Black Friday in Old Town

We drove down to Old Town Albuquerque on Black Friday.  Named because it is the biggest shopping day of the year, we found the touristy Old town area to be quite calm and tame.  Seems all the locals head to the mall.  We found some good deals, or rather, Sraddha found some beautiful earrings, and almost purchased a real Navaho rug.  Probably would have but didn't have the measurements for where we would put it.  Just as well.

Amber, the Chihuahua, standing guard
outside of Navajo Code Talker HQ

While walking around the plaza we happened upon a little shop that billed itself as the Albuquerque HQ for the Navajo code talkers.  We were standing outside photographing this little Chihuahua named Amber when one of the original Code Talkers walked out.

Bill Toledo, a Navaho Code Talker, is on the left.

Bill Toledo was 18 when he signed up in the Marines a few months after Pearl Harbor. He is now 87 yrs young.  Bill served in south pacific beginning in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands and all the way to Iwo Jima as a Code talker.  This is where these men used a special code comprised of Navajo words to send message around the battlefront via radio.  The Japanese enemy decoders could never figure out the code.  It is quite a story and as I listened to him talk, I was almost brought to tears.  Humbling experience.

Chile reception

Strolling around the area, I was struck by all the chiles hanging everywhere. Duh.  New Mexico may be the "Land of Enchantment" but it is also the chile capital.

Hot, Hot, Hot

We ate lunch nearby at Garcia's where they make fresh tamales which we both love.  The Veggie chile tamale was a hit with "mild" green chile sauce.  I also had a chile relleno with red sauce which definitely tingled the nerve endings.  Yeeeowww.  Still we returned today for lunch and also bought a dozen frozen tamales for the road.

Painting on wall of Garcia's restaurant in old town.

Oh, yes,  we rode our bike after old town but only a short 10 miles because it was getting dark.
Then today (Saturday) we returned to the area near the botanical gardens and rode the bosque trail a second time for 18 miles, with the last 8 miles against a head wind.  Satisfied by our workout, we journeyed back to have more tamales.

She made me ride the bike again.  3 days in a row now.
Sraddha is up front  and I shot this one-handed with my iPhone

We found a wonderful food co-op named Mantonito where we purchased some great produce, fruit and a local product called Chocolate Hazelnut butter.  Yum.  Had planned to go to the "Lincoln" movie but had forgotten we were in an urban setting where movies on Friday nights sell out early.  We arrived late after getting the bum steer from both our Garmin GPS and iphone maps only to find out that the movie was sold out.  Another day perhaps.

Location:Central Ave NW,Albuquerque,United States

Riding our Bikes on Thanksgiving day

With the temps in mid 60's today and the skies clear, we elected to work off our dinner early with a long bike ride along the Rio Grande river. The Paseo del Bosque Bike Trail, also called the Riverside Bike Path in places, is a lovely 16 mile-long paved bike path, uninterrupted by roadways. The trail parallels the Rio Grande bosque on the east side of the Rio Grande

We drove over to the parking lot on the north end of the 16 mile trail.

Sraddha had already ridden off.

Nice level ride at 5,000 ft elevation.  We cruised along at about 10 mph, then she said, ok to go ahead so I quickly picked up the pace to about 18-19 mph for about 8 miles to the zoo area then turned around to reconnect.  We then road together past the zoo a ways until we had to turn around to get back by 2 PM.

I caught up with her.  Actually this is on the way back

Since I was riding it was hard to shoot pix. All in all we rode 25+ miles. We passed several parks and the zoo where we could see the elephants enjoying their dinner.

Albuquerque is very bike friendly with several bike paved non-road paths and many miles of bike lanes.  We plan to ride again tomorrow and again, hopefully, Saturday before we depart on Sunday morning

Later we drove out to the Tamaya resort for dinner. I snapped this pic as the sun descended in the late afternoon sky.

Sandia mountains in distance

That's Sandia mountain in background. It reminded me how grateful we are for the beautiful country we live in and the clean air to enjoy scenes such as this. There you have the obligatory Thanksgiving note.

New Mexico Railrunners

Arriving Albuquerque, Monday night just at dusk, we settled in to rest. Whew. Long trip of 1242 miles. Yesterday, we rested, replenished supplies at Trader Joes and whole foods, then I went to a movie and visited a model railroad club.

The New Mexico Railrunners operates their little N scale (same as mine) trains in an older empty storefront in a light industrial section of town near the tracks. Club name comes from the commuter train which runs from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. 2 of the members has visited my layout during the national convention back on summer of 2011.



The layout itself is assembled from sections or modules they can take these portable sections to exhibit in other locations.



Each module is unique in design. The module above has a crop dusting plane.



This module above has Peter Pan in the forest. Cute.

Finally here is a brief movie I shot with my iPhone. Set in corner by the lumber mill.

The guys were most accommodating. Real fun.

Location:Albuquerque, NM

How high can we go?

try 10,378 ft.  By Eastern Sierra Mountains standards that is where our favorite trailhead begins.  However, in high desert of New Mexico, it is stands out.  Sandia mountains rise out of the east side of Albuquerque.  After a day of cleaning up from road travel and replenishing supplies, we ascended the west side of these mountains on the Sandia Peak Tram.
Fun.

Rocks masquerading as Trees

Yesterday, we toured Through the petrified Forest national Park. Was a fascinating experience of looking at 2 million years history.

According to scientists this geographical area used to be the same latitude as the country of Panama about 200 million years and there were dense forests rivers similar to the Amazon River area

We explored a couple trails and shot a few photographs of some of the huge blocks that were left over when volcanoes exploded and buried them in a fashion similar to Mount St. Helens.

Now we are in Albuquerque area for Thanksgiving. Here are some photos.

We photographed the Painted Desert in the background

A perspective of the size of the petrified logs

This is the biggest one in the area.  Huge roots

Amazing colors.  They sit naturally where they are found

Long Bubba broken in pieces

More crystalline than agate like in this one.

Posted from my iPhone

Location:Petrified forest national park