Albuequerque, NM

Remember those four goals? We are getting closer to the first one!

Saturday we left Tucumcari. It started a joke for the trip. “Look honey, a smoke signal!”

We started heading for ABQ. Ray had lived here and went on and on about the tram. I started googling it to see where we could fit it in. As we got closer we could see the Sandia’s growing on the horizon.

Driving into them was equally awesome. So many textures and colors. I took thousands of pictures. Of course pictures do them no justice!

We got to the hotel and were at the foothills of the mountains. Look at that fall color! That was the view from in front of the hotel.

As we were driving I was posting pictures on facebook and the questions of where we were headed flowed in. A lady that I have known for many years reminded me that she lived there. We made arrangements to meet for breakfast the next day. Another lady I had met earlier this year was away on her anniversary trip and would not be back until after we left. She did fill me in on all her favorite quilt shops. Finally, a man I worked with many years ago, who now lives in Santa Fe, agreed to meet us the next day for lunch.

We spent the rest of the day visiting several quilt shops and picking up row by row license plates. We researched the tram and found out it was closed for maintenance until after we had left.

The next morning I met my online friend for the first time. She brought her boyfriend with her. We talked about kids, quilts, jobs and our men. It was really great to meet them. We asked them about things to do while we were there. We talked about the tram and how to get to the top by car. They gave us directions to the mountain road.

We parted company and headed to a Harley shop they mentioned. It was named Duke City. Of course we had to get a shirt since that is our dogs name.

We found the mountain road but missed the turn so continued on to Madrid. This was the film location for Wild Hogs. Of course we stopped at Maggie’s. It was a restaurant in the film but in real life a souvenir shop.

After souvenir shopping we continued on to Sante Fe via the back roads to meet my work friend. A snow storm was blowing in.

We talked for hours. It was like we had just seen each other the month before. My friend had an appointment to get to so we headed back to ABQ. This time we took the highway because it had started snowing.

You can see the snow accumulating on the mountain.

We made it back before the snow was too heavy. When we got up in the morning I hurried out to see the snow on the mountain.

This is the same view I showed earlier from in front of the hotel. Who stole my mountain?

I was pleased with the many bonuses of meet ups and finding sights to see that we had not planned on.

More to come.

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