Day 9, Sat, Oct 5, Route 66, Albuquerque

Saturday, October 5th, could best be described as "from the sublime to the ridiculous".

THE SUBLIME 

We were up and out for our drive to Albuquerque. We even found a McDonald's on the highway to get a biscuit for breakfast. Even on the road we maintained our penchant for a light breakfast and a full evening meal.

We would take The Turquoise Highway to get to Albuquerque. This is Highway 14. What a delight it turned out to be. 

We past The Box Studio Sculpture Garden. It was closed but would have been really interesting to walk thru. I got these pictures from the front gate.

Claude and I enjoyed the movie Wild Hogs. Part of it was set in a tiny town named Madrid. Imagine our surprise as we drove into Madrid to see a sign "Wild Hogs" on a sign. I truly thought the movie made up the town. Maggie's Diner even had a sign out front as this was a big part of the action in the movie. Way cool. 

Madrid would have been a great place to spend some time. Lots of unique businesses. 

Further down The Turquoise Highway, we turned off on Highway 536. Our destination, Tinkertown Museum. Tinkertown was begun as a hobby in 1962 by Ross Ward. He didn't intend it to be a museum. The interest of the public is what helped it to become the tourist site it is now. It reminded me of a small version of House on the Rocks in Wisconsin. 

Tinkertown has walls made with bottles with mortar between them. When there is a concrete floor, it has horseshoes embedded in it. That gives you an idea of the eclectic nature of Tinkertown. 

You are given change from your admission fee of at least $2 in quarters to use in the many motion venues from musical things to fortune tellers. They gave us one free quarter to start the fun. 

There were two huge diorama displays. The first was an old west town. It is amazing this man created all these little pieces.

The second was a circus diorama that was on two sides of the hallway. 

I was smitten with the quotes I found on the walls.

We called this stop a win.

THE RIDICULOUS BEGINS

I set Google Maps to get us into Albuquerque to Buffett's Candy. Our goal was pinon rolls. This is the only place you can get these treasures. We learned about them on Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations with Andrew Zimmern. 

We entered the store and we greeted by a worker giving our samples of something they called 'horny toads'. They would be called 'turtles' elsewhere but we are in New Mexico and horny toad is a lot more appropriate. We each took one and started looking for pinon rolls. I turned to the lady giving out samples and asked where we could find pinon rolls. Alas, they had a poor crop and didn't get many pinon nuts. No more till this time next year. So sad.

I set Google Maps for Madonna of the Trail. We found her and got our picture. There are 12 of the statues commissioned by the Daughter's of the American Revolution. They were installed in each of the 12 states along the National Old Trails Road, which extended from Cumberland, Maryland, to Upland, California. They are a suggested stop along Route 66. This is the only one we would see.

The plaque on the side says, "To the Pioneer Mother of America through whose courage and sacrifice the desert has blossomed, the camp became home, the blazed trail the thorofare."

We found our hotel. It was 1pm. Check-in was not until 3pm. I tried but the room was not ready. We now had 2 hours to fill. 

Claude wanted to find the Balloon Fiesta Park. We got as close as we could. This day was the first day. This is an International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. The park where the balloons take off is 60 acres. 

After gauging where the park was, we set our map the Albuquerque Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was closed. Then it registered. This is General Conference weekend. Everyone is home watching General Conference broadcast from Salt Lake City. We found a spot and took a picture.

Time to go back toward the hotel. We found a parking spot under a shade tree to wait for a half hour. I labeled pictures. Claude caught up on emails.

THE REALLY RIDICULOUS

I went to the office to check in. Their computer was doing an update. He had not paperwork for me to sign. He suggested I could pay in cash. Um...no. I would use my card on file. I am a rewards member. I got the room key with the understanding he would call and I would come down to sign paperwork once the computer was ready.

We were on the third floor. Fortunately, there was an elevator. Our room was not far from the elevator. 

We got in our room and the fridge was not working. It was not plugged in. The microwave was. We didn't need that. Unplugged the microwave and plugged in the fridge. Yeah.

Claude helped locate enough charging location to meet our needs. 

Then he turned on the television. All he got was lines on the screen. We let it go in case it needed to warm up first. No luck. I called the front desk and in a firm but polite voice I assured the nice man we needed help with the television or another room with a television that worked. He assured me he would get maintenance. 

While we waited for maintenance, we realized we didn't have a password for the wifi. The maintenance man arrived. He clearly was at the end of a very difficult day. But he was pleasant. We showed him the television screen full of lines. He groaned. Audibly groaned. He pulled out the desk under the TV. Then set to work taking the wall-mounted TV from the wall. He told us he would go find us another TV. He did not know the wifi password.

While the maintenance man was off looking for another TV, a man was peaking in our windows. He was holding a tablet and taking notes. I opened the door and asked if I could help him. He was simply checking to see if everything was okay. I assured him the TV was broken but the maintenance man was working on getting another one. I asked him about the password. He wrote it on the key card. I asked about the ice machine. He told me where it was. 

The maintenance guy came back with a TV. He tried three other rooms before he found one he could scavenge. He set to putting it on the wall. As we started to slip out from between the TV and the desk, he knowledge the lamp off the wall. Oh Bless His Heart. He had to find a special bolt to mount it back on the wall. He came back and fix the lamp.

We decided it was time for dinner. We left our room and closed the door. It would not lock. After working with the key card, we finally got it to lock. Ugh.

There was a Denny's in our parking lot. We went down the elevator and looked for the ice machine. It was by the laundry for the hotel. One of the housekeepers assured us it was broken. No ice in the hotel at all.

We went on to Denny's. They had Mello Yello on the menu. I hadn't had a Mello Yello in a week. I ordered one only to learn they did have that. I ordered water and got a Dr. Pepper and a glass of water. Claude ordered a Diet Coke. Our server came back to say they were out of Diet Coke. Claude had water. I ordered a grill cheese sandwich with chicken soup. Our server came back to tell me the didn't make the chicken soup. I had grilled cheese and fries. The meal was good and we had a nice visit about the balloon fiesta with our server. 

Before we ordered anything, I asked our server if we could purchase two large cups full of ice as our hotel had none. She assured us we could do that. After we finished our meal, she came out with a cup holder and four large cups of ice. I asked if she put it on our tab. She said it was okay. For an 85 year old lady, she was a great server.

We stopped at the hotel office before going to our room and got a hairdryer. 

What an interesting day. Some highs and some lows. We would make it thru this hotel stay and never stay in one of these hotels again. All hotels were sold out in Albuquerque due to the Balloon Fiesta. This was a necessity.