2geonomads

First of all Doug, who is a sensitive soul,has asked me to point out that in addition to his traffic misdemeanours a semi-trailer driver the other day actually gave him the thumbs up when Doug held back at some traffic lights to allow room for the big truck to negotiate the bend.

Hirsute Doug
Now on to the matters of the day.

We were all down to breakfast by 7.15 in anticipation of a long day ahead.
First port of call was the Sandia Peak Aerial Tram ( cable car ), a short drive out of the city. Given my well- known fear of heights I had agonised over whether to risk the trip to the top of Sandia Peak and my worst fears were confirmed when we arrived at the cable car station.
The Tramway takes passengers up to a height of 10378 feet with the journey taking about 15 minutes over 2.7 miles.
Doug and I discussed at length whether we could cope with this ordeal and in the event I got on and Doug, sensibly as it turned out, decided against it. To call the ride an ordeal would be a huge understatement and if I had known in advance what lay ahead I would have stayed on terra firma with Doug. It was without doubt the most spectacular, terrifying cable car I have ever experienced.
I suppose the good news is that I sort of tackled my vertigo demons and even better news is that it cured my constipation!

I’m OK – Honest!

Beautiful View from the Top. OMG I have to go back down now!

http://www.sandiapeak.com/

On the way back into the city centre we see a billboard advertising a show with the Thunder from Downunder, the troupe of male strippers from Australia appearing in Albuquerque and it occurred to us that we could do something similar. We thought that the Drizzle from Downunder would be more appropriate for guys if our age. We can see it now:
The famous Drizzle from Downunder featuring the 3 Mizzles from Melbourne and Prostate from Perth! You see how the imagination runs riot when 4 old Amigos are left to travel together for weeks at a time.

We return to the city as Mick has found another Micon in the shape of the Kimo Theatre in the Old District and he also wishes to visit some Native Indian stores. While in the area we stop for a very nice cup of coffee and cakes ( at least for M and myself ) at Lilly’s Coffee Shop. At the risk of being branded a chauvinist I will merely say that the girl who served us was obviously not employed for her intellect and and every question about what they had on the menu was met with a puzzled, glazed look as though we had addressed her in Mandarin.

We now set off after about an hour for our long drive to Gallup in the west of New Mexico.
With Fred driving and me navigating it would be a walk in the park,or so we thought.
I need to offer a mea culpa from the start. As we started our journey out of the city it quickly became clear that we were not going through any of the places that should have been on our itinerary and the only person to blame was this hapless navigator.
I had, in fact , followed an alternative pre- 1937 route due west out of the city when we should have been first travelling south for some distance before swinging west later. We soon found ourselves following 3 white Government saloon cars into a very remote area and ending up at the entry to a Detention Centre, followed shortly after by a u-turn at a Gov’t Admin Centre. Mick was convinced that we had come across some sort of Spooks facility and that we would have been shot if we had stepped out of our vehicle. There followed a visit to a landfill facility and a number of Dead Ends and u-turns, much to the amusement of the two in the back seats who sledged us mercilessly, in contrast to the understanding support that Fred and I had given to D and M when their many inadequacies had been on display.

No alternative other than to re-trace our journey eastwards and pick up the main I 40 westbound.
This went smoothly and we finally picked up the correct itinerary through the small towns of Mesita, Laguna, Paraje,Budville , Villa Cubero and San Fidel. This stretch covers such features as Dead Man’s Curve and Owl Rock and Fred clearly enjoyed the the twisting road.
We then move across to the south of I 40 to the small town of McCarty’s which was to have been our starting point for the drive to Acoma, or Sky City, an Indian community perched on a Mesa hundreds of feet above the valley floor. Well, surprise, surprise, Acoma was closed for some reason on this day of disasters.
Returning to McCarty we are supposed to go under the I 40 through a very narrow tunnel. Well the one we found was VERY narrow although we managed to scrape through. However, it was clearly not the correct tunnel and were soon confronted by the dreaded Dead End sign. Back through to the south of I 40 and the real tunnel to the larger town of Grants.

Someone’s Optimistic!
Here we found a great diner called the Badlands Burgers and Tortas where a vivacious Mexican lady ( part owner we presume ) seemed to be quite taken with our group of oldies and asked for a photo to be taken of her with us and the chef for her Facebook.

Doug as is his wont was convinced that she only had eyes for him and she supposedly asked him if he was a relative of Paul Newman. We assume that, if anything,he was Newman’s grandfather although how she could confuse Doug’s glaucoma-ridden baby blues for the actor’s sparklers is a complete mystery.

On to Thoreau and the site of the Continental Divide which marks the point where water to the west drains to the Pacific and that to the east to the Gulf of Mexico.

                                         
With the weather worsening we enter Gallup, find our next Days Inn and go in search of a Walmart to stock up on drinks and snacks to eat in our rooms. As expected we never find Walmart but a Safeway suffices.
Heading back east towards the hotel in driving rain Fred misses the Exit 26 with the classic line ” it just didn’t look right!” We then find ourselves driving many kms east before being able to double back on I 40. On this occasion Fred finds exit 26 more appealing and we duly arrive back at the hotel.
It’s really a sad state of affairs when the driver starts basing his direction decisions on whether the exit looks sufficiently attractive!
A very long day ( and blog to match ) ends with us all in our room planning our next few days.

Apart from almost driving a clearly terrified old lady off I 40 when changing lanes Fred’s driving has been exemplary and the navigation by the OF has been “interesting” at best.

I hope that you are getting the photos which will speak far more eloquently than my ramblings could ever do.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret.