Hi all,
Well where am I? What have been up to? Has “Rusty” been out?
I’m still in Albuquerque and today I had two objectives.
My first was to visit the International Balloon Museum, this place is fantastic, nice new building and great information and exhibits for you to view and play with and at only $4.00 it’s just about the cheapest place I have entered so far on this trip. The information is laid out on either wall displays or touch screen panels for you touch and choose what you want to read. The best part about the whole thing is that Sir Richard Branson only gets a tiny mention in a small place within the exhibit (at least Virgin hasn’t taken over this place) Photographs of the museum

My second objective of the day was to visit the Sandia Peak Tramway. This is the longest tram ride in the world! Some facts for you, it costs $17.50 per person for a return ride, $9.00 for a single ride. It cost 2 million dollars to build, it spans 2.7 miles in length and has a vertical rise of 3,819 feet (or 1,163 meters)
During the trip to the top I got the impression that many of many fellow riders had never been on such a ride.

A view from the top of the Tramway.

The tramway it self doesn’t take you right to the top of Sandia Peak, nope you have to walk on one of the trails. (or if your a tourist you take one look at the tracks, photograph your family in front of it and return to the restaurant for comfort)

So after speaking to the very helpful Ranger (who provided me with some free maps) off I went on the trail in search of the peak. After a few minutes the Ranger joined me on my walk and we chatted about the average visitor to the mountain, walking and the UK.
The Ranger pointed out a detour on the route that takes you up to the Kiwanis Cabin.

Kiwanis Cabin (on route to the top)

Whilst on this walk you can take in views over Albuquerque and beyond (sorry the image isn’t as clear as it should be but there seems to be a haze during the day)

View over Albuquerque.

Finally I reach the top only to find out that you could have driven around the back of the mountain and to the top! (oh well I really needed the exercise any way)

10,678 feet above the earth!
I had lunch in the restaurant and decided after much thought to follow the Rangers advice to follow the Crest Spur Trail 84 back to the Tramway. At this point I would like to point out these Rangers are there for a reason, listen to them and ask for advice, they will give it to you. Many people I encounted on my return trip had decided to take the route the opposite way to the Ranger, and boy did they regret it when I told them how hard to route was (that was up for them, and down for me!) This part of the trail then picks up the “La Luz Trail” which is the main route up and down the mountain (on foot) Had a know this information before I would have set off earlier in the day and enjoyed the walk up (or down) Remember “Black Bears” live in these woods! be careful!

A view from the bottom looking up the Tramway, to the left of image is the mountain top.

A view of one of the ski lifts in the area (not in use in the summer)

Hope you have enjoyed today’s update, good walking to be had around here (good views if you just want to go to the top) There will be no more updates now until Monday 4th June (due to no internet at my next two stops)

Take care

Jonathan Fridlington

Coming up next: more Route 66, “Rusty” the chair and the Grand Canyon (want to know what the new Skywalk is like?) watch this space, the journey is heading North.

Yesterday I headed south to Albuquerque (a short drive at just over 60 miles) this section of Route 66 has nothing worth photographing on it so I just headed for the town. Having got here around 10.30am I went into the Tourist information center located in the middle of Downtown (I suggest that you don’t bother as the staff seem more on what they did last night than helping new people in town) luckily they had a guide on the table. The downtown area of Albuquerque is just full of offices, bars and restaurants, not really much in the way of shopping.
After reading the guide I went in search of the “old town” to try to find some history, well as you can see from my following photographs the old town is a tourist shopping heaven. The streets all full of shops selling your usual tourist gifts (a little bit of a disappointment really)

The church in the old town of Albuquerque.

The Plaza Don Luis in the of old town of Albuquerque.

Ok so lied a little, there are some interesting side streets to wondering down but even these have tourist shops, Native American art galleries and bars.
Walking around the old town I did find “The National Atomic Museum” A very interesting place (if your interested in the history of Atomic energy and the bombs that wiped out Japan) There is a lot of information to take in, so be prepared to spend some time in here. www.atomicmuseum.com

A model of one of the bombs that cleaned out parts of Japan.

The rest of the day was spent on some me time, washing clothes, shopping etc.

Today (31st May 2007) I ventured down to “Roswell” yep that’s right folks the place of the Alien crash site in the 40′s, what else is there? well the “International UFO Museum & Research Center”
On the journey down to Roswell I noticed the sky changing by the minute. If you don’t know what these are in the sky, they are called chem trails (not con trails!) (to find out more information on what these are just type in chem trails in google search and be prepared to be shocked)

Chem trails spread out (these are not clouds) (note the clear sky behind)

Ok lesson out of the way, on the way down to Roswell you pass the turning to where the “UFO” crashed in the 40′s (no point in going as there is nothing to see)

Back to the museum, in my opinion you will find the information here on the internet, in fact you would find more. The museum does have a very large collection of books and videos made on UFO’s and other things, there are NO bits of the UFO that crashed on display! (I did buy a t-shirt)
After my disappointing trip around the museum I walked a little around the town, the place has nothing but cafe’s and gift shops for Alien hungry visitors (everything here is Alien!)
During my walk I noticed something strange, something that wasn’t right, yep you guessed it an Alien was trying to abduct “Rusty” well being a tough a metal chair he managed to fight of the Alien and save the day.

“Rusty” fighting off the Aliens in Roswell.

Back to everything is Alien in Roswell, well even the Wal*Mart didn’t escape

Alien Wal*Mart.

Rather than taking the same way back to Albuquerque, I decided to take the longer scenic route around the hills in New Mexico, the road is long and in places very twisty but more interesting to drive down. Eventually you will drive across a place called “The Valley of Fires” (I didn’t see and fires nor did I start any)

The Valley of Fires (with no fire!)

You will also past the famous test site where they tested the Atomic bombs and more recently missiles of all shapes and sizes (none were witnessed)

“The White Sands Missile Range”

Enjoy, hope you like the “Rusty” update there are more to come and plenty in the camera.

Take care

Jonathan Fridlington (just in case you forgot who I was)