New Mexico II - Albuquerque

Had a nice visit to the local church for Sacrament Meeting. Very friendly people. The Church is the same no matter where we go it seems and we have gone a lot of places. We stayed in our church clothes and visited a couple of places that seemed more Sunday-friendly. The first was the Albuquerque Museum, a interesting combination of art and the history of the region. It is located adjacent to Old Town. Unfortunately, we were almost done with the exhibits when we realized we had done them backwards. No wonder they made no sense. Don't bother with this place unless you have some real gaps in your schedule. I thought the best part was the sculpture garden outside. 

KR Outside the Albuquerque Museum

Windshield Art



One nice thing about Albuquerque is the nice freeways and the road system in general. The city is compact and very easy to get around, with fast-moving traffic. Most of the touristy things are located close to one another and you can see a lot in one day. Our final Sunday stop was the National Nuclear Museum of Nuclear Science and History, and much more to my liking. With nearby Los Alamos being the nerve center for the Manhattan Project, Albuquerque makes sense as the site of this museum. It is filled with interesting artifacts detailing the advent of the nuclear age. We literally spent the rest of the day here enjoying the videos, movies, displays and reading about the rich history of nuclear power. The museum is fairly new to this building and is still a work in progress, but well worth the visit. If this sort of thing is of interest to you, leave a big chunk of time.

KR at the Entrance

The Actual Bombs Accidently Dropped on Spain and Later
Recovered - It Happened As the Result of an In-Air
Refueling Accident Known as the Palomares Incident

We were up early on the 30th, anticipating a full day around Albuquerque. Our first stop was the Petroglyph National Monument. It is located within the city limits and has various trails where you can enjoy hundreds of petroglyphs. Unfortunately, many have been defaced by gunfire, where the older, dark-stained basalt has been chipped away and the petroglyphs along with it. Sad. The ranger in the visitor center was kind of grumpy, but maybe within reason when we saw the sign on the inside of the door (see below). She said a local rattler sometimes curls up on the mat outside the door. Okay, we will watch where we are stepping!

Petroglyphs Along the Trail
With Gun Damage on Top Left Corner

One of the key features of Albuquerque that hadn't occurred to me before is the presence of the Rio Grande right in the middle of town. In fact the presence of that river is the reason Albuquerque exists. There is a rich history here that spans many cultures and you can feel the age of the place all along the Rio Grande. Everything just seems OLDER. There is the part of the city hard by the banks of the river where the original settlement took place, called Old Town, and they have turned it into a tourist hub. The architecture was nice, the weather was perfect, and we enjoyed our walk around the 6 or 8 square blocks that make up the area. I can't be as enthusiastic about the contents of the stores, however. Touristy and repetitive.

I Finally Found a Hat
As Big as My Head

KR in an Interior Garden

Main Square of Old Town,
San Felipe de Neri Church

Old Town Has Various Galleries, We Like
The Copper Works in This One

Near Old Town is the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. With the balloon festival starting next week, the schedule of live events this week was kind of light, as it appears they were gearing up the crowds to come. We decided to check it out, however, because we are museum people. So-so exhibits. They need some updating. The restaurant, however, was excellent, as we decided to stay for lunch. You can eat here without paying to enter the Center itself, so if you are just hungry, the food and service are highly recommended. Check it out!

Our last stop of the day was the Sandia Peak Tramway. It is located on the eastern edge of town. You exit the east-west freeway on Tramway Boulevard, then head north to the terminus of the road and follow the signs. It is the longest tram in the world (2.7 miles) and climbs to the top of Sandia Peak (10,378 feet).

Cars Pass Each Other at the Mid-Point

Looking Back Toward Albuquerque

A Little Windy at the Top

New Mexico I - Arizona Reunions

We were considering how to best use our new-found time, so I checked my trip list. We have three main trips left (in the continental U.S.) - New York City and environs, Kansas City and environs, and New Mexico (Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos). We thought the latter would be perfect, with the October weather and the upcoming balloon festival. We also decided to plan a few missionary reunions along the route. As my trips are already planned, we packed up a few clothes and were off.

We headed east through Hurricane on the morning of September 26, then toward the Zion's Park via Springdale. One of our goals was to find some frou-frou for the walls of our Entrada home but we found nothing in Springdale. We did buy a couple of excellent hand-dipped chocolates, however. It was a gorgeous day as we drove through Zion's up the road through the tunnel and into the eastern side of the Park.

KR by a Zion's Rock
Formation

We turned right at Mt. Carmel Junction and headed toward Kanab. Nice job Kanabites on redoing the main street through town with streetlights and sidewalks. We meant to take the 89A through Fredonia and over the Kaibab Plateau to Navajo Bridge, but somehow took a wrong turn onto 89. I kept thinking we should be getting to Fredonia, but by the time we got to Johnson Canyon, we had gone far enough that it made sense to just continue to Page via Big Water. It also allowed me finally go up Johnson Canyon to see the old Gunsmoke set. A few miles east of Kanab, a deep canyon slices northward through the Vermillion Cliffs of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Johnson Canyon has an eclectic past. During the 1870’s the infamous John D. Lee called the canyon home. In the mid-1900’s it served as a movie set for multiple Hollywood westerns and, of course, the Gunsmoke TV series.

Collapsing Gunsmoke Set

After exploring Johnson Canyon, we enjoyed light traffic and the beauty of the vermillion cliffs all the way to Page. We crossed the bridge at Glen Canyon Dam, took the 89A detour south through Cameron, passed Sunset Crater, and arrived in Flagstaff around dinner time. KR Pricelined a hotel in town getting m us a beautiful room at a brand new Courtyard Marriott near the university.

Vermillion Cliff Near Big Water

We called ahead to see Ali Crane Seaman, and despite the fact she and her husband were heading to Hawaii for their 10th Wedding Anniversary the next day, they and their wonderful children met us for dinner at a yummy pizza place. Wow! It is so fun to visit our missionaries and see how well they are doing.

Ali Seaman and Family

We slept in then headed south via Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona. To drive through the canyon, you have to leave the freeway and wind your way via many switchbacks and narrow roads. The weather was perfect and the canyon green and flowered. Don't miss this place if you are close. As you lose elevation and near Sedona, the limestone turns to red rock. Even though we have been in the area several times, it never fails to awe. We stopped at a goofy "Mexican imports" place and had fun posing with the various items. Worth a stop - southern end of main road in Sedona. We bought a few small things for our house and went on down the road to Phoenix. As we were getting on the freeway about 20 miles away from Sedona, KR realized she did not have her wallet. We called back to the store and confirmed she had left it there. Fortunately we didn't get all the say to Phoenix. And we got it back! Whew.

We arranged a missionary get-together in Phoenix also and had a great time at a Chinese restaurant in Scottsdale. Elders Tejada, Bennett, Lewis, K. Smith, Urrutia, Schmitz, Crum, Luna and their spouses, as well as Hermana Baldwin showed up. The Smith's brought their son so there were 20 of us. We were seated in the center of the small restaurant and we got kind of loud. I am not sure the restaurant owners expected us to dominate their evening meal like that, but we had such a tough time keeping it down.

We stayed overnight not far from the restaurant. As we were taking our stuff from the car to the room, I realized I had left my backpack under the table in the restaurant. That was a major problem, as we wanted to leave early in the morning to visit the Michaud clan in Mesa. We were afraid the restaurant would not open until noon or so, so I raced back. A large "CLOSED" sign hung on the door and it was locked up tight. I drove back to the hotel not knowing what to do. KR was smiling as I entered the room and said Ian Bennett found the backpack and was bringing it over to the hotel. We were so grateful as the restaurant didn't open until noon the next day.

On the morning of the 28th, we drove south to Mesa and had a short visit on both sides of the road with the Layton's and Michaud's (Kristi's cousins and aunt and uncle). Barb and Clay fed us a breakfast of freshly gathered eggs cooked to perfection, wheat toast, and some weird-colored smoothie meant to keep us healthy. Everyone seemed to be doing well.

                                                                  Bob, Barb and Clay

                                                           Aunt Patty, Uncle Dick and Barb

We spent the rest of the day on roads I had never traveled. We went east on US60 out of Mesa to Florence Junction, Superior, and Globe, then through the Apache Reservations to Show Low. The White Mountain and San Carlos Reservations along US60 are separated by the Salt River and at this point the Salt has formed a great canyon. There is a bridge at the bottom of the canyon, but to get across it, you must first go down a long winding road then up the other side on an equally winding road. An awesome site. Below, KR frames the river far below on the north rim of the canyon. 

As we continued to head east, we came to the small town of Witch Well on the border of Arizona and New Mexico. Now you have been there!



We were hustling to get to El Morro NMT before it closed at 5:00 p.m. and entered New Mexico on Route 53, through Zuni Pueblo. We arrived at El Morro about ten minutes before it closed, but the rangers were having nothing to do with our idea of walking up to the inscriptions at that point. We would have to check it out on our way back. The first major kink in our plan. We also passed by El Malpais NMT, since we would be coming back the same way. We stopped in Grants for dinner at Badland's Burger. Good food, check it out. It only took us about an hour to get into Albuquerque from there. Aahhhh! Three nights without moving as we Pricelined a nice room at the Hyatt Uptown.

Visa Problems

Bad news came again. The Church Travel Department sent some test visas into the Colombian system and it was becoming clear that we were not going to get our visas by the October 7 MTC date. Our new MTC date was pushed out to January 27, with the option of an earlier date if our visas arrived. October 21 was set as the deadline for the November 4 group. We were getting bluer by the day.

Las Vegas

We decided that our smaller camera is not up to the quality we want for a picture-taking odyssey that a mission surely provides so we headed to the camera store in St. George where we bought our last camera (which we had given to one of our kids). Sadly, it was closed and shuttered, having gone the way of most small, local camera stores in cities the size of St. George. Another industry pushed aside by Amazon, Costco, and the internet.

As Las Vegas is the only city of any size within a reasonable distance, we headed out for a short jaunt on Wednesday the 11th. Vegas has a very nice camera store and we purchased the Canon 70D. It is the successor to our last camera and we were very pleased with the purchase. Now we are ready for Colombia and its beautiful vistas. I took KR to the Rio buffet for the prime rib - yummm!

My wife is the queen of Priceline and managed to wrangle us a $60 room at the Marriott Vegas Resort & Spa. It was so nice, we decided to stay another night.

KR at the Wynn - One of the First
Pictures Taken with Our New Camera

On Thursday, the 12th, we had a nice dinner with some of our missionaries - Lance Banks, Michael Gardineer, Angel Valladares and their wives. It was so nice to see them and we talked on and on about our time in Honduras together. They are doing so well.

Projects

As the waiting began, we decided we needed some projects. We replaced the very heavy doors covering the HVAC unit in the garage with some new panels that were much easier to take down, put up some new bike/tool racks, then repainted the entire garage. I spent my evenings and nights embarking on a project to contact every one of the 521 missionaries who served with us in Honduras. Our desire is to discover how they are doing in the areas of church, work and family. It may take a year or more to find most of them, but we are well on our way.

Old HVAC Cover Panels

New Panels