdone at the game I went to get a red t-shirt at the gift shop. Cambri used an infinite credit card supplied by one of our close friends and so I was able to get a nice xl t-shirt to put over my bright turquoise sweatshirt. Unfortunately for me I should’ve gotten an xxl as I don’t think an xl was meant to be the 3rd layer a person would wear. Before sitting down I got a green chili cheeseburger (of course) from the on-site Laguna burger.

The game was awesome! I never watch the Lobo’s at home since I hardly ever watch TV, but apparently their defense was better than usual on game day. Every time the opposition (the hated San Diego St.) would get a free throw the crowd on that side of the court would hold up some funny distracting signs to try to mess up the player. It was vastly entertaining. Also the bass in the arena was bussin (slang for excellent/impressive).

After the game I went to go see Nana, but I had about an hour before seeing her so I decided to explore Up Town Albuquerque for a bit. I went to the Apple Store since there is a lot of cool stuff in there. I also checked out the Barnes and Noble since I would love to read the light novel version of the Apothecary Diaries. Sadly they only had the manga version. Not interested sorry. Soon after leaving I headed to Nana’s and later that night I took her to meet everyone else for dinner at a place called Cervantes.

Now everyone knows I’m a picky eater so it was a bit intimidating for me to order something at an authentic Mexican place since I likely don’t like half the things on the menu. I ended up having a combo plate #1: 1x Taco, 1x Tomale, 1x Enchilada, and a Carne Adovada (everything smothered in green chili) in addition to all the toppings + beans and rice. I HATE beans and rice. So none of that nonsense for me. The enchilada was ok, but definitely lacking compared to the godlike taste of Bill’s enchiladas. I thought it was about time for something other than a cheeseburger.

After dinner I dropped Nana off at her apartment and headed back to Paul’s house. Since it was Saturday that meant that the newest episode of Solo Leveling season 2 would be out! *celebration ensues* I watched that before bed. Sleep was lovely as usual.

Day 4

On Sunday I woke up around 5:30am and was on the road by 6:15am headed to Philmont. I managed to do Albuquerque to the Springer truckstop in one go without cruise control. I had 4 Sanpellegrinos / a bag of chips to keep me company courtesy of Brenda / Paul.

I was a bit worried that the NM dot would close the Raton Pass and I’d have to take the significantly more risky route through Eagles Nest / Red River, but on Sunday morning it looked like the snow had been cleared so I decided to keep Philmont in the plan. That was pretty cool. I took a lot of road pictures for you people at home. Here’s a quick photo montage:

I got to Philmont around 10am. It was pretty much a ghost town since on a random Sunday in January the full timers are off and there really aren’t any buildings open. Luckily the dining hall is basically always open so I headed there after trying a few other buildings. I was in luck! A bunch of my friends were there. It was nice to catch up for a few minutes after being away for so long. Sadly I won’t be coming back to work at the PTC Dining Hall. 🙁

Next thing to do was get a picture before I left. I couldn’t come to Philmont and not at least take a picture of the Tooth of Time! Joey was in Cimarron so I went back into town to meet with him at the Kit Carson restaurant. Not long after I arrived he came in with Shiney. He is the expert at the commissary. Very good to see everyone again and chat.

After lunch I wondered if Joey had any extra Joey stickers and so we all went on a hunt for those. Eventually I ended up at the commissary where I got to say hi to Catherine! Also there were stickers!!! You see, since I came on a Sunday in the off season I knew the PSA office where they are kept would be closed so it would take a miracle to get my hands on one.

After getting the stickler I said goodbye to Joey and headed on my way. There was one more stop I had to make before heading to Denver: Mollie’s house. She was busy when Joey, Shiney, and I were at the Kit Carson restaurant. It was great to catch up with her and see her gnome collection.

Next I was off to Denver since I had missed seeing Julia. (She is a full time kitchen manager / expert baker at Philmont.) I usually am pretty obsessive / borderline annoying about seeing people far away since I don’t know when the next time I’ll drive through.

Around 1:15pm I was finally off to Denver to see my cousin Linda. (Technically she lives outside the city, but for privacy I’m going to just say Denver). I had met her through researching the family tree and I’ve emailed her several times, but we’ve never see each other face to face. She is on my Dad’s side of the tree, which is the side I’ve been working on the most. There’s about 900 people on that side so far and I’m always very excited to talk to a living member.

Anyways, I was able to drive through the Raton Pass and I managed to drive from Cimarron, NM to Castle Rock, CO in one go without cruise control. I’ll admit that my foot was starting to hurt real nice by the time I pulled over for gas. Currently my record is around 8 hours no / cruise control / solo / nonstop. I might have to give up on beating that as I get older.

It was relatively easy to get to Linda’s house. I got to meet her son Steve and his wife Lara for the first time in person too. Linda has a pet cat named Colfax, so she was around for the party as well.

Dinner was awesome! Linda is a great cook. I had asked her not to include rice, brussel sprouts, or grapefruits in the meal as those are foods I’d just flat out refuse to have. (Similar to my dislike of beans, but I just can’t tolerate these choices.) I figured if I kept my picky eater list to just 3 things out of 80 that would be best.

During dinner we chatted about various things. (I’m glossing over the dinner conversation for privacy). After dinner Steve and Lara left to go back home to their pets and so Linda and I discussed the tree a bit more. I clarified a few things for her and she for me so it was super worth it. (Even if I wasn’t doing the tree it would’ve still been very fun to go say hello).

Before bed I scanned a 360 page book into my iPhone. I’m fine with the digital copy and such since it would be kind of a hassle to bring the physical book to Boston, read it, then return it to Linda through the mail. Plus it negates the chance it would get lost or damaged while on its adventure.

Day 5

On Monday I left Linda’s at around 10am after a delicious breakfast and a quick goodbye meow to Colfax.

It was a short 1 hour 10 minute drive to cousin Ashley’s house in Windsor. Windsor is pretty big so I feel like it’s ok to share it in the blog without ruining her house location.

Once I got there I got immediately greeted by the many woofs and awoooooo’s of her dogs: Calvin, Violet, and Bear. Bear is around half my size but on all fours. He is huge, but so kind! Calvin and Violet like to say hi too, but they are not as intimidating since they are a lot smaller.

After putting away my bags I chilled a bit with Ashley and the pets. About an hour later we went to a local brewery to have some beer and chat. There is good news: Ashley went from a “Hell no!!” to a “perhaps” when it comes to the topic of skydiving. So that means good things are on the horizon. Caleb is invited too of course.

After having a flight of beer we headed to a local taco place called Torchy’s Tacos and tried some lovely food. I got a both Democrat and Republican taco since I consider myself an Independent more often than not.

After lunch in Fort Collins we went back to Ashley’s house and relaxed while Ashley looked over what I had on her part of the family tree, as well as the rest of it. I also have some of Caleb’s, but he was away on an exciting business trip so I’ll have to wait until next time to share it with him in person. Maybe by then I’ll have a few more details since it’s a bit sparse at the moment. *Technically it’s Ashley and Caleb’s house, but I shortened it because it’s easier to type in a short name rather than a long one while traveling.

Dinner was sort of whatever I wanted so we decided on pizza. Ok, so Ashley and Caleb prefer to keep things local with a Papa Murphy’s and there is nothing wrong with that, but I still get a minor case of ptsd when I think about last time I did that sort of thing. So I looked around and I discovered a place on the northern edge of Fort Collins.

Story Time

On my trip to Aztec Ruins in New Mexico, Graham and I stopped at a pizza place in Farmington, NM. The reviews were good and such so we headed inside. We ordered a large pizza with a bunch of toppings. It was ready in I kid you not…30 seconds. We paid and went back to the car. Graham noticed first, but we basically had one of those “hmmm how did they do it so fast” moments. When we opened the box it wasn’t cooked! Ahhhhhh! It turned out on further inspection that it was a take home pizza location. At the time I had never heard of such an inefficient concept so it was a bit shocking when I discovered it. We were about 265 miles from an oven that we could use to cook the pizza.

5 hours later we walked into the kitchen at Philmont and asked to use an oven like 30 minutes before people started locking up the kitchen. I remember the manager (name redacted) had this look of “where on God’s green earth did you get that”? (Paraphrasing for the elders reading this blog). Ever since then I’ve decided I’d never do that again. The pizza was good. It’s just me making a mistake in the official plan?? That’s almost unheard of and it doesn’t sit well with me when it happens.

Back to The Blog

So Ashley wanted to go to Papa Murphy’s, which happens to be one of those traumatizing places where you order, pick it up, and cook it at home. Meanwhile I discovered a place north of Fort Collins that looked promising.

It took me about 50 minutes to drive to / from the pizza place. Kind of long, but it’s totally possible to get the pizza back hot if you drive fast like me. “If you can’t see it, it’s not there” is my go-to catchphrase when driving at night.

Don’t see a cop car on the side of the road? 

Then it’s not there!

Don’t see a deer on the side of the road?

Then there isn’t one!

Some people point out some totally false opinions with this idea, but they are just continuing to stress themselves out by worrying about what they can’t see.

Anyway, I’d say the pizza gets an overall score of 4/5. Pretty good! I took off a point because it becomes kind of weak when cold. A good pizza tastes amazing when both hot and cold I think.

Day 6

Tuesday was the final day of the trip. I got up at 5:30am and left around 6:10am for the airport. I took a non-toll road and so I was treated to relatively slow traffic and many stoplights. Grrrrr

Before dropping off the rental car I stopped for gas one last time. I had opted out of a prepaid tank in my agreement so I didn’t want to risk Enterprise charging me for missing fuel. Speaking of which, Enterprise was awesome! I thought Owen was quite possibly the nicest rental car employee ever. I had gotten to the airport super early like usual so I spent about 30 minutes eating breakfast and then an hour finishing up the blog. The plane boarded on time and I had another free seat next to me! That’s unheard of in my travels.

I got to Logan airport on time, but the trip home by taxi would cost a fortune so I opted to take the train. I ran into a few problems though:

  1. There was an oversized bag on the carousel that got stuck and ended up costing everyone 20 minutes. 
  2. I got a 11 minute taxi at 5:35pm.
  3. Train I was hoping for was at 5:42pm.
  4. There was a bruins game at the TD Garden (traffic was a mess).

I ended up missing the 5:42 train by 2 minutes so I waited for the 6:20 train. Booooooo!

Eventually I reached my house and the trip was officially over. Overall it was a great trip and I got to see some many lovely people.

Final Thoughts

I just want to say a final thank you to all the people who hosted me throughout the trip. It was supremely helpful. I also really liked meeting all the new faces. Paul’s Festivities in Albuquerque were quite lovely.

I thought it would be impossible to go to Albuquerque, Philmont, Denver, Windsor AND see a national park, but if I cut out the national parks I could make the trip happen. So family and friends is what this trip was really all about.

Next time BB8 and I will venture off alone to explore whatever. See you next time!

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