Travel Diary: 2023 Tour through New Mexico - Part 3
We dropped the Vanagon off at F.A.S.T. Foreign Auto on Monday morning for diagnosis. The drive from camp into Santa Fe was a tough one, with the van basically running on three cylinders. When we arrived, we met with the shop owner’s son, Jim, who manages the place. He couldn’t have been nicer! We felt the van was in really good hands. Their lot was filled with VW Buses and Vanagons!
While they were looking at the van, we needed something to pass the time and keep our minds off the situation. There’s one place in Santa Fe that will do just that and seemingly transport you off the planet: Meow Wolf!
Meow Wolf is an immersive art experience that is truly like no other place. It’s FAR from your traditional art installation, to say the least! Located in a former bowling alley/strip mall, Meow Wolf is an art collective that was formed in 2008. There are multiple locations throughout the USA, but the one in Santa Fe is the original. ‘The House of Eternal Return’ is an installation featuring many local artists and boasts over 70 rooms containing weird, mind-blowing (and a little bit creepy) exhibits!
When you visit The House of Eternal Return, you are encouraged to explore and attempt to solve a mysterious scientific tragedy using clues spread throughout the house. This interactive and otherworldly experience is a ton of fun for people of any age. If solving a mystery isn’t your thing, you can have just as much fun casually walking through and taking in all the mesmerizing art pieces.
Nothing is as it seems at Meow Wolf. Our best piece of advice when visiting for the first time? If you see a handle or knob, give it a pull. You’d be surprised where it may lead you. There are hidden doors throughout the whole complex. For instance, the refrigerator opens into another room! Also, the clothes dryer opens up to a slide, which deposits you down into another room.
We put together this fun little compilation of our time at Meow Wolf. We hope you enjoy!
After four hours exploring the colorful kaleidoscope of art and imagination that is Meow Wolf, we STILL hadn’t heard from the shop. By then it was lunch time, so we took an Uber to Second Street Brewery at The Railyard, where we knocked down some mediocre beers and a couple of sub-par burgers. Our bellies were full, so it did the job, I suppose.
As we were leaving the brewery to peruse some local shops to kill more time after lunch, we finally received a phone call from the shop. The news was not good. Our van’s engine had a dead cylinder. Shit.
Jim told us we could pick up the van and take it for the evening so we’d have a free place to sleep. The owner wished to meet with us the next day (Tuesday) to discuss our options. It was decision time. What was our next move? We would have plenty of time to discuss things at camp that evening.
The van was running very poorly, so we decided it would be best to just return to the same camp as the night before. It was a very quiet time sitting by the campfire that evening. We were absolutely gutted. We spent a lot of time discussing our options, and we even threw around the idea of buying a new van. That idea, however, made us sick to our stomachs.
We were fortunate to enjoy a very pretty sunset in what would be our final camp in the Vanagon for the week.
Even though we were in this unfortunate predicament, we were keeping our spirits high. Our van could have broken down in much worse places. Plus, the van would be in really good hands for repair.
Part 4 coming soon!
Andrew