Albuquerque

Saturday:

We moved down to Albuquerque, sort of. We're staying at the Hidden Valley Resort in Tijeras, NM (10 miles East of Albuquerque.) This will be our base for the next week.

We couldn't check in until after 1pm so we stopped at a Walmart. We went to Rudy's BarBQ for lunch. It's an award winning BarBQ restaurant voted best in Albuquerque but we preferred the Whole Hog in Santa Fe.

I fixed the drivers door so you can now open it from the outside. I also replaced the door pockets which were broken up. Meanwhile, Lou worked on installing the new seat covers for the seat bottoms in front. Now that the car runs again, and we had the time, we decided to actually do a little work.

Sunday:

Started the day with the Sunday Morning political shows. There is definitely a different flavor to them recently. They seem to be asking a few questions now? Finally!

As usual, we're on the wrong track. We arrived yesterday and we'll be here 7 days, or so. This morning, half the RV's left. What do they know. One thing, the temperature was 26 degrees this morning at 7:30. That's the lowest temperature we've seen, and we came "down" to Albuquerque to get warmer weather. Oops!

We' went to a big flea market at the state fairgrounds this morning. Lots of vendors. Some interesting stuff. But, so much of the stuff is imported junk, that looks like it came from Mexico but has a made in China label on it. How peculiar!

We shared a nice carne de adovada torta (red chile pork sandwitch) for lunch. Very tasty!

We then stopped by Camping World to get a new sewer hose. The RV park utility hookups are placed for trailers not RV's so it's a long run to connect to the sewer. One of our hoses leaked too much for my likes so I replaced it. While we were there, we also looked at the RV's in the showroom of American RV where the Camping World store is located. There was a nice 37' diesel pusher there for a very nice price, but, no sale today.

Monday:

We made our way to the Sandia Tram this morning. The tram goes to the top if Sandia peak, at 10,378 feet. It's the longest passenger tram in the world. a nice ride. From the top, there is a 360 degree view of New Mexico. The weather was nice and clear so the views were great.

We started with breakfast (lunch actually) at the High Finance Restaurant at the top. The prices are really not bad and the food was very good. We shared a Caesar salad and chicken fettucini.

We then took a little 3 mile hike to the Kiwanis's cabin, a place closer to the actual peak that provides even better views and provides a nice look at the forest and meadows on top of the mountain. Quite different than the desert down at the base.


A view from the top of Sandia Peak and the tram arriving at the top. Bad news, I forgot my camera so no good pictures. I did snap these with my phones camera. Not too good but better than nothing.

After we returned to earth, we stopped by the Sandia Casino just North of Albuquerque and close to the tram site for dinner.

Tuesday:

We stopped by the Post Office to get our mail this morning. We had called the Post Office 800 number to confirm which office to use for General Delivery. We had the package sent there. That post office doesn't do general delivery. Just another example of the problems at the Post Office. I just can't understand why every Post Office can't handle general delivery, nor why the ones that do are so oddly located. Oh, well.

We then stopped by Old Town and browsed the shops. Similar stuff from similar sources as was found at the flea market, just more expensive. There actually were some shops that had unique art though.

We had lunch at La Hacienda restaurant sharing a combination plate. Pretty good food. Excellent service.

On our way home, we stopped by the Coronado Shopping Mall. Big place. Seems bigger than Albuquerque could support but seems to be doing well.

Wednesday:

Today we visited the Albuquerque Zoo, Botanical Garden and Aquarium.


They have a nice elephant exhibit and are enlarging it from two to five acres in size to allow for a breeding program.


All the habitats are very natural and the animals are the healthiest looking we've seen in any of the zoos we've visited.


Isn't the Wart Hog good looking. Looks like a member of my family. I always like the flamingo flocks.


This ground owl was in one of the exhibits. They were unuasually active for owls in the daytime hopping all around. This polar bear was swimmin laps in the pool.

They have a group of trains that run between the Botanical Garden and the Zoo which are about a mile apart. The train also tours the inside of the zoo.

The zoo was the best zoo we've been to. While not the biggest, the exhibits seem to be the most natural looking yet still provide excellent viewing of the animals. The animals appeared more healthy than other zoos and were playful and seemed interested in the visitors. There is a lot of construction going on but all in all an excellent zoo.


The Botanical Garden had an interesting 20 foot tall dragon by a castle at the entrance to the Childrens garden. There was also a very nice garden tran system with several trains running it it.


There was a nice lake with a couple of very big white swans. We only had a short visit to the Botanical Garden due to staying so long at the zoo.

The Aquarium was nice, though not too big. They wouldn't let me dive in the water so there aren't any good pictures from there.

When we got back home, Lou's crock pot meal was ready.

While the weather reports said we were in for rain, it was nice all day.

Thursday:

It was a cold and blustery morning with ocassional little snow flurries. Nothing stayed on the ground but you could watch the air. So, we lounged around until almost 1pm.

When we finally got moving, we went down to Albuquerque to look at RV's, mobile homes, and surplus stores. There is a big cluster of RV and mobile home dealers on the East end of Central Ave, our end of town, so we browsed around them all. There were some interesting 5th wheels for Dawn's possible use. We also looked around a coulpe of very interesting surplus stores. One of them seemed to have a huge assortment of technical surplus items, along with clothing, costumes, furniture, and anything else imaginable. Very interesting.

Friday:

We were making plans for where we would be moving to tomorrow when we leave Hidden Valley. We were about to make reservations in Truth or Consequences, NM when brother Ernie called and said he was icking up a load (he's a long haul trucker) in Long beach headed to New Jersey. He would be passing through Albuquerque and we could meet for dinner. So, we planned instead to move out to the Sandia Casino for Saturday night and meet him for dinner.

It was another cold night 26 degrees from 10pm trough the whole night.

We went down to an RV show at the state fairgrounds in Albuquerque today. Not a big show but we had fun looking at the stuff there. We especially liked the Fleetwood Discovery with the full body slide. very roomy with a nice layout. If we decide to go full time, it would fill the bill. Too big for state and national parks though.

We stopped by to pick up our mail and then stopped at Myers Rv on Central avenue to look at some more RV's. We've been looking both at a motorhome for our use as well as a 5th wheel for Dawn's use. We found some very nice 5th wheel trailers for Dawn to look at.