We were ready for a week off and we took it. We just decided to relax and boy did we
relax. We slept in, watched movies, ate too much and just tried to avoid the
heat. It hovered right around 100 and no
rain. It is very dry here.
We did venture out a couple of times other than just to shop
or have lunch. We visited Old Town
Albuquerque and discovered some interesting facts.
1706 - Albuquerque
was founded by Don Francisco Guero y Valdez who was the governor of the Spanish
Province of New Mexico.
1821 – Mexico declared its independence from Spain, New
Mexico joined the new nation to the South.
Albuquerque became a major stop on the Chihuahua Trail.
1846 – General Kearny raised the flag of the United States
of America over the Plaza which became the site of a Major Military Output.
1862 – Albuquerque was the site of a civil war skirmish and
for 36 days was the confederate capital of the territory of New Mexico.
1880 - When the railway came in it was located 1.5 miles to
the east in New Town which started the demise of Old Town. It has been a tourist attraction since the
early 1900’s.
We are not gatherers so after seeing a few stores they started to get very repetitious. However we did enjoy the history and look of the area so we spent quite of bit of time in the area. I think we went to more stores that we would not have normally just to get into some air conditioning.
I had made reservations for Saturday night at the High
Finance Restaurant which is at the top of Sandia Peak. Sandia Peak is 10,378 feet high and can only
be reached by the Sandia Tram. It would
have been a very enjoyable night with a great view of Albuquerque. The sunsets from the top of the mountain are
apparently spectacular. However, I
cancelled our reservations and I am glad I did.
A storm came in and brought with it very strong winds, very, very strong
winds. We later learned that the
visibility was practically zero, no spectacular sunset. We also learned that they had to shut the
tram down for a period of time and dinner guests didn’t get back down the
mountain until around midnight. It was
disappointing having to cancel so to make myself feel better I went to the
casino and played in a poker tournament.
We thought we would try the Tram the next day so we headed
to Sandia Peak. The last part of the
drive into the Tram gave us some nice pictures but I wasn’t too optimistic when
we got to the top. We would be looking
right into the sun if we wanted to take any pictures of Albuquerque.
The view from the top gave a good view of Albuquerque and I
took pictures in spite of looking into the sun.
The view from the other side was pretty spectacular. We were looking north towards Santa Fe and
Taos as well as east towards Las Vegas.
Las Vegas, New Mexico.
The fire danger is so high in New Mexico and on the mountain
that we were not allowed to go on any of the trails. We were restricted to the boardwalk that led
to the restaurant and gave us a few on both sides but was not very big. We took pictures on both sides and were about
to go back down on the mountain when we noticed what looked like a big rain
cloud on horizon. As it got closer we
realized it was a huge dust cloud. It
was not as severe as the one that hit Phoenix last year but it was still
impressive to watch, especially from the top of the mountain.
Once it reached us we were forced inside as there was some
rain as well. Unfortunately, it also
closed the tram because of the winds and lightening. So we were forced to go into the restaurant
and have chocolate cake. Darn.
The tram reopened a little later and we headed back
down. When we got to the parking lot we
discovered our car was a mess. No
damage, just dirt. We headed back to the
RV Park with some concern as the RV is a bugger to wash. Fortunately the storm missed us, so all was
well.
It was a good day and
a good week in Albuquerque. Tomorrow we
head for Santa Fe.
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