Blogs from Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, North America

I know for most people reading this blog, you'll think to yourself that we took the day off only riding from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, but it was a busy day. We got up this morning and started at the Santa Fe National Cemetery to visit dad's father's gravesite. We looked up the location and headed over to the site, spending a little time there and taking a couple of photos. Our initial plan was to head straight down to Albuquerque, see his father's house, visit Old Town, and then continue west towards Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. We started chatting with one of the maintenance employees at the cemetary about our trip, and he mentioned that we should do a loop north towards Taos and see the Rio Grande Gorge, so north we went. It ... read more

Today was to be another driving day. I woke up around 6.45 to hit some breakfast. Nothing really much on offer so I had some Frosted Flakes. They are just overly sweet Corn Flakes, so not very good. Once we hit the road our first stop was at Durango to have our group picture taken. We all had to huddle together in the snow so it was pretty funny, but the backdrop is a really nice mountain, so the picture came out really good. Next we had a short drive to our jeeping start point. They werent Jeeps as much as huge Hummers, which was cool, but it also meant that it was pretty boring since the Hummers took on the terrain so well. We made our own fun in the back of our Hummer, just ... read more

We had researched and planned for this day outing before we left home. Albuquerque has what they call a Bio Park. It is a combination of a very nice zoo, an aquarium complex, and a botanical garden. These are stretched along the Rio Grande River for about 2 miles. They also have a people moving train that can transport you from one part of the park to another. We spent the whole day there, with the majority of the time at the zoo. But we did take the train over to the aquarium and gardens in the afternoon. The people in Albuquerque can be very proud of the Bio Park. It is a first class, fun, and educational place to visit. Make sure you put it on your list to see!... read more

Forget the pc press, the Indians in New Mexico that we met are proud of their heritage and call themselves Indians. The little village is Laguna-Pueblo. It was the opening day of Elk/bow hunting, and the Lagunas had religious ceremonies going on so the town was "off-limits" to non-Indians. Just outside the town we met a silver artisan while driving on Old Route 66. We would recommend his jewelry to any one. Funny, his father is from Canton, Ohio and his mother from the Laguna tribe. He was dressed in Indian garb, and an Ohio State tee-shirt! If you get off the main roads and let your curiosity navigate the road you can really be pleasantly surprised by what or who you find! We camped around Albuquerque for 3 weeks expecting to see the balloon festival. ... read more

Friday Oct 7 - balloon fest morning I went to the event and the traffic was light. I paid $10 for parking but got in free because they were unsure of if they would have any events. I sat in the rain, walked around the field in the rain and walked past all the venues in the rain. Fortunately I have a good rain coat and water resistant boots. The rain stopped for a while and the balloonist drove their trucks out onto the field but waited to set them up. After a while the announcer said that the balloonist were leaving but we could give blood if we wished and get a "I donated blood pin". It started raining again so I left around 0800. I heard that the weather is supposed to be good ... read more