Albuquerque BioPark

Our destination today was the Albuquerque BioPark. It's a complex including the Rio Grande Botanic Garden, Albuquerque Aquarium, Rio Grande Zoo, and Tingley Beach. Our combo tickets gave us entry to all of these venues, but we didn't make it to the beach. The so-called "beach" is actually a series of recreational ponds along the Rio Grande River. They are used for fishing, boating, and hiking.

We spent most of the morning in the botanical gardens. Many of the plants were in bloom, including a variety of beautiful irises.

One of the most unusual sights we saw was a large complex built for small trains. It's called a "garden railroad." The whole layout must be sturdy and weather resistant.

This bird looks like some kind of kingfisher to us. One issue we ran into at the BioPark is that many if not most exhibits are either not labeled or lacking in pertinent information.

This dragon guards the entrance and the castle of the children's garden.

When we left the botanical gardens, we paid a visit to the next door aquarium. That's where we saw this comical cuttlefish. Its long skirt like fin is soft and continuous. It is used to propel the animal through the water. Despite the "fish" in its name, this creature is a cephalopod, related to squid and octopuses.

After we had viewed the denizens of the aquarium, we drove to a nearby Subway for lunch and then to the zoo. The zoo has a meerkat exhibit--my favorite zoo animals. There are lots of "zoo babies," born at the zoo within the last three years or so, including twin chimpanzees and young orangutans. I never get tired of watching the apes.

These big cats posed for Ken and then watched us as we walked across the front of their habitat.


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Petroglyph National Monument

Today was Rebecca's birthday. She had plans to go to Universal Studios. Ken called and left a voicemail for her, and she later called back. She said Cathy was jealous of our trip to New Zealand. She had seen the photos that Ken posted on Facebook. We promised to bring more photos and stories with us when we visit next week.

Our outing today was to Petroglyph National Monument. We drove to the visitor center where we picked up a brochure and a map of Boca Negra Canyon. We watched a really well-done 23 minute film about the monument.  We drove first to Piedras Marcadas canyon.

We took a trail along the base of the escarpment which has many basalt boulders. Many of the boulders have petroglyphs etched into their surface. Some are easier to see than others. As we walked back into the canyon along the trail, we found ourselves surrounded by spectacular scenery and no hint of the city nearby. It was an awe inspiring experience.

Next we drove to the Boca Negra Canyon site. It has restrooms and picnic tables. We ate our packed lunch and then walked two short trails, the Cliff Base trail and the Macaw trail. By the time we were finished with those two short trails, both of us felt like it was time to go home. We were hot and tired, but happy to have seen so many of the petroglyphs. We came away with a greater understanding of the spiritual significance of the petroglyphs to local indigenous peoples and their ancestors.

Macaw at the base of the Boca Negra Macaw trail. Macaw petroglyphs are seen as evidence of trade because their range is not this far north.



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Enchanted Trails in Albuquerque

We traveled a bit over two hundred miles today. Enchanted Trails RV Park is located near I-40 west of Albuquerque.



We got set up in a nice spot, but we were disappointed to find that we had no view of the southern sky although we had been assured that the site was a good one for satellite TV. We were really looking forward to seeing this week's episode of Call the Midwife.

Scaled quail

The RV park is on Historic Route 66, so of course it must have its vintage car and trailer. Someone gives these vehicles plenty of TLC.



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Russell's Car Museum

The car museum is free, so after breakfast today we walked over to see it. The vehicles on display represent only about a quarter of the total collection. Most of the cars are rotated out every couple of months. As you can see, the collection is not limited to cars. There's lots of 50s and 60s memorabilia too.

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Shorepower

RVers generally refer to the electricity grid as "shore power," a term borrowed from boaters, so when we're plugged in rather than depending on our batteries, we're on shore power. Today is the first time that we've actually been plugged into Shorepower, a service provided by Shorepower Technologies at truck stops around the USA.

We had never run into this before, but when we asked the clerk at the Russell's Truck & Travel Center about staying overnight in the gravel lot across the street, he helpfully suggested that we might want to use electricity. The usual charge is $1 for the connection plus $1 per hour, but your first time you get ten hours free. We don't always need an electric plug, but it's nice to have, especially when the weather is cold. Did I mention the low tonight in Glenrio, NM, is 36 degrees? Plus the wind is blowing briskly and it's raining, but we're cozy and warm with our fireplace (electric heater).

It was quite late by the time we got set up, so we decided to get dinner at Russell's Route 66 Cafe.

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"Easy" Hike

We set out this morning to hike one of the park trails. The Rocky Ledges trail is near the Juniper Ridges Nature Trail that we hiked yesterday.

On the trails map for the park, this hike of 1.63 miles is "easy." Right--easy for mountain goats maybe! The trail involved a fair amount of rock scrambling. It also included some excitement we hadn't bargained for: Ken's hiking stick roused a very angry rattlesnake. I thought it must be nearly three feet, but it was hard to tell. I made my way through the bushes to avoid the snake and we continued the hike a bit more warily.





Oddly enough, the nature trail we took yesterday was marked "challenging." When I said something to the woman in the office, she said the two designations had been switched by the folks in Austin who made up and printed the trails information handout. Now you tell us!

We also drove over to the Big Pond area which is where the rangers hold the star walks. We were planning to come back tonight to do some star gazing, in the hope that it would be darker than the campground.



As it turned out, there were other people at the Big Pond group camp area this evening, so my eyes were assaulted by some flashes of very bright light when I was trying hard to stay dark adapted. We were pleased to have a mostly clear sky and no moon while we were out, so we did get to see lots of stars, which is always a treat. Read more!

Juniper Ridge Nature Trail

The Juniper Ridge Nature Trail is short, only .7 mile, but it leads to some spectacular views. It's challenging terrain, steep and rocky, so we were glad we had our hiking sticks.

Lake Copper Breaks


Resting at the halfway point

Rugged sandstone badlands

Steep scree field

We also saw wildflowers along the way. These Texas bluebonnets were growing outside the park headquarters. I thought we might have completely missed bluebonnet season while we were away traveling, so I was glad to see these.

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Westward Bound!

We are on the road again, heading west to California! We are sorry to leave our family in the Dallas area behind, and especially our beloved grandchildren, but we have more sights to see and family to visit, so we are moving on. We stopped at a rest area along US 287 just west of Wichita Falls to take a break and have lunch.

We are spending the next three nights at Copper Breaks State Park in the Comanche campground. We chose it partly because the trip here was about the right length, but also because it is an International Dark Skies Park.

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Great Visit With Kelley

Julie is extremely contagious with pink eye, so we changed our plans for Kelley to come over today. Instead we met her halfway at Lizziano's Pizza for lunch after she got off work. It was a great chance to catch up on what is going on in her life (work, school, relationship, plans). She is one busy woman!

She is planning to take the GRE in June and submit her application for PA school. Evidently it's a very competitive process. She'll be interviewed in the fall and if accepted will start the program in June of 2017. She and Molly will join their mom and dad for a visit to Iceland this summer.

Our lunch was delicious. Lizzano's doesn't look like much on the outside, but it deserves its great reviews on Yelp. The menu goes well beyond pizza and pasta. The specials board lists a variety of items. Ken and I shared the grilled tilapia, and Kelley had spinach ravioli with alfredo sauce. We all shared chocolate bread pudding for dessert. I am a bread pudding fan but had never even heard of the chocolate variety. It was delicious!





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Happy 12th Birthday, Cate!

Today happened to be a day off school, and some of Cate's friends came over to help her celebrate her birthday. Ed took all the kids to the big park to play. Later all the girls enjoyed painting, which is one of Cate's favorite things to do.

Cate chose red velvet for her birthday cake. Even with 12 candles, her smile outshone them all.

I was napping when the cake came out and the birthday song was sung, but I got to watch Cate open her presents.

And I even got a piece of the red velvet cake with ice cream. Read more!

Dining 12 for 12

Today our outing was lunch at 12 for 12 at 12 Singapore Local Delights at Ah Hoi’s Kitchen, Hotel Jen Tanglin Singapore.

 It was definitely a tasting experience, with a variety of dishes, including a clay pot pork knuckle dish, some curries (including one made with jack fruit), whole fish (which Ken declined to try), bean curd, fried chicken, etc. We were first presented with a small bowl of soup and some pink drink, sweet and fruity. Then a bowl of rice at each place and a series of dishes surrounding the clay pot in the center. After that was cleared, we had dessert, some sort of warm bean pudding.

The idea is that you get 12 dishes for 12 Singapore dollars, at 12:00. The offer is good on weekdays, and the menu varies, depending on what dishes the restaurant is preparing.

Not everything was our favorite, but it was good and gave us a chance to sample many dishes. My Google search turned up the info that the food is Nasi Padang: an array of Indonesian dishes. We would never have been brave enough to order these items, partly because we didn't even know what they were (although the server told us when putting them on the table: he was hard to understand and the names were unfamiliar). Part of the fun of travel is sampling different cuisines, but we aren't always very adventurous, so this was a great experience for us. Thanks, Terri! Read more!

Gardens by the Bay

Today, Terri took us up to the observation deck of the Marina Bay Sands, which has some spectacular views of the city and the bay. From our height, we were able to get shots of the adjacent Gardens by the Bay, which we visited next.

The Gardens feature two large conservatories. We visited the Cloud Forest first. It was most impressive.

At the end of the evening we went to the Supertree show. The supertrees are large structures with solar panels on top, and they are fitted with a computerized lighting system. The program included classical music synchronized with the colorful lights.

Tired but happy, we headed to the train station and went home.

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