And They're Off!!!!!

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And so the journey begins as we drive off into the sunset - yes, I know that scene generally ends Westerns, but it was kind of necessary, as we are starting off going west. The first stop on our trip is Albuquerque, where I had spent a month in the summer of 1999 working at UNM for my Aunt and Uncle helping out with their vegetation and biomass mapping of the area. Bethany and I are both glad to be starting the trip this way, though, as she had not been to New Mexico in quite a few years and I had little chance to see the more touristy things like Santa Fe 9 years ago. It was also a great chance to drop in and see the Nevilles and Bennets, particularly as we were coming in on Berkeley’s birthday.

Tuesday, June 10th:
Up about an hour and a half later than we wanted to be, as we got to bed so late because the flight last night was delayed last night. So we finished getting the car packed and headed off towards Albuquerque, with a quick stop at Starbucks first, of course.
When I was last in Austin in March, Bethany and I bought a GPS for this trip. According to Bethany, who tested it out on her community visits for work, it is a great little device (and as yet unnamed). Interestingly enough, when we plugged my cousin Josh’s address in, the GPS decided that the fastest way to Albuquerque from Houston was through El Paso, rather than Austin and San Angelo. The AAA TripTik guided us an equally odd route - through Oklahoma City and then west. So we decided to overrule the GPS, split the difference, and took off towards Austin. As soon as we left the designated route on the GPS, it started to tell us to turn around every chance we got. It would continue to try to force us to the nearest interstate until we got nearly to New Mexico, when it had no chance to take us any other way than the way we wanted to go. Because it needed a name, and we kept not listening to it, I decided to name the GPS Cassie, as an homage to Cassandra, the prophet of Troy who was cursed to be right in her prophecies but forever ignored.
Though I had not spoken with her in a while, Courtney and Bethany saw each other fairly regularly in Austin, and they both wanted to meet up for brunch in Austin on our way through, it it was possible. It would be late for brunch, but lunch was still a possibility, so I gave Country a ring about an hour before we would pass through. Unfortunately, we did not connect until we were well past Austin, so we decided to talk again when Bethany and I would be heading up through Dallas on the move to DC, as Courtney should be in Dallas then.
After roughly 15 hours on the road (Bethany started and I took over in the late afternoon), and a really good, really cheap dinner in a very small town in West Texas, we arrived into Albuquerque. It was quite late, so only Josh and the dogs were up to greet us, and he had a room and the world’s loudest air mattress for us. We settled ourselves in and crashed.

Wednesday, June 11th:
Joanna had gone off to work by the time Bethany and I were up, but Josh and Berkeley were home to wish us a good morning. After waking up, and even before leaving the room, I could hear Berkeley running up and down the hallway next to our room. While she is very active and talkative and precocious, Berkeley is a bit apprehensive around men she doesn’t know, and I turned out to be no different at first. Though we did not see each other as I walked to the shower, she reportedly said “I don’t know about him” to Josh as I woke under up under the cascade of hot water. She was also visibly freaked and would look away whenever I looked at her, even while hiding behind Josh’s leg. Bethany she loved, right away.
The four of s went to breakfast at a funky little place just down the street from the house, they had really good breakfast burritos, Bethany and Berkeley bonded in the car a little bit, and then Bethany and I planned our day. We decided on Bandolier for the day and then would talk to my aunt Teri about dinner. Originally, Josh and Berkeley were going to join us, but they decided to stay in (something about it being too far of a drive for Josh, who had just been to Santa Fe - it’s an hour to Santa Fe and another from there to Bandolier - and back each of the last few days).
Bandolier was spectacular. Bethany had been with her two best friends after her senior year of high school and wanted to show me the place. It really consists of 3 parts. The first is a little area on the floor of the canyon that is now just a round pit called a “kiva,” but was once a common space used for religious ceremonies and other communal activities. The second part is a series of caves cut into the sheer sides of the cliff walls. These caves a very shallow and small, as well as remarkably exposed to the elements, and were most likely not used for anything more permanent than a place that would offer comfort on a summer night or from the hot sun. There are more permanent structures build just below them, as well. The third part is the most remarkable. It is another half mile walk down from the caves and then a climb up about 140’ on ladders until you hit a large open cave cut out of the cliff side. There is really nothing but rubble in it, and a rebuilt, half-buried kiva smaller than the one in the valley floor, but the views it offers are amazing.. It supposedly also, when fully occupied and developed at its height, held room for dozens of families to live in.
After about 2 hours at Bandolier, we headed back to town. I spoke with Teri on the way and we decided to meet at Josh’s after her Democratic Party meeting, which should be just a little bit after we got in ourselves. Right before we got in, I noticed that my sunglasses had broken somewhere along the way, and as I couldn’t get Josh on the phone to make sure he would be home when we got there about 20 minutes later, we stopped off at K-Mart to grab me a new pair of shades and some socks, as well as a couple little things Bethany needed.
We soon met up with Teri, followed by Josh, Joanna and Berkeley (the two of them had been at a little outdoor concert), and Berkeley was still a little afraid of me - I felt a little less bad when Joanna said it took her about 2.5 years to warm up to her brother. I even asked her if she wanted her birthday present, but she politely said “no,” that she had enough from yesterday. It was too cute for me to feel all that bad. So Teri, Bethany and I went off to grab a bite to eat nearby.
Teri decided that since I have mentioned drinking a beer so often in my travel blog around Europe, she would take us for a drink before dinner. Otherwise, I wouldn’t really have been to Albuquerque. So now, despite the fact that I never actually got drunk over the last month, the entire family thinks I am an alcoholic - which is good - or maybe it’s just Teri, I don’t know. So she took us to the new place in town, Imbibe, which is a cigar bar with a roof deck that has little fire pits on a few of the tables, which is very cool. After a drink, it was across the street to Nobb Hill Bar and Grill, which is a very funky place, both for the décor and the combinations of flavors on the plates. Then it was back to Josh’s and to bed.

Thursday, June 12th:
Berkeley started warming up to me this morning, which was definitely a good feeling. Teri swung by the house and the five of us went over to Betos, a fantastic, family-run little Mexican place, for breakfast. I had been there a few times when I was out for the summer in 1999, and again on the road trip back from the Rose Bowl in January 2006, so it was somewhere we had to stop by.
Teri had insisted that Bethany and I go see the new Architecture and Planning building at UNM as she wanted our opinion on its design, and also to point out that it has achieved a LEEDS Silver rating - which is attainable with really minimal effort - when they had the opportunity to really make a statement with the structure. By inaction, they did make a statement: they don’t really care about being green. So Bethany, Teri and I met up with Paul at a very cool little coffee shop just across the street from the UNM campus. It was good to see Paul again, even if only for a minute before he and Teri bolted for a meeting or something.
So as soon as we finished our coffee and I uploaded a bit more on my travelblog - I was very far behind - we walked across the street to the new building. From the street, it is very cool and looks both impressive and forward thinking. There is sort of a Bauhaus feel to is while taking into account the Southwestern motif that is the norm throughout the rest of campus. When we walked in, I fell in love with the place. There is no escaping it, when you walk in you just know that it is an architecture studio/classroom. It has the exposed ductwork, concrete slab flooring and open classrooms. The library on the top floor is also a great space and has wonderful views of the city and the mountains.
We decided to head out and head on over to the Old Town neighborhood of Albuquerque just as Bethany was informally offered the job at Addas Israel she was hoping for - great pay with lots of benefits, too. On that high note, we headed down to Old Town and started at the Atomic Museum. The museum is a fun little space, that has a lot of information regarding anything and everything related to atomic power, weapons, espionage, etc. There was a very cool little video Bethany and I watched that showed the amazingly extensive network of NKVD and KGB spies into the US nuclear community. While it is a small museum, they are moving to a larger space, which really should help them clear up the place and give it a much more impressive and expansive collection.
We then walked around the neighborhood a bit, ducking into souvenir stores. We ended up getting a postcard (to go with all the others from around Europe), a bottle of green chili, a New Mexico cookbook and a little key-ring holder shaped like Kokopelli the pueblo Indian music god.
As it was getting late, we headed back over to Josh’s place and found him there with Berkeley taking a nap. Berkeley soon decided that she was ok with me enough to take her birthday present and play around with me. She really liked the stuffed dinosaurs (she named the t-rex “People”) and loved the bouncy ball.
Joanna came home, and after talking with two of Josh’s buddies, the whole group of us went off to a local little bar to meet up with them before dinner with Teri and Paul. We had a few drinks with these two guys, one of whom (Dovie) was actually at Teri and Paul’s wedding in Yorkshire, and walked over to dinner. The place was actually quite nice, but as it is Albuquerque, none of us were out of place in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops (I like this town). Dinner was, again, very good. And we found out Berkeley really likes her wine when she stole her grandmother’s wine glass with a big smile on her face - and tilted it all the way back.
After dinner, and saying goodbye and thanks to Teri and Paul (and leaving Berkeley with them), Josh, Joanna, Bethany, Dovie and I went over to Imbibe to meet up with Josh’s other buddy and get a few more drinks. So we have now gone out twice in town and both times to Imbibe. This time, though, we got one of the tables with the fire pit in the middle of it. We were having a great time drinking and laughing and telling stories, when I looked over and saw Maggie, a girl I knew from Texas. I wasn’t sure it was her, so Josh and I yelled her name and she looked over, but didn’t say anything, so eventually I went over there and said hello. Thankfully, it was her, and she did recognize me, but didn’t think I belonged here, so she thought she was imaging things.
As our hosts had work in the morning, we all went home around 11ish. Joanna and Bethany went to bed, but Josh had started seeing some of my Europe pictures, so we decided to keep that going. Well, first we headed off to a local pub and actually had a really good man-to-man type conversation over a couple of beers. I think it means a lot to Josh that I, his nearest cousin in age, am in a place where I can really talk with him and we can connect as equals. Truth be told, it means a lot to me, too. It makes me feel a lot more like an adult and more like someone who can be trusted and dealt with a mature member of the family. After the pub, Josh and I went home and ran through pictures until about 3am, when we both had to crash.

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Photos

Sunset
Riding into the sunset on the way to Albuquerque

Camel Rock
On the road to Bandolier was this rock that was shaped like a camel

Enststein and Me
Robot of Abert Einstein at the Atomic Museum

Berkeley & Me
On the way to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa