On the road with Wally & the Beav

I don't know why we never did this before. Paul and I spent about 10 days together on a road trip to New Mexico. I don't think we have travelled together in at least 40 years. Paul remembers a trip down to Silver Mines but I don't recall when we did that.




We drove down I-44 and stayed in Oklahoma City and then went west on I-40 to Albuquerque. No problems on the road going out except a little road construction.


We stopped just west of Amarillo and visited Cadillac Ranch. Paul seemed a little incredulous about the place and that we stopped. Actually there was a tour bus there and about 6 or 8 cars full of people besides us. There was at least 100 people strolling in and out of the place while we were there. Spray painting graffiti on the old cars is the major activity. We didn't paint anything but most of the other visitors were. They were even painting cow pies and writing notes on the packed dirt.

In Albuquerque we stayed in an extended stay motel and did sort of a combination tourist and house hunter thing. Our plan had been to use the kitchen and cook some meals at the motel. We did a few but usually ended up going out for supper. We ate at Rudy's BBQ which is sort of an odd place....you buy your BBQ by the pound and assemble your own sandwich. You have to buy a ticket if you want a beer and then take it to

the beer guy who will carry it to your table. The food was good and it was only a block away from the motel. We also ate at Two Fools Tavern on Central Avenue and at The Range up in Bernalillo. We had some good fish and chips at Two Fools Tavern. Made with Haddock, not Cod. The Range is a classic cafe in "downtown" Bernalillo and a good place to people-watch.

We found a nice Italian restaurant called Luigi's. Luigi came out of the kitchen and confessed that his momma made the gnocchi and the pesto sauce and the tomato sauce....she does good work. I'm going to try to remember Luigi's since Capo's closed down up near where I'll be living.


We did more than eat...we found wineries, too. First we went to Casa Rondena up near Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. Rondena is sort of a fancy pants place with large Tuscan-looking buildings but some very old and venerable vineyards and some pretty good wine. The wine is a little high priced and you have to pay $5.00 for a tasting session. We bought a bottle of wine and sat out in the garden area to drink it. There was a fair number of people there. The other winery was St. Clair Winery and it is actually located in Deming but they have a "bistro" in Albuquerque. They charge $6.00 but they have more varieties of wine to choose from. We liked their wines and bought a couple glasses of wine and had a light lunch. We ended up buying a few bottles to take with us. I'm looking forward to the New Mexico wine festival held at Bernalillo each year at Labor Day.

I was really glad to have Paul with me when we looked at display houses and worked through some house construction issues. I've been thinking that I needed a second opinion from someone on the lot and also on the builder and the house plan. First we went to see the lot. I'm not sure Paul could believe what he was seeing -- a vacant lot of desert with cactus and yucca and a dozen or so juniper trees on an unpaved road. We walked the lot trying to locate the corners and taking notice of all the little animal tracks. We found one burrow that was a pretty good size. As we walked and I pointed out the grade school and how close the neighboring developments were and that the lot had gas, electric, phone and cable TV already installed, Paul seemed to start seeing the potential. He thinks that it will just be a matter of a year or so and I'll have neighbors because the school is only 2 blocks away.

We looked at some display homes put up by Pulte and another by Stillbrooke. I wanted to see what a smaller house would look and feel like. We saw one that was about 1,500 sq. ft. and, while it was laid out pretty well, it was too small and claustrophobic. Some of the larger houses were better but they were trying to squeeze four bedrooms into the space which made them seem cramped.

We made contact with Betty, my builder, and also with the developer of the subdivision. We saw a couple of Betty's houses and the difference in quality between her homes and the tract homes was obvious. We also saw Donna at one of Betty's houses. We saw one of the developer's houses and it was pretty close to Betty's in quality and looked pretty good compared to the tract homes. Since nothing is selling I'm hoping that prices have come down a little. The developer's prices are pretty good and have come down about $30 per sq. ft. Berty says that she can come down a little in labor costs but material costs have not come down much.

We met with Betty and Max and went over the floor plans. We made some changes and actually ended up making the plan bigger by about 30 feet. Paul seemed impressed with Betty's houses and with Max's design so I think my plan passed the 2nd opinion test.


We visited the Al Unser Racing Museum...actually spent part of 2 days there. We got there late and they gave us a two-day ticket so we went back. They have a bunch of Unser family race cars on display. Paul knew a lot about most of them but it was mostly new to me. It was interesting. The Indy cars are smaller than I thought they would be. They had some interactive video displays and a couple simulators. We did a NASCAR simulation and then did an Indy simulation - five laps around the course. These were a lot of fun. The NASCAR simulator required you to use some special virtual reality goggles, which made it a little difficult. The Indy simulator was a race against 10 other drivers. You could pass them but they would try to run you off into the infield or against the wall. Paul somehow blew his engine and by the time he got the car back on the track the other cars were too far ahead. On my turn I started off OK and then ran into a car and ended up in the infield and couldn't get out. The kind lady got me started again and this time I was able to stay on the track and even passed several drivers but I couldn't get any better than 7th place because they were intent on running me off the track if I tried to pass. It was a lot of fun but they need to give you a therapy session to talk you down before you leave and go out into live traffic.






We made a trip up to Santa Fe for a few hours and then came down the back road (Hwy 14) to Albuquerque called the Turquoise Trail. The road is a two-lane highway that has lots of curves and hills. Paul seemed to enjoy driving on something that wasn't an interstate highway. We stopped in Madrid which is a former ghost town that now is inhabited by mostly Woodstock generation people selling crafts and art in a bunch of old and new stores. It was an interesting side trip. Santa Fe was OK but we really only ate lunch there.



Our trip back home was a little stressful because of the weather. We kept hearing about a possible blizzard. It was so nice in Albuquerque that it was hard to imagine the weather turning that bad. We left for home with the snow storm following close behind. When we got to Amarillo it was clear that the people there were tensed up and expecting the worst. In Oklahoma City the rain caught up with us and it turned colder. The next day we started off following thunder storms and we were driving on wet highways most of the way home.