Albuquerque - Part 1

October 23-24, 2014:

On the road again on the morning of the 23rd taking route 550 south for 152 miles to route 25 west and the Enchanted Trails RV Park off route 40 outside Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Route 550 first the first 30 miles or so looks to me like the armpit of the world, all oil or gas drilling equipment, butchered landscape, trash, thoroughly disgusting.  You then get into the Indian reservations with the poverty living conditions, but they also now have oil wells.  I watched a PBS a special on the rise of drugs and crime related to the oil bonanza in North Dakota and wonder if it is also happening here.  Eventually the oil country fades away and it is just one Indian reservation after another.  Route 550 is a 4 lane road with a 70 MPH speed limit and mostly big rigs on it, an easy drive and you can make good time.  You then come to route 25 and Albuquerque which gets a little crazy as you have to deal with the aggressively driving city folks again.

Beauty and the Beast

Oil rigs all over

Enchanted Trail RV Park is an old park with full hookup, we are here mainly for the half price Passport America rate.  It is fairly convenient to downtown, WiFi is weak, no shower room, much traffic noise and not particularly attractive.  They do have some really cool old RV trailers and a couple of classic cars for overnight stays.

The Enchanted Trail sign

A nice rig

A Silver Streak

Love those roof wings

This is our second visit to Albuquerque, but we didn't see it all the first time, there is so much more.  We begin with the "Old Town" section of Albuquerque that originated as a Spanish settlement in 1706.  Lots of interesting shops with much southwestern art, jewelry, gifts, a nice blend of good quality stuff and tacky tourist stuff.  Another Tony Hillerman book was obtained along with a very cool corn shaped Candle.  Lunch at "Hacienda Del Rio" was very nice, we had a sampler appetizer plate that was perfect for lunch.  I love their historic mural on the patio area. 

We are back in "Day of the Dead" territory

Mural on the Hacienda Del Rio wall

Typical Old Town courtyard

Several art galleries

Nice Parrot !

Twinkles is ready for a hearty lunch

We have neighbors at the campground who have been full time RV'ing for 3 months with two children who they are home schooling. The Dad is originally from New Jersey. The boy, Jackson seems a bit weird, he delights in talking to us, comes over and sits on our step, tells all, they are leaving next week after the check arrives.  We are also leaving this RV Park, nothing to do with them, going almost across the highway to the High Desert RV Park.  Enchanted Trails only gives the Passport America rate for two nights and we can get a better weekly rate at High Desert RV Park.

It's Friday night and I must go check out the music scene at the Marble Brewery.  A blues guy was scheduled there, but he wasn't there and instead there was a more reliable bluegrass band that wasn't that interesting. The Marble Brewery is a very cool venue however with a large outside patio and stage where the bands play.  They don't have a kitchen but instead schedule various food trucks to park there.  They have music and food trucks about every night of the week.

I decided to check another nearby spot and went to "Low Spirits" where they were having a special event called "Night of the living color cover bands" in which several bands were covering songs by well known bands.  Each band would do about a 4 song set then new band would set up.  I saw a "Cream" set and then a "Heart" set that were both very good.  The following set was a mystery to me, (must have been during the 80's when I wasn't paying attention), didn't hear the intro, but the couple next to me were really into it and lonely guys at the next table were drumming away manically on the table top.  

Saturday morning we make the 2 mile move over to the High Desert RV Park.  We are next to a RV with much Halloween stuff all over the RV with a dented car with Alabama license plates, could be interesting ?

High Desert view

More Albuquerque to be exposed,

Twinkles and Slick