New Mexico!

Today is Wednesday, May 28, and we have been in Albuquerque since Saturday evening, May 24. The first part of what follows I have already sent in an email message to family, but I am going to repeat it.

We got up at 5:00 on May 24 and showered and started to load (from within the garage, which was very nice), when a thunderstorm hit around 6, the time we were going to leave, and the tornado siren went off. Our plan was to leave at 6, but we wound up waiting out the storm and ate breakfast at home rather than on the road. We finally left about 7:15 while it was still raining. We ran out of the rain around Vinita, OK, then had good weather from there on. We had no trouble at all navigating through Tulsa and OKC. We stopped for gas 3 times, and each time the price was higher, paying 3.899 the last time. Leslie took over and drove about 300 miles of the trip, including through Amarillo. I took over at Tucumcari, our last fillup, and drove the last 175 miles in. The trip was easier than we anticipated, taking about 13 hours and 20 minutes, including stops, for 759 miles. We listened to the mp3 player from Clinton, OK on.

We stopped for gas in Clinton, where Leslie had lived until after kindergarten. We drove around looking for the old buildings she remembered, but we think they were torn down. Maybe on the way back we will have more information and look around some more.

The terrain changed in western OK and through the panhandle of Texas, until we started ascending toward Albuquerque. Even though Albuquerque sits in a plain to the west of the Sandia mountains, it's at 5000 feet above sea level. So it's also a "mile-high city" like Denver. We are going to take the tram up to the peak of one of the mountains, which is at 10,000 feet, perhaps this evening around sunset. The sky is a deep blue here, and today is brilliant, with low humidity. Tonight we should get good shots of the setting sun. There are lots of things to see around here, and to eat. Last night we went to El Pinto, a large and busy Southwestern restaurant. I would say Mexican restaurant, but the Mexican food around here is different from the typical chains. The Beelers (Mike and Carolyn) are the nicest hosts. They had to leave us Sunday for a wedding in Las Cruces, and they came back Monday morning late. We didn't want to go on another 250 mile trip the day after driving 760, so that's why we stayed. There was plenty to do today around here, anyway.

On Sunday we went to the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center in Albuquerque and toured the museum and ate lunch there. We also saw a group of Acoma Indian dancers dancing two "suites" of dances, one of which was the buffalo dance, the other of which was the rainbow dance. While there we had Indian fry bread with our lunch meal. Very good.

We then went to Old Town in downtown Albuquerque, which for me was something of a bust. It was mainly shops and galleries, but located in the original part of town, which also included the church of San Felipe and the central park.

On Monday we drove west of the city on I-40 to the Petroglyph National Monument, where we went on a 2 1/2 mile hike along the edge of Rinconada Canyon and viewed Indian petroglyphs from as far back as the 1600's, also mixed in with some Spanish & frontier settler carvings. Then we drove up to the Boca Negra Canyon and climbed up to the top of the hill on one trail and then walked two other trails, viewing petroglyphs on each trail.

When we finished we drove back to Alq and invited Carolyn & Mike, who were still on their way back to Alq from the wedding, to join us at the Indian Palace restaurant not far from their house. We had a great meal there. Then they took us out of town to the Tamaya Resort, where "High School Musical 2" was filmed. What a spread there!. It's along the banks of the Rio Grande, on the Santa Ana pueblo grounds. We walked a one-mile trail through the cottonwood trees (the busque, they call it), complete with a par course with exercise stations. Other than the trees and the river, there's nothing else out there on the plain, except for some rock formations and scrubby brush.

The next day, Tuesday, all four of us went to the z00/botanical gardens/aquarium, where we got in to all three on a combo ticket. We had a good time at the botanical gardens (not overly impressive if you have seen high-quality gardens elsewhere), the aquarium (not overly impressive if you have been to the Inner Harbor aquarium in Baltimore), and at the zoo (not overly impressive if you have been to the St. Louis zoo). Still, it was a nice outing.

We came back to eat a salad meal at the Beelers', then Leslie & I drove to the Sandia Peak tram and took a trip up the mountain to the crest for a view of the city at sunset. (What a sight, with Albuquerque in the valley below! It was clear, mild day, the weather perfect. Tonight the tram was closed due to the weather, especially the high winds, so we were fortunate to have gone last night. I took lots of digital pictures up there which I will have to post after we get back home. While up there we had coffee and cake at the High Finance Restaurant, which provides views out its windows. You can see the plain all around for nearly 100 miles. We could see Santa Fe's lights 60 miles away.

Today, Wednesday, Leslie & I traveled west on I-40 to Acoma Indian Pueblo, a really interesting trip. We had some trouble finding the place, but eventually we did, passing by many mesas on the way, plus impressive and sublime rock formations. You have to pay a $10 fee to take pictures on the pueblo, which I didn't do, so we have no pictures from this trip. Leslie has pictures from her visit on Labor Day last year, though. Acoma is the oldest continuously-inhabited community in the country, dating back at least 1000 years. We had a fried pie while waiting for the bus to come by to load us up for the trip up to the mesa. The mesa has about 300 people living on it now, without running water, electricity, or plumbing. There is so much to tell about our guided tour, including about our guide, whose English name is Gary. He was very good at leading us around and narrating the history and culture of the mesa and the Acoma people. Leslie & I chose not to ride back down but instead to take the steps carved into the rock a couple of hundred feet down the mesa. It was a nice descent and an easy walk back to the center.

Tonight we round danced. I found a round dance club that dances on Wednesday nights at a big square dance center, and Leslie & I went there at 6:30 after taking the Beelers out to eat at an Italian restaurant. There were only 8 couples at the center, but almost all of them were friendly. We especially liked the couple from Brooklyn, married for 61 years and Alq residents for the past 25 years, and a younger couple maybe a little younger than we are who have been dancing for 2 1/2 years. We danced from 6:30 to 9:00, then came back "home" to the Beelers' house. All in all, this was a great day, from start to finish.

Tomorrow, Thursday, we are driving up to Santa Fe to stay the day and night, and then on up to Taos on Friday. We'll come back to the Beelers' house on Friday late, probably. Friday is Leslie's birthday, so we've got to make the most of our trip to Santa Fe and Taos. We hear that Julia Roberts and Carol Burnett live in Taos. Maybe we will drop in to visit with them for a spell, if they are home. If not, we'll catch them next time!

That's all for now, at mid-week. It has been a wonderful trip so far. Once we post up pictures, you will be able to see some of what we have seen.