I have a cousin, Ray, that is an Albuquerque(ian, ite???). My other cousin in Sugarland, TX, Sandra (Ray's sister) sent me a text Saturday night saying that she had been reading the blog and saw that we were in Albuquerque and that we should contact Ray right away and let him know we were in town. By coincidence, Ray was having an "open land" party on a ten acre plot of land he had been developing on the side of a mountain east and north of Albuquerque. His mom, my aunt had come in from Texas and a number of friends were going to gather on the mountain for a bar-b-q, tour of the development work and an Indian artifact demonstration. I made contact with Ray immediately and he was happy to give me a long set of directions on how to get there. From our spot west of Albuquerque it is going to be about a 35 mile drive to get there.
We were both a little worn out from all the sight-seeing and traveling for the last six weeks. On this Sunday morning we did not get in any hurry to get out of bed, and when we did we just stayed in our bathrobes and watched some news and Charles Osgood on Sunday Morning. We finally stirred around and got ourselves ready for the day around lunch time. Cyndee fixed us a great grilled chicken salad and then we headed into town to look around a little before heading to Ray's place on the mountain.
For our drive into Albuquerque from out here at Enchanted Trails we can use one of two major roads. One is Interstate-40, the other is a preserved section of the fabled Route 66. Guess which one we like to use.
As you turn south on Route 66 from Atrisco Vista the city of Albuquerque is laid out before you, back-dropped by Sandia Peak.
Once you get into town the City of Albuquerque has done a nice job of paying homage to the Mother Road. The below Pueblo-Deco road-side signs are up and down a couple of miles of what is now Central Avenue. This road also goes straight through Old Town. Old Town looks pretty interesting, we'll have to check it out Monday.
As we get up on I-40 to make our way east to Ray's place we can see large storms brewing over the mountains we are navigating to. About an hour later, after winding our way through some rugged, beautiful country, and making one heck of a steep climb to get on the ridge road leading to Ray's land, we reach our destination.
This is ten acres of raw mountain-side. There are no power lines, no water lines, no natural gas lines, nothing. Ray has hand-cleared everything and it is customized to his vehicles. The width of the road, the turns, the overhead clearance all fit trucks half the size of Big Gulp. Getting to the place where I was to park was like a truck rodeo and it got even more fun as the clouds let loose and the road started to get soupy. But we got in and slogged our way over to the rock patio where a tarp-umbrella had been erected.
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| That's Cyndee in the back. The patio is hand-laid rock, every one came from the property. You can't see it from this perspective but the patio has a large, lone star pattern in it. |
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| Ray is the one walking away, on the left, giving yet another tour of all the cool things he has done around the property. |
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| It did eventually stop raining and we got in the bar-b-q, and some good visiting. |
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| Seated is Pat. He is an expert in Indian artifacts and a master craftsman of making arrowheads and other points. In this picture he was demonstrating how spear points were made from obsidian |
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| A tour group is down at the end of the path looking at the excavation work done on the foundation for the house. It will be a totally green structure; thirty-two inch thick walls, passive solar heating, 6,000 gallon cistern, solar panels and battery bank for lighting and electronics. |
It was a great afternoon and things dried out enough that everyone was ready to give the dirt mountain road a shot at getting out before the sun went down. The duals on Big Gulp slung a couple hundred pounds of mud into the wheel wells but it steadily chugged its way to pavement.
We are supposed to leave Albuquerque on Monday but I think we need another day.
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