It's About the (RV) Journey....: Albuquerque......................

The night before we left Holbrook for Albuquerque, we were sitting outside when the sky seemed to go pink. Even the monsoon clouds that were moving in. This is the first time I've ever seen rain lit up pink from the sunset! Very cool!

rain moving in...lit up pink from the sunset

sunset on the other side of the park-these Arizona sunsets are amazing

still hot...still crafting

Albuquerque, like the rest of the west, has been very dry, and the fire danger has been high, or extreme. No campfires or open flames permitted in this campground. Obviously, no fireworks either. The weather remains very hot and dry here, so we curtailed our "wish list" of things to do in the area.

Saturday we headed out to explore a few places nearby...beginning with Petroglyph National Monument. We stopped in the Visitor Center, and were directed to three easy hikes in the Boca Negra Canyon, between 5 and 30 minutes each, to see petroglyphs. I guess we are spoiled by all that we've seen already, but we did not see too many glyphs on the short hikes. There was quite a bit of graffiti and bullet holes, which was so sad to see.

Note the sign....they aren't kidding! The parking lot was patrolled 3x when we were there (that we saw, anyway)

The first hike, the longest at 30 minutes, was up the volcanic hill. I thought I would be fine since there were no steep ledges, but I freaked out about half way up and Tom escorted me down before he went back up solo.

that hill doesn't look too steep for me Tom

glyphs

passing by petroglyphs on the trail up

wait....freak out time....half way up I froze!

Tom continued on his own, without the ball and chain (haha), but he said there was not really too much to see. He was a bit disappointed. Before too long, he was headed back down the trail, and we moved on to the two very very short trails. Again, a little disappointing. Graffiti and bullet holes.

continuing on without the ball and chain

heading back down

The next "trail", the Macaw Trail, was just a 5 minute easy jaunt, with two petroglyphs of Macaw parrots. According to the trail guide, parrots were valuable trade items, and the Pueblo people used the feathers for ceremonial dances.

This trail also showcased two petroglyps of yucca plants, which were very important to the early Puebloans for food and soap. The leaves were used for weaving, among other things.

yucca leaf

okay...this is more my speed

another yucca

The final trail was a quick 15 minutes walk through the lava landscape, and the petroglyphs seen on that trail were a little different. There were human figures, shields and masks. Again, graffiti and bullet holes, which by the way, is a federal offense.

this trail only goes sort of near the base of the hill....not up it

petroglyphs along the trail

bullet holes and graffiti....charming!

these were different....

when Tom spotted this, he called "snake".....and you know what I thought!! Happy to see the glyph!!

We debated on going to the two other areas of the park, however, between the unpleasant heat and the direct sun, we decided against it. We were also uncomfortable leaving our car in the parking lot, especially in the more remote areas of the park, since there were quite a few warnings regarding breaking and entering into cars. Signs were posted, the ranger verbalized the warning, and I read it on the "alerts" section on the park's website. We heeded the warning.

heading back down the trail

getting pretty warm already

Next we drove (in the air-conditioned car!) to Old Town Albuquerque to do a little sight-seeing. It was just 10 am or so by the time we got there, so shops were just opening up. We have been starting our days early due to the heat.

Albuquerque....straight ahead (we parked along this road last night, along with tons of other people, to view the fireworks. It was so awesome! The city was lit up, and fireworks were going off randomly all along the horizon. We could even see the professional ones from the Balloon Field, though they all looked pretty professional! What an experience! Just great!!

gardens along some of the plazas

ready for window-shopping?

Old Town covers a few blocks, and we walked along and enjoyed the ambiance and the colorful, artistic plazas for the markets.

nice

open air market

I really like the art shops-especially the ones with a bench outside for Tom!

some of the plazas had great gardens

so pretty

nice!

wishing well in the plaza (it doesn't take credit cards)

some interesting shops here

We were surprised to see a tour for the scenes from "Breaking Bad"! Who knew? I've only seen a few episodes, mainly since some of my chemist co-workers laughingly offered up some glassware to use in the RV when we went "out west". Very funny!! Hahaah! Needless to say, we didn't take the tour-which by the way was $75! That's a bit steep for something like that, don't you think?

We did stop in the church on the plaza, San Felipe de Neri, just for a minute. The church was simple and serene, and the garden surrounding it was very peaceful as well. Across from the church was a beautiful park, which seemed like the heart of the plazas in Historic Old Town.

I'm still on season one....

the church in Old Town

yarn bombing

very nice church...simple and peaceful, with a beautiful garden area

inside

park across the street

Old Town is known for entertainment, restaurants and shopping, and seemed like a popular area with the tourists. Though we didn't eat anything there, the area is well known for dining experiences (as well as entertainment and shopping).

another shopping plaza

After a little lunch break at home, we headed back out to the International Balloon Museum. It is situated on the grounds where the International Balloon Festival is held each October, which I hear is a fabulous experience. Not in the cards for us, but something for other RVers to consider when planning future adventures.

want to go up in a balloon??

The museum was small but interesting to us, and we learned a little bit about ballooning and weather. The maps showing attempts to cross the Atlantic was sobering. Not all of them made it. Some of the displays of the larger "baskets" that traveled these distances were intriguing, as were the enclosed balloon capsules.

cool stuff inside

weather balloons

Um....this is definitely not for me! The sides of this thing are pretty short! I'm kneeling in that basket

more my speed!

these kids were having a great time with the video game...trying to fly the balloon

Some of the displays were very interesting to us. I was completely fascinated by the artistic display on fractals. The video was mesmerizing. The teenagers visiting the museum with their families were probably bored out of their minds until they happened upon the video game, where you are the pilot of the balloon. We never got the chance to try it ourselves, but we totally understand....hahahahha.

interesting

very cool display

static picture

this video was mesmerizing!

This small museum kept our interest with some of these displays and we had fun trying out some of the balloon buckets. We see lots of sight-seeing balloons in our travels, but that is not something I would personally do (duh). Every morning, when I take an early walk through our campground, I see about 10 balloons peacefully floating by the mountain peak (Sandia Peak?) not too far away. I imagine the sunrise flights are quite popular....looks great!

cool stuff to look at

colorful 3-D deco

up up and away

seems a little scary to me

is that balloon a little flimsy looking?

Another display caught my attention and I was intrigued by the luxurious "airships" that traveled over the Atlantic in the 1930's. Wow! After being stuffed into a crowded airplane for 5 hours to travel back east, that looked really pretty awesome to me...hahahahah! Check out the display below.

HHmmm....there's an idea of what to do with patches. I think my idea works for us for our National Park patches. Not sure what I was thinking when we started collecting them!

fun way to display patches

and another

the pillows work for us :)

we like them :)

We had fun in this small, but nicely air-conditioned,museum. Again, would be a great experience to see hundreds of balloons decorate the skies...maybe some of you RVers can work it into your traveling itineraries. I think you need to plan well in advance for this extremely popular event.