Albuquerque

It's been very strange to be back in Albuquerque and see the differences that have occurred since I was here last. It's been a long time but still I wasn't prepared for so many of my favorite places to be gone...not just changed but gone! I went to high school here and a bit of college at UNM. Both schools are still here but vastly changed. Bill and I met at a drug store where I worked and it is gone. Our first apartment is gone, I mean the whole building is gone. The hospital where Clem was born is gone. Sandia Base has been taken over by Kirtland Air Force Base and so many of the old buildings have been erased and new ones built in their place. I knew it wouldn't be the same but still it is strange to see that so many things are just gone.

The picture above is a petroglyph. There is a whole park devoted to the many petroglyphs that have been found and now are part of a national monument on the northwest end of town. We lived here for years and never heard a word about petroglyphs! Anyway, it is interesting to see and we spent some time in the park.

This is Sandia Mountain as viewed from across town. It is still beautiful! They didn't change the mountain, by golly! When I was a kid it was what anchored me. We lived just at the base of the mountain so if I headed toward the mountain I knew I would get home! I have no sense of direction so it was helpful to me.

When we went up on the mountain Mindy finally found some wildlife that she could chase. It was a squirrel and she had a great time barking and chasing it up the tree. What a hunter!

This is the sign at the entrance to our rv park. It is so typically New Mexican that I loved it. The sun symbol is what I expected to be on the welcome sign at the border but instead there was a string of chili peppers. What? This is what should be on the welcome sign.

The sign leading to Sandia Crest is really classy. The cut metal signs are so popular in the west and we have seen some really nice ones at ranch entrances. The ram in this sign is beautiful but I don't think there are any big horn sheep in the whole state. It's pretty anyway.

We went searching for a couple of ghost towns that we used to go to many years ago. Even that has changed. Golden, which was an old mining ghost town with quite a few old houses and stores now has new houses and residents! Madrid, which used to have a few people but was mostly a ghost town, is now a bustling tourist trap. Lots of artsy crafty stores and taverns. Very cool.

It has been interesting to see Albuquerque. It's a wonderful city but has no resemblance to my old hometown. I guess I couldn't expect it to stay the same...I didn't.