Good-bye, New Mexico! And just when I’m leaving, I see green bulbs poking their head out of the dusty ground. Looks like there is life here after all, emerging only with the conclusion of my vacation — a sort of death, I suppose.
I went for a run this morning around the track at NM Highlands University. It was cold enough for me to see my breath. As I tried to warm up, my joints stiffly settling into a run, I imagined I was still sitting in the hot springs at Montezuma Castle, right outside of town.
On another crisp morning my aunt and I had visited the primative springs, built into the ground with a surrounding coyote fence. There had been one other man there, in the hottest of the pools. My aunt and I got into the smaller, slightly cooler pool below. We all three sat in silence, the steam swirling around us. Then he said, getting out:
“You should try this one. It’s hotter than those, and you can feel the heated mineral water coming up from under you.”
I look in. It’s about 6 feet in diameter, and deeper than I am tall. I can tell immediately it’s hot. There’s no fuckin’ around with this pool.
“The water is heated by volcanic activity, our nearest volcano is right outside of Albuquerque” the man says.
He pauses and we both look skyward. Take a breath of moist air. Dangle our feet in the water.
“Amazing to think that when it first comes out of the ground it’s way too hot… but then it travels hundreds of miles right to this spot and then it’s perfect.”
I look at him and nod my head. “Yeah, that is pretty amazing.” I slide in.
My organs burn in the heat and at first I want to wriggle out of my skin and melt back into the cool morning air. But I find a foot hold and stand, submerged up to my chin in 5 feet of water. 115 degrees. I breathe.
All quiets except for my pulse in my ears, and the thought:
yup…gotta travel hundreds of miles before being ready.
AND SO: PROJECT COUCH-HOPPING WILL CONTINUE…
