I Love New Mexico podcast: Bunny Terry
About the Episode:
We almost called this one “I Love New Mexico beer” because we talk about a lot of great NM breweries with our guest. But Patrick is really taking in ALL that New Mexico has to offer as a recent transplant (or TX as he taught us), including beer, food, hikes and learning to make ristras! How cool is that? Learn more about why you should love Albuquerque (including all the Breaking Bad filming spots) and why you should certainly love Patrick Currier, our new favorite NM transplant!
Links:
Patrick’s Instagram
Patricks’s blog
Patrick’s Etsy shop
Bunny’s website
Buy Lifesaving Gratitude Book
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
Sierra Blanca Brewing Company
Bow & Arrow Brewing Co.
Featuring:
Patrick Currier
Patrick is a recent transplant to New Mexico from Colorado. Patrick runs a fun and informative blog and Instagram page dedicated to his new life in New Mexico. His travel blog of a recent details adventures in hiking, drinking, eating, and all things New Mexico has to offer. Check out more about Patrick in the links above.
Episode Transcript
Bunny: 0:10
Hi there and welcome to , I love New Mexico podcast. I’m your host Bunny Terry and I am joined by my co-host and producer and daughter, Johanna Medina. And we have a special guest today. We became friends with Patrick Currier on Instagram, and he is a New Mexico transplant from elsewhere. Who’s who’s completely embraced. Um, what New Mexico is all about and is sort of, I think of it as sort of eating with a fire hose or drinking with a fire hose. Patrick you are immersing yourself in life, in New Mexico. So I we’d love for you to tell our listeners your story and how you got here and, and how that’s going.
Patrick: 0:58
Yeah, absolutely. The first time I really came to New Mexico was 2015, I believe, and came down just cuz I wanted to go to Fiesta. And unfortunately the weather did not cooperate that year, but it still allowed me to go out and explore Albuquerque and living in Colorado, being born and raised, I was ready for a change. Colorado’s just blown up in terms of popularity and wanting to live there. So it just became very overcrowded. And the things I liked to do were just becoming incredibly difficult to do hiking going to baseball games and just the traffic. So decided it was time for a change and Albuquerque came to mind. So kind of on a whim sold my house, quit my job, bought a house down here, side unseen and here I am and I am loving every second of it.
Bunny: 1:57
Wow. Wow. That’s a , that’s a huge leap of faith. When you say Fiesta, you mean Balloon Fiesta, right?
Johanna: 2:04
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuz I think she’s asking too , because when we in Santa Fe we have fiestas too, but it’s different kind of fiestas. So… Well there’s lots of fiestas in New Mexico, but um , balloon fiestas, definitely the most popular, right. It’s huge.
Bunny: 2:24
Oh, and it’s it’s I think it’s one of it certainly is the most heavily attended event in the state of New Mexico. And it’s the most photographed event in the world. I don’t know. You guys knew that you probably do, but um, well what do , tell us what you’re doing now, tell us I want you to talk a little bit about your Instagram feed because you are really doing some cool stuff.
Patrick: 2:52
Yeah. So when I first moved down here, years ago in Colorado, I was blogging a little bit and I always had a huge passion for journalism. And so when we first came down here, I was wanted to take advantage of the opportunity living in a new state for the first time. So just started taking photos of immersing myself in the culture. Like one of the earliest experiences I did down here was wanting to learn how to make ristras which I had never, I had seen what they are, but had no clue really what they were. So that was my first I’ll call it tourist thing that I did. And then the journalism, it just came back. So I decided to start writing about my experiences on top of taking photography of it. So everything is just all things, New Mexico , hot air balloons, food culture, the museums down here, everything is so unique with how historical the state is that I’m learning so much. It seems like on a daily basis.
Bunny: 3:57
And what, so tell me some of the… I mean making ristras, that’s, amazing. I , it’s never, I’ve never thought about trying to make Aster before, but that’s pretty ambitious. Like what are some of the coolest things that you’ve done that you think, oh my gosh… This, I wanna do it again, or I would never, ever miss the opportunity to introduce my friends, to this great place, this great experience.
Patrick: 4:29
What I really like is the , accessibility to hiking out here that anywhere down here, going to just the real grand and being right along the edge of the river, that’s just something I never got to experience. Colorado has a lot of just reservoirs that you can walk around, but here 20, 30, even 45 minutes, you’re totally changing the climate that you’re in. You can go from being in a desert environment to being in the mountains. And uh, still even to this day, like I love going down to old town in Albuquerque just because there’s so much to do down there other than just shop. There’s all these great pieces of art that I like showing off to people. There’s a couple museums down there that are really cool to show people. Like recently I discovered that , uh, there’s a museum in the back of the church gift shop that has the original bell from the 1800 still preserved in it that you just don’t see unless you actually look around and truly explore your environment.
Bunny: 5:34
Oh, we used to spend, because I raised Johanna and her brother in Albuquerque. So we lived there for 20 years I think. We used to spend Christmas in Old Town, so I’m just gonna tell you, if you haven’t done that, that’s a pretty cool experience to go down and spend Christmas there. But like you said, if you can be hiking along the Rio Grande, but in like 20 to 30 minutes, you can you know, go up through Cedar Crest and be in the mountains. I mean, I’m sure you’ve done that, right?
Patrick: 6:12
Yeah. I’ve done a few of the hikes around the Sandias , the La Luz and yeah, 40 minutes from my house. And I’m totally transformed into a different transported into a different environment and just back in nature and just , I’ve not gotten to experience that in years and just, it’s just awe-inspiring and then going to the crest of the Sandias and just looking down on in the valley, that is Albuquerque one of my favorite things every day , ironically, is when I’m driving to work, I work in , uh, downtown Albuquerque and I love how I turn onto the road and I have the Sandias to the east, the volcanoes to the west. I just have this awesome view every day of Albuquerque down in the valley. And it’s just one of the favorite parts, one of my favorite parts of every day .
Bunny: 7:02
That is so cool because that’s part, I mean, that’s, that’s what I have here. You know, we live in a place where, when I’m driving home in the afternoon, I ha the entire Haas , uh, that mountain range is in front of me. And I’m like, I think how, who gets to live like this? Who gets to live in such beauty all the time. And we can’t, we , we really can’t talk about New Mexico without talking . I think you’re doing a great job of , um, experiencing breweries, which is certainly close to mine. And Johanna’s heart talk , talk about the breweries you’ve been to that’s, that’s a very new Mexican , uh, you know, something that didn’t exist when I was a child, but , um, how cool is that now?
Patrick: 7:46
Oh, I love it. And this goes back to me, living in Colorado. I mean, we have the largest beer festival every year in Colorado and an abundance of craft breweries. So definitely love going to the different tap rooms. Most of the time I’m at marble, I live really close to one of their locations, but , um, love going to Ex Novo up in Corralles, Bow and Arrow. And then one of the ones I made the road trip to recently just cause love the beer and wanted to see the tap room was I made the trip to , Moriarty to go to Sierra Blanca, which was a great scenic drive. They have an awesome tap room, really friendly staff
Johanna: 8:28
That one’s cool. Did you get to do the tour there? I dunno if they’re still doing after COVID but it’s cool.
Patrick: 8:35
No , they were really friendly and inviting though and had no issues showing us around, but just the massive space they have in the beer garden. My dog was in heaven, just being outside there.
Johanna: 8:47
<laugh> yeah, that’s cool. I love that brewery too, because they make the green chili beer there. So if you get inside, you can smell all, all the green chile and it just it’s like quintessential New Mexico in there.
Bunny: 9:00
That’s pretty cool because we used to always buy that green chile beer, anytime that , my son was coming home from college to be like, we gotta have the green chili beer in the fridge, so we definitely need to include a link from them. There’s also some cool little brewery up in Tijeras or Cedar Crest. Have you been there yet?
Patrick: 9:22
I don’t believe I have. Um, I know I went to a couple really small ones in the red river here . <laugh>
Johanna: 9:30
There’s probably a few, we might have to narrow it down. <laugh>
Bunny: 9:33
Okay. We’re gonna have to look it up and figure it out. Yeah.
Johanna: 9:35
It’s just expanding the amount of breweries. I think we have like, you know, just, yeah , even from 2018, like three times, as many as we had, then I haven’t counted in a long time, but at that point it was like 50 something breweries just in the Albuquerque Metro area or no in New Mexico, but in Albuquerque, there’s just, I can’t even count. There’s so many, it’s just blowing up the brewery scene. <laugh>
Bunny: 10:00
Well, and then there’s the one you went to Johanna at the Red River Brewing company. That’s the one that, that we all have to go to at some point. Wasn’t that one. A cool one.
Johanna: 10:10
Yeah, it’s really cool. Was that one open when you were in red river, Patrick, when you moved down?
Patrick: 10:15
It was I went there multiple times and really actually on top of the brewery aspect of love that they were a distillery as well and got to do a spirit flight there, which was a first time experience too. So that was really unique. And , recently saw their agave spirit down here and definitely looking forward to buying a bottle and getting to enjoy that again.
Johanna: 10:37
<laugh> yeah. Yeah. I spent way too much money there cause I got, I think I got a bottle of vodka and gin, cuz they were all really good. I could have bought every liquor they had on top of how good their beer is. <laugh>
Patrick: 10:49
Yeah.
Johanna: 10:50
And the space is really cool too. I think it’s
Patrick: 10:53
Oh, it was gorgeous there.
Johanna: 10:54
Like such a cool place to hang out.
Bunny: 10:56
Well, so and what about food? I’m dying to know cuz that’s sort of our great love is the New Mexico dishes. Where, where have you been? What have you , um, I mean, if we went to your Instagram account, would we see a mostly pictures of food or mountains? I’m really curious.
Patrick: 11:13
A lot of food , uh, a lot of mountains, a lot of hot air balloons. I get a lot from my backyard every day . So I have a , my photo album is blowing up with hot air balloon photos. Um, as far as restaurants, I honestly have not been to many. Um, but I do enjoy cooking at home a lot. So I have dived into , uh, New Mexico, iconic dishes, my like learning how to make green chili stew , red chile, lots , uh, trying to learn how to make Biscochitos, which has been a fun process.
Bunny: 11:50
<laugh> oh , it’s hard.
Johanna: 11:51
That’s a hard one. Yeah . <laugh>
Bunny: 11:54
And what about I think you’re, you’re the perfect person to , give advice to somebody who’s considering to move here or um, perhaps you know , they have you know, somebody who’s gonna have to maybe they’re not excited about moving here. Maybe they’re having to take a job up at the labs or down at San. They’re not completely sure that this is where they wanna live. I’d love you’re somebody who’d be perfect for giving advice.
Patrick: 12:26
Yeah. I mean , I was terrified about moving. I had only ever lived in Colorado, so it was a huge change for me. But it was a huge risk I took and I mean, it definitely paid off you know, do your research on areas on what you wanna live, but as far as what your hobbies are, there’s everything out here and nothing is a far drive. I mean, even Albuquerque to Santa Fe, you’re there in an hour, which is nothing by comparison. And uh, I would just recommend take a long weekend down here and really just see what the culture’s all about. Wow . It’s pretty, I it’s made New Mexico sold itself.
Johanna: 13:09
Yeah. What do you think are the biggest differences? I mean like coming from Colorado to New Mexico, you know, it’s , it’s our neighbor, but we found a lot of big, I mean, what , what are the things that surprised you the most about being different from Colorado? Moving down here to New Mexico?
Patrick: 13:25
Uh , so the big stigma that people have about Colorado is that Denver is in the mountains and that is not remotely close. The size of the mountains make them look really close, but you’re still looking at an hour to an hour and a half drive just to get into them. And that’s assuming traffic is good that day. And then if , and then unfortunately just cuz of the popularity of Colorado, if you’re not on the other side of the , uh, tunnel to leave the mountains by a certain time, you’re looking at a three, four hour drive to get home as opposed to here, the Sandy is only 10,000 feet, but it looks much larger and you can be there in no time. So that’s the biggest thing is how close you actually are to nature here versus in Colorado. People think it’s just this massive nature thing and it’s really more urban than anything. And it’s a decent commute to get out of that environment.
Johanna: 14:24
Yeah, that’s true. I wouldn’t have thought, I mean, I’ve been to Colorado, I’ve been to Denver, but I never really considered that. Cuz you do hear that. You’re like, oh, go to Colorado cuz it’s you’re in nature and you can hike all the time, but yeah it is. And it’s growing so much so I know the traffic is getting worse and worse.
Patrick: 14:40
But just when I was made the drive down here, just going down 25, it used to be Denver, huge gap. Then you’re in Colorado Springs, then huge gap. And now it’s just kind of one continuous city <laugh> with the growth of everything.
Bunny: 14:56
Yeah. And that’s uh , I mean I think that’s one of the charm the , the big charm of New Mexico is that it really is still not a very heavily populated area. I mean there are , I mean we had some comments on the first podcast where somebody said, oh , it’s, you know, it’s too crowded. It’s, you know, people stay home and I’m like, no, we all, everyone came here at some point as a newcomer. You know, my family came a hundred years ago. Some families came 300 years ago. You know, this guy who made the comment came, you know, 30 years ago. But um, this still is a state where we have a lot of space and we haven’t outgrown our , um, infrastructure. So you’re right. If you’re in Albuquerque, it is. I used to say, when we lived in Albuquerque, you’re a half hour from everything.
Johanna: 15:43
Yeah. I remember. So obviously growing up in New Mexico, I’m so used to how it is here. That kind of like Patrick said, like you like driving from one city to another, you really see the , you see the space, you see the difference between one town to another. And I, when I go anywhere else like California, or even when we lived in North Carolina and there would just be towns everywhere, or even in Texas, I’m like, what is this? This is so weird that this just town and town and town I’m so used to space in between everything and seeing the , the difference like a , between each city or each little town that you can actually tell where one ends and one begins as opposed to so many other places. I don’t really know if there’s other states that are like that the way New Mexico is
Patrick: 16:28
None that I’ve been to <laugh> .
Johanna: 16:30
Yeah.
Bunny: 16:31
So have you done any road trips? Are there any places that you’ve driven to , um, you know, like done a day trip or maybe gone for a weekend down south? Is there anything that you’ve done outside of Albuquerque that you wanna let our listeners know about?
Patrick: 16:47
Um, not really. Like I said before , settling in Albuquerque, we did spend time in Red River and Taos, which was really nice. I did get to experience some of that. I did not get to see the Taos Pueblo, unfortunately. So I would like to go back up and spend some time in the Gorge, but nothing too far outside of Albuquerque. Uh, there is definitely , um, on my bucket list of places. I do want to go down to T or C and spend some time in the hot Springs and , I’m a big route 66 fan. So I definitely do want to make the Trek down to up to Tucumcari. So that’s just gonna be some planning and timing getting some time off work to be able to make a long weekend out of it and make that happen. But definitely sooner than later,
Johanna: 17:38
Hopefully. Yeah, that was gonna be my next question. What’s on your bucket list or what , what is your plans to see? But yeah, those are great places. I think mom and I drive by Tucumcari so often we forget that it’s like such a cool place to stop and that it is route 66 and I mean, we’ve taken a million pictures of the blue swallow <laugh> , but , it’s definitely worth visiting and then, and going down south and I mean, I’ve still never even been to white sands and I’ve lived here my whole life. So I think there’s always things that like your bucket list will keep growing and growing. Yeah, no, I’ve never been <laugh> isn’t that crazy? I just need to, like ,
Bunny: 18:18
I’ve never been to Carlsbad caverns and I’ve lived here my entire life, so yeah. I think maybe we should start a list of what we haven’t . I mean, maybe we need to have a New Mexico bucket list going and then as one of us, you know, Patrick, as you go mm-hmm <affirmative> , you could fill us in or as , as we , you know, I think that’s a whole different , different conversation is here’s my bucket list. Here’s what I’m gonna fill it in. And, and here’s when you’re gonna see an Instagram post on it.
Patrick: 18:46
And then , the other thing I’m starting to work on is up until I recently, I’ve actually never watched , Breaking Bad. It took me moving down to Albuquerque to start watching that show. So now I’m also all about scouting out the filming locations. I happen to work right across the street from once , so that’s pretty cool that I get to see that every day , but that’s also now like little mini Albuquerque day trips to go see all those filming locations. <laugh>
Johanna: 19:12
Oh yeah. That’s fun. I had a cousin who visited and we tried to do some of like, we saw the house and the hot dog stand and everything, but I knew went to the isotopes game right last weekend where , uh, Brian Cranston where they were there at the game.
Patrick: 19:29
Yeah,
Johanna: 19:30
How cool was that? <laugh>
Patrick: 19:31
That was great. Um, the past two weekends actually I’ve been to the isotopes game. My dad came down two weeks ago and we’re both huge baseball fans and that night they were doing Duke’s throwback night and my dad being a huge baseball fan. That was something he enjoyed cuz some of the old time players were there. And then , uh, when I was there, they did an ad for the game last Saturday with Brian Cranston. So I went home and instantly jumped on the computer and bought tickets to that game, which was a blast.
Johanna: 20:02
Yeah. I heard that, that I know my dad wanted to go to that game. He was like, it was already sold out and, but that’s so cool.
Bunny: 20:09
So those guys are gonna be on Better Call Saul , right. I mean, is that what’s happening? Is that why we’re having all this huge promo?
Patrick: 20:16
I think so. And then , they also , uh, Brian Cranston and Aaron Paul partnered and made a mescal together and they were promoting that , getting released into liquor stores and places around the state.
Johanna: 20:31
Yeah. And we just, they put up a statue of their Breaking Bad characters. Right. Is that downtown somewhere?
Patrick: 20:37
Yeah. It’s in the Albuquerque convention center. So I’ll probably be heading down there at some point this week to try to get pictures of that before I go to work. So I’ll be posting about that.
Johanna: 20:46
Yeah, I think it’s so I think it’s so funny that that’s like, if people don’t know anything about New Mexico, at least they know us from breaking bad <laugh> but that’s our claim to fame now.
Bunny: 20:57
So the next thing you wanna watch Patrick is Dark Winds, which is a series on AMC that is based on a Tony Hillerman movie. We’re gonna be interviewing Anne Hillerman, who is Tony Hillerman’s daughter. But she now there is a series on AMC that is based on the first few, it’s an amalgamation of the first few Tony Hillerman books. And Tony Hillerman wrote mysteries that were set in the Navajo nation and they were Navajo police it’s about several Navajo police officers. And so , Dark Winds, which we just finished watching and it was amazing was filmed mostly in New Mexico. And , put that on your bucket list to watch because , um, those are , those are the guys that we’re gonna I don’t know. We’re gonna , we’re gonna work hard to see if we can at least have a conversation with them, but it’s very authentic. It’s I used to live in Farmington. I know that’s how the reservation list. So put that on your bucket list as another New Mexico based series that you don’t wanna miss.
Patrick: 22:06
Absolutely.
Johanna: 22:07
So tell people too , let’s um, you know, plug all your things. What’s your Instagram and you have an Etsy shop now, right?
Patrick: 22:15
I do two weeks old. Um <laugh> so my Instagram handle is the underscore NM underscore TX. A lot of people always ask if I’m from Texas. No. Um, the TX is actually, cuz I work in healthcare and TX is our medical shorthand for transplant. So that’s the whole basis behind my name. And then I recently opened an Etsy shop selling some of my photography. Uh, I added some digital prints this past weekend, which I will be posting about at some point this week and as well, I have , collage postcards of just photos that I’ve taken around the state that I really like. And then , uh, every Wednesday is when I post my newest blog. So tonight’s will be coming up in a few hours. It is baseball themed due to the past couple weeks and that’s everything I have going on right now.
Johanna: 23:12
Yeah. Is your, what is your blog called? Is it the same?
Patrick: 23:15
It’s the NM_TX.
Johanna: 23:17
Okay. It’s the same as your Instagram.
Patrick: 23:19
Cool. Yeah.
Johanna: 23:19
I just wanna make sure people didn’t miss that. <laugh>
Patrick: 23:22
And then there’s a link to the Etsy shop in my , um, Instagram bio. And then every week when I post the blog, I just post the direct link to that one.
Johanna: 23:32
Cool. Awesome. Well, I think we’re gonna have to have you back on in a few months and see if your travels have expanded or your bucket list has expanded, so oh, absolutely. Or maybe after Fiesta. It’d be cool to see, will this be your , are you, did you go last year? Were you, I mean you moved right at that time, but were you able to go to Balloon Fiesta last year?
Patrick: 23:53
No. So at that point we were still up in , Red River last year. So I watched the live stream on the news every morning, which was really fun, but I did buy , I already have my tickets for this year, so hopefully the weather cooperates. So this will be my officially first Fiesta, which is also awesome cuz it’s the 50th anniversary. So I picked a good year .
Johanna: 24:14
Oh really cool. <laugh>
Bunny: 24:16
Wow. That so Patrick, one of the things I did when I lived in Albuquerque the very first year I lived in Albuquerque is I volunteered. I got hooked up with this group and I crewed during fiestas. And so , I don’t know if there’s still time for you to do that, but that is up . That is an amazing experience. And I got to fly because I was part of a crew . So we’ll cross your fingers that you get to have the ultimate Balloon Fiesta experience. I mean, I lived here all my life and I still wanna go every single year.
Patrick: 24:51
Nice. Yeah. I was , uh, supposed to go up in one a couple weeks ago, but the wind didn’t cooperate. So hopefully hopefully soon.
Johanna: 25:01
Yeah, yeah. It is one of those things that always depends on the weather and yeah , at least one day you know, is too windy or just not the right weather, but go to both , go in the morning and go to the glow at night. I love the glow. I think that’s my favorite.
Patrick: 25:18
Yeah . That’s what I’m hoping for. Yeah . Going to one of those.
Bunny: 25:20
Well, Patrick, we wanna have you back as a guest . We really appreciate you being here this time. And I love that you are open to every experience that New Mexico has to offer and that you’re doing it. A lot of people move to a new place and there’s , they just settle in and don’t pay attention, but it’s so cool that you are transplanted New Mexico and you’re making the most of the experience. So will you be back, will you come back and visit with this again?
Patrick: 25:46
I would love to come back.
Bunny: 25:48
Okay. Okay. Let’s do it.
Speaker 4: 25:51
Yeah .
Johanna: 25:52
Thank you so much