Travels with Twinkles: Albuquerque, Route 66 and Day of the Dead

October 25 - November 1, 2017:

It was a cold start to the day at 29 degrees at 7 AM but the bright sun warmed things up quickly. The drive from Las Vegas to Santa Fe was beautiful, with red rock mountain views, hillsides covered with juniper and back country roads (that I want to explore) winding off into the valleys below. The trip from Santa Fe to Albuquerque was not as much fun, too much traffic and less attractive terrain. We pull into the High Desert RV Park about noon, we have a reservation and quickly get set up. The High Desert RV Park is a good campground with great shower room facilities and decent WiFi during low usage periods.

On the road agin with what looks like a volcano in the distance

A couple of friends, Jim and Criste, who we winter with in Tucson had contacted us earlier in the week. They are heading back to Tucson and decided to stop in Albuquerque for a couple of days and stay at the same RV Park. We went to old town Albuquerque with them to browse around in the shops and have lunch. We also had a couple of practice happy hours with them at the campground.

Waiting patiently for the food at "Casa de Ruiz" in "Old Town"
Albuquerque, it was slow, but worth the wait

Afterwards some browsing in the shops around "Old Town"

We are spending a week in Albuquerque and looking to do some hiking. As we were coming into town the Cottonwood trees along the Rio Grande River were a blazing golden yellow and I thought that would be a great place for a hike. The Albuquerque map showed a trail along the river so we went to check it out. We did a short hike in one area with many interconnecting trails, but it was not the river trail. We then traveled to the Open Space Visitor Center where we found many exhibits, an art gallery, a bird observation tower, a native plant garden, maps and access to more hiking trails. We also found maps for the all trails in the Rio Grande River Bosque area.

It wasn't the Rio Grande River, but it was a nice walk

The Open Space has a roof viewing platform to spot the wildlife

We returned to the Rio Grande River Bosque area for another hike that followed the river. In the afternoon we returned to the Open Space Visitors Center for the opening reception for an exhibit, “A Celebration of Cranes”. The Sandhill Cranes are migrating and landing here as they have large grass field right here in the center of the city.

Albuquweque was originally Indian territory and then "New Spain".
A Spanish Land Grant of 35,000 acres awarded to Captain
Diego Montoya in 1694, a pretty nice award ?

View from the long bridge over the Rio Grande River

View from the center of the bridge

I thought the view straight down into the river was interesting

The Blue Heron was fishing nearby

Zooming in to the faraway mountains

Twinkles posing in front of a tree like cholla cactus

This is all river floodplain with beautiful grasses and Cottonwoods

Back at the Open Space Visitor Center there were Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes

Albuquerque was originally inhabited by the Tanoan and Keresan Indian tribes. The Tiwa tribe also established two pueblos on the outskirts of Albuquerque which they have occupied for centuries.
Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as a Spanish colonial post along the Camino Real. It then came under Mexican control in 1821 and eventually US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque,_New_Mexico

I took an afternoon to revisit downtown Albuquerque and do a self guided tour of the “KiMo Theater”. The Kimo was built in 1927 and is regarded as one of the best examples of Pueblo Deco architecture in the US. I also visited the old Public Main Library which is now the "Special Collections Library" where historic materials are available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KiMo_Theater

The Kimo is amazing from every angle

From the details of the seats and carpets

To the stage

And the details of the ceiling

The Old Main Library built in 1927

We next go for a two hikes in Petroglyph National Monument which protects a 17 mile basalt escarpment that contains over 24,000 images pecked into the rocks. We started with a hike at the Volcanoes area where there are no Petroglyphs, but the remains of Volcanic cinder cones. Around 200,000 years ago lava flowed from a fissure here with eruptions at various points along the fissure. The buildup of lava, layer upon layer, formed what is today known as the West Mesa which overlooks the city of Albuquerque. Our next hike in the National Monument was at the Piedras Marcades Canyon which contains approximately 5,000 petroglyphs. Archeologists estimate that most of the images were made 400 to 700 years ago by the ancestors of todays native peoples although a few may be 2,000 to 3,000 years old. There are also some that are thought to have been made by early Spanish residents in the 1600’s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroglyph_National_Monument

On the trail to a volcanic vent

View from the top looking to another vent

The view in Petroglyphs National Monument

All sorts of weird mysterious figures are gouged into the Basalt rocks

The hands on the rocks is unique

The view from the rocks looking back, notice the houses in the background

Albuquerque is a good town for live music but I seem to be finding it mostly at Breweries or Brew Pubs where it’s usually a solo musician playing in a corner for a couple of hours. It’s OK, better than nothing, but not the real thing. The Marble Brewery is one of the larger Breweries here and they do have a dedicated outside stage area where I saw a band, Isac Aragon and the Healing, who were attracting a large crowd, who I liked. The Marble Brewing Company also has a couple of satellite brew pubs in town with music. I also went to the Tractor Bar (where you get plowed) with a good solo musician, Todd Tijerina, playing on an outside patio. I was disappointed in the Tractor Bar, I anticipated something way better. I tend to be a visual person who is more impressed with the look and ambiance of a bar, or the logo and packaging of a product than the other stuff. I know, its very shallow, but that’s the way it is. The Tractor Bar should look like a barn with good paintings or photos of Tractors, tractor parts hanging on the walls, farm objects displayed and they should have a tee shirt and merchandise playing on the Tractor theme. OK, they do have a Tractor on their logo, but it’s like an abstract tractor, phony.

I thought the Tractor on display was pretty weak

We went to a Dia De Los Muerotos (Day of the Dead) event at the South Broadway Cultural Center. It was an excellent event with a market, an art reception, food trucks, music, folkloric dancing and a car show. These hispanic guys know how to build cool street machines with an artistic flair and their car club, The Drifters cc, had some beauties on display. The Day of the Dead memorials to the departed were just beautiful, very touching and impressive.

A Gangsta 37 chevy

This Chrysler had an amazing paint job and brass plating on many parts

Buick was decorated for Day of the Dead

Albuquerque mural on the side of the Cultural Center

Shrine to honor the 200th anniversary of the death
of author Jane Austin

Liked the one for David Bowie, there was also one for Tom Petty

Also liked this painting

Shrine for a musician

Another very well done shrine

We visited a couple of long time, good friends in the town of Edgewood north of Albuquerque. It’s been four or five years since we last saw them and it was great to get together again. They are two of the most artistic and creative people we know, Susie is a southwest artist who has had her art work in Taos and Santa Fe galleries and Dave is an expert welder who does ornamental iron gates, railings and sculpture.

I spend a few hours looking around Albuquerque for the usual interesting buildings, signs, murals, street art, that attract me to these places. Old route 66 which is now Central Street in Albuquerque is one of the longest stretches of the road through a urban area. A good number of original building still remain and the street retains much character today. Since this is our third time here, I am revisiting much of what I have seen before, but things do change or disappear over time, so I sort of do a photo inventory.