Thurs. Aug. 30

We woke up in Albuquerque and we are getting ready to go to bed in Albuquerque.  We found so much to look at here that we decided to stay for the whole day.

The first thing that caught our attention was a giant lumberjack.  Nothing says New Mexico more than a giant lumberjack???????




Our first stop was along Route 66 in downtown Albuquerque.  Again the unusal caught our atttenion.

You've got to admit that you don't see a Volkswagen with a mohawk haircut often ---right Heike and Dirk??

Downtown Albuquerquen has many old buildings that have been renovated with murals on them.  We spent about 2 hours wandering through the downtown area and had a nice visit with a lady in an art gallery who was an artist herself and was originally from the Boston area.  It's always fun to strike up conversations with strangers and find out their background.

The Kimo Theater is a lovely renovated old theater.

As usual Vicky always manages to make a new friend wherever we go.

Our next stop for the afternoon was Old Town and we spent about 5 hours wandering through the many shops and having a nice lunch in a Mexican restaurant.



As is the case for most places in the American West where the Spanish were the first to settle the area,  towns grew up around a church and a central plaza that has lots of large trees and where people gather for visiting and impromptu music.  I actually like the concept of the plaza and having everything grow up around it.  The local people really seem to like to gather and socialize in these El Centro areas.  You also see them in Mexico of course.  The Spanish influence throughout the west is very prevalent.

Vicky found me enjoying the shade of a tree in the central plaza.  At 97 degrees F any shade is good shade---not that I'm complaining about the heat!!!!!

We ended our day with another adventure---at a laundromat.   After a week of travelling you need to clean some clothes.  Our adventure on this one was more amusing than usual.  If you are interested in hearing about it, ask us when you seem us. 

Tomorrow we plan on making our way to Gallup NM and into Arizona.  Luckily heading into Arizona Route 66 heads towards Flagstaff which is always cooler because of the altitude.  We see that the temperatures in the desert are quite high so we may have to alter when we travel when we get there.