Balloon Museum and Turquoise Trail (Friday)

This morning we went over to the International Balloon Museum and checked it out, since I am a veteran hot air balloon rider.  It was a really nice building, and there were a couple classes of school children on a field trip.  I'm guessing they were first or second graders.  We listened to the museum guide talk to the kids for a little while, then wandered on by ourselves.

 
There was a lot of information about the history of ballooning, and several baskets and gondolas on display. 

This next picture is the camera they used on the bottom of the basket.

 

We would love to come back here in October for the International Balloon Festival.  The park itself is very nice, very large.





We finished up there and headed back to the RV to get hooked up and hit the road by 11:30.  The wind from yesterday was absent, thankfully, and it was a balmy 64 degrees.  We noticed the price of gas had gone up 7 cents since we filled up on Wednesday.  That is not a good thing.

We drove back around the southeastern edge of Albuquerque to hook up with the Scenic Byway Highway 14, also known as the Turquoise Trail because of all the mining towns that sprung up through here.  This is actually on the backside of the Sandia Peak where we went on the tram ride on Wednesday.  Just as we got out of Albuquerque, we came upon an old guy with a team of mules and a wagon with "Jesus Saves" on the side, parked just alongside the highway.  Didn't get a picture, because we weren't expecting that right along the road.  But that was probably the most scenic sight on this drive.  We went through several small towns with shops selling jewelry, art, antiques, etc., but none had any parking so we just kept on driving.  We found a lookout pull-off and had lunch in the RV, then headed on into Santa Fe.  We are camped just north of Santa Fe at the Hyde Memorial State Park, elevation 8700, temperature in the 50s. We were off the road and hooked up by 3:00 p.m., which was a good thing because there were only 7 spots with electricity, and I think we took the 4th spot.  The other three filled up in the next hour.  We have no phone signal here, and no signal for the computer, so I'll have to post the next few blogs when we hit a McDonalds.

 The road by this campground goes on up to the Santa Fe Ski Resort.  So after we visited with the neighbors a little, we decided to go for a ride.  Didn't see any wildlife, but did see some pretty scenery.  When we were in Santa Fe, we could see some snow-capped mountains.  This drive took us up there to the snow.



We found a Brenda rock.  But we are not collecting rocks for Brenda this year, so she will have to come get this one herself.



There are lots of aspen forests on this mountain.  It would be great to come back in the fall and see these trees when their leaves had turned golden.  They are not leafed out yet this spring so they aren't very pretty right now, but will be soon.



We reached an elevation of 10013, and came upon the ski lodge.  We could see some of the ski runs and they were still snow-covered, but we didn't see any skiers.

We are going to stay here for a couple of days, do some drives in the mountains, then head on to Taos and Angel Fire.  Our neighbor here in the campground is from Angel Fire, so he gave us some good information about where to camp and things to see.  We are on the move now, but slowly, very slowly.

Train Ride to Santa Fe (Thursday)

Well, we are still in Albuquerque.  Our excellent adventure on Thursday was a round trip train ride to Santa Fe, a day pass for $7 each.  Someone yesterday on the tram ride told us about it, so we decided we should do that.  Joe has never really been on a train, except for little touristy ones, so he got to enjoy this 1 1/2 hour-ride (each way) from a passenger seat.  The train station is just a little southeast of where we are staying, and we began the ride east of I-25, and for a very short time alongside the Rio Grande River.  Then we crossed under the freeway and were west of I-25.  Then we went through a short tunnel, and were right in the middle of I-25, between the northbound and southbound lanes.  We stayed in between all the way into town.  Interestingly, the train ride took us next to or through several Native American communities, and we were not allowed to take pictures during that part of the trip.  Mostly, there were trashy mobile homes, shacks and junk, so I'm not sure what they were "preserving" there, but we complied anyway.

We took it to the last stop, then caught a free shuttle to the State Capital building, which was very beautiful.  The walls and floor are travertine marble, which is native to this state.  Congress was not in session, so we got to step into those chambers, and walk through the entire building, with just a few exceptions.  There is a tremendous amount of very beautiful art on display in this building, and we all know Santa Fe is know for its art and artists.  One sculpture caught our eye, a unique bust of a buffalo, made out of materials relevant to the buffalo era.  And the Governor wasn't in, but her receptionist invited us into her lobby where you get an education about the history of the chili.  A very enjoyable tour.

This is the floor and ceiling of the rotunda, which was beautiful as well.

Next we stopped at San Miguel Mission, regarded as the oldest church in the U.S., built a few years before 1628.  Though damaged and rebuilt numerous times, the church's original adobe walls remain intact.  Across the street from this Mission is "The Oldest House in the U.S.," also called the De Vargas Street House, reportedly built around 1646.  But it was closed so we didn't get to see inside it.

We stopped for lunch, and to rest, then walked on down toward the Historic Plaza, passing the Loretto Chapel, no longer in use as a chapel but now as a museum and wedding chapel.  Inside is the "miraculous spiral staircase" which goes up to the choir loft.  It is to this day an architectural wonder because it has no support.

This church was one of those "oh wow" things when you stepped inside.  Not only was the spiral staircase amazing, the altar was beautiful as well.  There was a miniature version of the staircase on display for photo purposes, so you can see the entire staircase in that last photo. 

We finally reached the Historic Plaza, and finally located the Palace of the Governors Museum, one of the things Joe had read about.  Local artists had taken up residence all along the front patio of this building, selling their jewelry and other wares, or as the brochure states, "during the daytime, Native Americans artisans sell authentic American Indian jewelry beneath the Palace's long portal."  Reminded me an awful lot of Mexico, except they aren't in your face trying to sell you something.

We couldn't take pictures inside the Palace, but is is now a History Museum.  The oldest continually occupied government building in the U.S., it was built in 1610 and currently houses numerous exhibitions, collections and artifacts reflecting the area's nearly 500-year history.   It is an extensive museum, and we joined a walking tour for a while, then did the rest on our own.  It has many rooms of artifacts and art work, and a lot of archeology information.

 By the end of that tour, we were pretty tired, but we walked out to the plaza.  It was established around 1610 originally as a presidio (fort) surrounded by a wall that enclosed barracks, a chapel, a prison, a few homes and the Plaza of the Governors. 

By now we were tired, so we checked out a couple of shops, then took the free shuttle back to the bus station.  We had taken jackets with us and were glad of it, although by mid-afternoon we were able to take them off.  On the way back, the wind kicked up and by the time we ate and got back to the RV, it was probably gusting 50 mph.  Our RV was rocking and rolling for a while, and we were glad we were not out on the road.

This was a good trip, and even though we are eventually heading to Santa Fe, we will not have to go downtown now.  Which is good, because the streets are crooked, narrow, and many are one-way.  We were told it is a pain to drive in the downtown area, even in the car, and we could see why.

By the way, the tram ride we took the day before was the world's longest aerial tram ride.  And after we signed up at the casino for their rewards membership cards, for which we each got $25 on our card, we came out $70 ahead. 

Albuquerque (Wednesday)

We left Gallup this morning at 9:07 a.m., fed and fueled.  We bought gas for $3.339, an improvement over our last tank in Chino Valley.  It was 36 degrees when I got up about 6:00 a.m., and it was in the 50s as we drove toward Albuquerque.  We weren't sure if overnight camping was allowed at the truck stop we stayed at last night, but when we fueled this morning, we saw they had an RV dump right there at the gas station, so we are thinking they are happy with the RVers' business.  There were some semi trucks that stayed there too, one other RV, and a station wagon with two guys in it pulled in right beside us sometime during the night.  We did have an old Indian knock on our door this morning, wanting to sell me some jewelry.  He asked if we were "selling food," I'm thinking he was hoping for a handout.  I just shut the door on him.

As we drove through Gallup on I-40, we saw a couple of huge pots decorating the highway.  Our destination today was Santa Fe, but I picked up some brochures in Gallup, and one of them was about a tram ride in Albuquerque.  So we decided that would be our excellent adventure today.  Then, just because we can with our "flexible" lifestyle (aka no jobs), we decided to spend the night in Albuquerque and leave Santa Fe for tomorrow.  Or, Joe said, the next day.

The tram ride took us to the top of Sandia Peak, the majestic mountain range that sits behind beautiful Albuquerque.  On the road to the tram ride, we stopped to top off with fuel ($3.249), and there was a herd of domestic bison right next to the gas station.  Not exactly wildlife, but we are always happy to see buffs!  We are in the Cibola National Forest.  Cibola (sea-bola) is Indian for "buffalo."

We saw a few more herds as we drove on up to the tram.  The scenery was beautiful from there, and we thought our RV looked just fine sitting out there in the parking lot.

We decided to have lunch in the very nice Mexican restaurant there before we went up to the top.  There was another restaurant at the very top of the tram ride, named High Finance, so we figured we better eat at the bottom, and in fact we shared a meal and drank water to keep the costs down.  Joe thought there was probably a message in that name.  The food was very good, and very hot.  I'm thinking I now have stripes on my tongue, something Mazie worries about when Joe talks her into trying a bite of something.

Winds at the top were ranging from 7-9 mph, and the temperature at the top was 41, so we were glad to have worn our coats.  We talked to some guys who worked up there in the restaurant, and they said we had picked the nicest day they had had so far this year because it was not very windy.  Actually, it was only cold on the edge of the walk-outs.  It was a pretty hazy day so the views were not real clear, but it was a nice ride and good views.

The tram did not have seats on it, which surprised us, but it was very comfortable.  We looked for wildlife (especially bears) both ways but didn't see anything.

The return tram that came up had an employee riding on the top raking pictures.  I asked him if he got the cheap seats.  Not sure I would want to try that.

Inside the Center there were many exhibits, including a hummingbird nest with eggs.  Not sure if this will show up, but the nest and the eggs were very tiny. 

There is a resort/casino at the turnoff to this tram ride, so we decided to spend the night on the parking lot here and explore Albuquerque a little in the morning before heading on to Santa Fe.  I'm sure we will win enough in there to pay all our expenses for this trip.

We drove 162 miles today, and were off the road by 4:30 NM time (we had to move our clocks up an hour today).