Our month in Albuquerque (sort of) sorry for the lengthy post; we had almost nonexistent WiFi for the month!
our”home” for the month; enchanted trails rv park & trading post
In case you’re lost!Their maintenance buildingThey even have a few vintage RV’s you can rent
The interior of the office/trading post is pretty nostalgic as well!We’re not sure if this really works but it’s pretty cool anyway!
Our spot for the month; we even got our own little tree!There was another Grand Design family member next door in a Reflection!
first stop(s), the weddings!
First we flew out for the the San Diego wedding; Danielle and Christian.
They had a beautiful wedding at Christian’s parents home in Crest. We had a great time at the event and reconnecting with our many friends and family over the 5 days we were there. After all, I had to support my “brother” Tom with his youngest daughter getting hitched!
Flew home, then 2 days later drove to Colorado.
First stop Thursday was Colorado Springs where we stayed overnight with Rich and Aneka. Friday morning (April 22nd!!) we woke up to this! I realized this was the first time my truck has ever had snow on it since we bought it in 2003!Rich’s back porchLove the t-shirt!Look at that gorgeous smile!Reeve hard at work sporting his new miners hardhat we got him in Bisbee at the copper mine.Reeve multi-tasking as usual!
next, Bruce and Ellen’s beautiful wedding!
Ellen and Bruce, the lovely couple at their wedding in downtown Denver.
then Drove back to Albuquerque to continue our journey.
First was our tour of the TURQUOISE trail
First stop; TINKERTOWN MUSEUM! This is the front entrance to Tinkertown, the most “Unique” Museum you’ll ever encounter!The bottle wall! They had the entire town bringing their recycled bottles to them for years to build this feature!Our first taste for what awaited us inside!The inside of the front bottle wall.
Old west scene; check out all the amazing detail!
Unique use for old license plates and metal signs don’t you think?Our new motto to live by!The coolest thing here; a working one-man-band machine!
Even an outdoor fireplace made from bottles!And, of course, a full size 1936 sail boat!
Next was the Mine Shaft Tavern and Museum for lunch. (Coal miners in this case.)
The front entrance; notice the huge gear inset into the steps!One of the locals I’m guessing! all the waitresses came over and hugged him and he never ordered; they already knew what he wanted (besides the hugs of young women that is!)The “not so locals”!Too funny!
Unique use for heavy chain!I’m thinking her right boob is much bigger than the left; but a donkey with boobs is kinda creepy anyway!Entrance to the museum; you go into the theater, across the engine stage and through a green curtain, stage right!They have live music and shows here during the summer.The rest of the engine outside; weird!A few old rusting antique cars, trucks and tractors.
Couldn’t resist taking a picture of this real street sign; gave me a chuckle! DON’T go to the OLD Hospital!Colors galore!Soda Dam; a natural rock formation “dam”. you could smell the suphur in the water!
A close-up view of the interesting rock formations.A picture Jan took with her iPhone shows how huge these rock formations are compared to me!
Our short 1/4 mile hike to Jemez Falls.
A closer view, but not as good. I wasn’t willing to go any further out on the ledge for the shot!On down the road to find the Gilman Tunnels. The girl who owned the local general store told us about them.The road to the tunnels. Narrow and eventually is dirt!First view; they were blasted out in the 1920’s for access while building a logging railroad.
On our way, Jan spotted this interesting large pine tree; growing right out of the cliff ahead!It’s at least a 40-50 feet tall tree and the same distance above the road!!
sandia crest and sandia peak tramway ride (yes she talked me into riding the tram!)
Views were spectacular as you could imagine.Vast array of microwave and other antennas up there.YES, that is snow; 40 degrees cooler than down below.
sandia peak tram ride (the highest one in the country)
They just replaced the gondolas last week; these on the ground are the old ones.
Our chariot arrives.The view back as we went up. Boy does that building look tiny!The middle tower to take us over the first smaller peak. The entire trip is 2.7 miles one way!
They said you can see 11,000 square miles of New Mexico from the top!Made it to the top; here are a few views from there. Spectacular!The ski run on the other side of the peak.
Good advice!
These hoses are used to add or remove water used as ballast when needed.Seems you can see forever!
Views on our return trip down.
Almost there!Safe landing!Would NOT want to do this in winter. This thing runs year round though!When we left the tram we had to drive by this; recognize it Breaking Bad fans? It’s the car wash Walt and his wife owned. Was Octopus Car Wash but bought out by Mr. Car Wash, a huge chain.We also had lunch at Blake’s Lotaburger because they’re everywhere in NM; wasn’t really impressed with the burgers, one step up from McDonalds I guess!
my highlight of the albuquerque trip- the unser racing museum!
for my harley friends!
Al Unser Senior’s personal Cobra.Rear view; notice the hitch receiver? Al said “I need to get my ski mobiles to the mountain somehow!”Unser’s dirt racers he used on the Pike Peak Hillclimb race.Bobby Unser’s hillclimb race car.One of Al Sr.’s race cars for Indy.Where it all began!
Al Jr.’s custom motorcycle gifted to himself for a win at Indy.A custom rifle given to Al Sr. for an Indy win; check out the etchings; beautiful gun!
Al Senior was there that day and agreed to a photo Opp! Very nice down to earth man!Shirts that Al Unser Senior’s parents had made when they watched Al Sr. and Al Jr. race against each other at Indy. One was sponsored by Goodyear and the other by Firestone!They had a driving simulator too! You start out dead last in 10th and have to work your way through the pack in 5 laps.My results: I came in FIRST by nearly 2 seconds!A Leroy Neiman painting of Al Sr. at his Indy win.
the nuclear science & history museum
A race car sponsored by Nuclear Clean air & Energy; part of the Paul Neuman team.The Delores from Back to the FutureThe Flux Capacitor 🙂
One of their hands on exhibits; very interesting. It separates the hydrogen from the water by a hand cranked electrical generator to make a small explosion to shoot the ping pong ball up the tube.
Butter casing of the Fat Boy bomb dropped in Japan.The main lobby has the Periodic Table embedded as part of the floor.Outside they had some historic planes including a similar plane the the one that dropped the bomb in Hiroshima (the original one is in the Smithsonian in D.C.)
