day 26: Edgewood to Albuquerque, NM

If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

Nat King Cole

44.3 miles – 1,650 ft climb

This morning Bruce left around 7:30 in anticipation of a short ride with a lot of climbing. But what a sweet surprise: the ride into Albuquerque started with about 15 miles of downhill highway. Once in the city it flattened out and was packed with motels, restaurants and general city stuff. Bruce enjoyed his ride and seeing all the sights along the way. As he was passing El Camino Donuts and knowing that I hadn’t even left the RV park yet, he decided to stop for a cuppa Joe and a donut. (This is actually very strange because Bruce is not a donut person). He got to talking to the owners and found out that Clint had been a professional jockey in Kentucky and then raised & bred race horses. He and his wife Caren had recently moved to Albuquerque and opened this great little donut shop in the Nob Hill District. They talked about everything from the benefits of capitalism and the current plight of New Mexico’s economy to parenting and of course our trip.

Continuing on down Route 66, Bruce realized he was passing University of New Mexico and decided to try to find the pool where he swam for Wichita Swim Club at a meet in high school. Since no students are allowed to study on campus due to Covid 19, Bruce made his way onto the campus and talked his way in to see the pool. He got close, but the doors were locked and the janitor said the keys were not handy. Bruce had to settle for a peek through the window.

My morning started off pretty nice. Got my 5K in doing laps at the RV park. It was nice because it sloped down along one side, so I could jog down and then walk back up. I’ve decided there are 3 kinds of campers. Those that are living there semi permanently and working nearby, those who are just spending a night on their way to someplace else and those who are there as a destination vacay. Pretty sure this park did not house many there for the destination.

After he was on the road again, Bruce called me to tell me about that cute little district where the coffee shop was because he thought I might enjoy it. True. If I had not been driving Harvey through town I probably would have enjoyed it. Cute little districts are not so fun in an RV.

I headed out around 10:30 ready to get my Kicks. I made a Walmart run because my Coconut creamer is getting low and then couldn’t get back to Route 66 because of a divided highway. Pre-GPS days I would have just turned around, but instead I blindly followed Siri down several random roads and eventually came back to Route 66 about 6 miles down the road. I did enjoy the decent and the scenery. But soon this was interrupted by the dreaded city. RVs do not belong in a city. If you ever see one there, please be extra nice to the driver because she is probably about to hit her maximum stress level. Right now you should probably just go ahead and get yourself a little cheese and crackers because I’m about to unload a lot of whine… Ok I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but between lines and unhelpful employees at Costco, lanes on Route 66 that suddenly become turn only and detours that end up in hospital parking lots, I was glad to get through to the other side. I was NOT getting my kicks.

Albuquerque seems to be a bicycle friendly town in theory. They had a bike lane along most of Route 66. There were multiple signs reminding drivers to watch out for bikes. I saw a guy sleeping in a tent in a park with his bike. Probably riding a long trip self-contained aka no Harvey.

Bruce arrived at Enchanted Trails RV Park about a half hour before me, giving him time to catch up on some emails and become intimate friends with the people in the RV office. As well as a little roadrunner that must have liked his looks. Or smell.

It was so great to see Mary & Stew. We all got settled in our RVs and then went in to Old Town Albuquerque. I’m afraid I’m becoming a mountain woman. My nails are a mess, I need a haircut and I haven’t worn makeup since I left. Mary came over ready for dinner looking really cute and I realized the bar had been raised. I was again in civilization. I ran back to the bedroom (haha – like I could actually “run” the 3 feet back into the bedroom) and changed clothes and put on makeup. It actually felt good!

Since Stew & Mary have a pull behind camper, we detached it and took their truck in to town. While we were looking for a place to eat, we saw the Virgin-in-a-Tree on the map. What!?! We knew we had to check THAT out. After many side streets and a few u-turns we finally found it. We were a little underwhelmed. It should have been named Creepy Lady in a Tree.

We walked around Old Town a little and then drove to a restaurant recommended by one of the store owners, called Garcia’s. Oops. Misplaced participle. The store owner was actually not called Garcia’s. Due to Covid Garcia’s had set up outdoor dining in their parking lot. But apparently their liquor license didn’t cover the parking lot, so you couldn’t order a beer out there, only inside. But we couldn’t eat inside because of Covid. Hmmm … beer or food? We chose food.

I apologize to everyone reading these blogs on their phones. I looked at it on Bruce’s phone today and realized it looks very different than when I read it on my laptop. The pictures when I put them in a gallery are almost too small to even tell what it’s a picture of. It looks fine on a laptop. I will try to remember to not put any pictures together in a gallery. Unless they aren’t worth seeing anyway.