Route 66 October 2012: A Free Day Albuquerque

Friday October 12

Hi Folks,

I (Lloyd) have managed to commandeer the computer for today’s update so it might read a bit different to normal.

Today is a free day in the City of Albuquerque New Mexico, by free I mean that we are here for 2 nights arriving late in the afternoon on the first night and we are free on the second day to do as we wish, nothing has been arranged by the tour company, a bit like being on camp really.

We woke to the sound of rain on the window, thunder and lightning in the sky so this immediately made us reconsider our plans for the day.

The group was going to do their own thing today as different things interested some more than others. Graham and Shirley decided they wanted to catch the Road Runner train to Santa Fe for the day (Graham and Shirley are train buffs and couldn’t pass the opportunity to ride on a train that they probably won’t have the opportunity to do again); the trip was 1.5 hours one way. Jeff and Anne decided they wanted to go to the zoo as Anne wanted to see a road runner bird although she found out later they are like seagulls here, they are supposed to be everywhere (although we haven’t seen them yet) Terri and Glen were a bit mixed in what they wanted to do and Judy and Lloyd were going to catch a bus that drove around the city for 1.5 hours to look at the sights. In the afternoon we were all going to catch the cable car up the mountain and look at the sunset.

Old Town

Plan B needed to be put into place!!

Jeff, Anne, Terri, Glen, Judy and Lloyd decided that we would go to the mountain first thing as it was raining just in case it got worse and we might miss out on both looking at the scenery and the sunset from the top of the mountain. Graham and Shirley still caught the Road Runner train.

To get to the mountain involved a manoeuvre similar to moving a regiment of soldiers as from our hotel there was no direct way of getting there. We needed to phone for a shuttle bus from a casino close to the cable car, make them think we were going to go into their casino and spend money, and then call a taxi from there to take us to the cable car. Basically walk in the back door and out the front door.

We got to the casino, joined the casino as members which gave us a $25.00 credit (just for joining).We phoned for a taxi and waited. Well, as it turned out due to the weather (mostly the wind) the cable car was closed for the day. So it was a case of catching the next shuttle back to our hotel and starting all over again, the shuttle bus doesn’t drop off between casino and hotels.

In Albuquerque there are 2 sections to the city, the old section and the new section. The old section dates back to long before Captain Cook landed in Australia, there is interesting history about the place. It has a Mexican look about it with Pablo (buildings) that are made out of abobe (mud) bricks just like in the cowboy movies.

Taking a break... just me and Ted

Jeff and Anne went to the zoo, Terri and Glen stayed in the casino (and came out in front), Judy and yours truly decided that we would go to the Old Town, catch the bus have a look, come back and do some domestic stuff, like washing and catch everybody at happy hour.

Unfortunately we found that the bus ride we were going to take was full for the day.

Plan C needed to be put into action (there was no plan C).

On our walking tour...

From wandering about in the old town the previous afternoon I recalled seeing there were guided tours of the old town; we decided to do one of these. It was great. Our tour guide Craig was a wealth of knowledge and a 1hr 15 minute tour lasted 2 hours. It was the highlight of our day. Turns out the Spanish invaded this section of America many, many sleeps ago, long before Captain Cook discovered Australia. The American Civil war had an impact as well as a one hundred year flood (which is overdue again) and the promise of a train line that never occurred.

Craig told us that there is a hot air balloon gathering here in Albuquerque each year and there has been a cap on the number of participants to 600. Can you imagine 600 hot air balloons flying about?

Lloyd and Glen walk the streets of Old Town

Apparently there used to be in excess of 1,000 balloons and the American Air Force cracked a wobbly as some of them would fly over their restricted areas.

The air and wind currents here is just right for the balloonists, the call it a square or block (can’t remember the proper name), basically the wind currents are able to be used to manoeuvre the balloons so they can land in the exact spot as where it started.

Unfortunately they were also cancelled today due to the high winds. Never mind!!

Early start tomorrow we are off to Flagstaff Arizona .