Albuquerque Old town and the Turquoise Trail

Let me start this by saying how glad I am that I didn’t grow up in Albuquerque. No matter how I put the letters together Microsoft still gives me the dreaded red underline indicating that I have misspelled it. It would be awful to live in a place where you could never get it right.

On to the trip. Our good traveling buds GO Guy and Mona flew down to Albuquerque to join us for a week. Foolish folks that they are, they think they still have to work. We keep telling them how great retirement is but they are just not buying it yet. While waiting for their plane to arrive we had a lovely lunch sitting in the shade outside a café in Old Town Albuquerque. We were right across the street from the square where a guy was playing music on his guitar. It was perfect. I do need to comment on the food. Very tasty but often very HOT – and I am not talking about the temperature. Coming from the Pacific Northwest I like my food spicy but I want to still be able to feel the inside of my mouth when I am done. We had a great mid-day break. I found a new hat in one of the shops (Old Town Hats and Accessories) just off the main square so what could have made the day any better! I know, getting to take a nap at the hotel while we were still waiting (their plane had mechanical difficulties in Salt Lake City so they were 5 hours late). I do so much prefer to nap laying down rather than sitting up in the car.

After they arrived we went back to Old Town for dinner. It was also delicious but not quite as hot as lunch was. The square was all lit up and it was beautiful. We stumbled into the Balloon Festival so there were lots of people in town. It was fun to watch them all. A thunderstorm happened on our way back to the motel. Fortunately all we saw of it was the lightning. There was lots of it but too far away to even hear the thunder. It is fun to have our traveling buddies with us again.

Albuquerque Balloon Festival


When we got up the next morning we could see balloons in the air. They were too far away to even tell what color they were but, what the hey, they were balloons. We drove up closer to the Festival grounds where we could get a really good view. The locals are all saying that there are a lot fewer balloons than normal, but to us it still looks like lots.

View from Sandia Crest


Tinkertown


The next step on our adventure was to drive the Turquoise Highway on our way to Taos. Along the way we drove to the top of Sandia Mountain overlooking Albuquerque. It was a terrific view in all directions. We stopped to see TinkerTown on the way back down the mountain. I don’t know exactly how to explain it. This guy started collecting junk and then started charging people to see it so that he had enough money to buy more junk. It was amazing. He had made several miniature dioramas with moving parts and they were lots of fun to watch and to look for all the details he had included (it was sort of like Where’s Waldo except you didn’t know exactly what you were looking for). One of our favorite signs was “The first person who asked for a permit to build something on his own property should be shot for treason.”

I am not sure why the Turquoise Highway is named that. We didn’t see any turquoise so it must be so that tourists will drive on it and stop at the towns along the way. We stopped in Madrid (pronounced Mad-rid with the accent on the first syllable) for lunch and to see what was in the craft shops. There was a lot of interesting local art and crafts. I couldn’t help collecting ideas for when I get home. The green chili stew at lunch was so hot I could only eat ½ cup of the stuff – even with the glass of milk I ordered. Bear and Mona did OK with it and GO Guy didn’t even try (he was the smartest of us all by my reckoning). Even though not turquoise, the views along the road were great. The mountains here seem more like the Appalachians than the Rockies until you realize that you are starting at about 8000’.

When we arrived in Taos we got a dinner recommendation from our desk clerk, Marcos. It was fabulous. He gave Bear and me a really good one for the night we spent here on our way to Albuquerque. So he is 2 for 2 – I wonder what #3 will hold.

Park mammal count: 11 – deer, chipmunk, big horn sheep, mountain goat, red squirrel, prairie dog, rabbit, buffalo, elk, red squirrel aka chickaree, pika, golden-mantled ground squirrel, least chipmunk
Trip mammal count: 17 - deer, moose, chipmunk, big horn sheep, mountain goat, antelope, rabbit, mule deer, red squirrel aka chickaree, prairie dog, buffalo, ground squirrel, Abert’s squirrel, elk, pika, golden-mantled ground squirrel, least chipmunk, deer mouse
Dollars saved on this trip with Park Pass: $96.00