Last Day

4 October, 2009

Tomorrow is the airport day, going from Albuquerque to Denver, then on to Toronto and our little smart car, waiting patiently. Not looking forward to that. Bt at least we don't have to leave here until 10:00 in the morning.

Today was spent doing some things we had meant to do. We visited the place where Darlene had stayed on her previous visit. Went looking for a place for breakfast, and found the Zuniga at the corner of the Santa Fe Trail and Alameda. Had a delightful Cuban (for me) and Mocha (for Darlene) coffee, read part of the NY Times, and planned the day. Darlene was heading up the Canyon road to see some art and go to her Quaker Meeting (probably I should put that in the reverse order). I went to the New Mexico Historical Museum. We each spent several enjoyable hours, and met again in the early afternoon, at a roof-top cafe. It could take some getting used to this level of sunshine: 300 days a year is pretty hard to take!

Much of the afternoon was spent at the Rooftop Pizzeria, looking down, unfortunately, at a parking lot, but enjoying wonderful food and a very pleasant waiter and atmosphere. And of course, we ate enough that we don;t want to go out for supper, so are home again, and thinking about whether we want any food at all.

Darlene has begun to clean the place; no surprise there. And to review the pictures we have taken. I am doing this blog, then will retire to a glass of wine and some cheese, perhaps some guacamole, or who knows what.

Maybe write again, but I'll publish this.

Balloon Fiesta

October 4, 2009

Yesterday was the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. We had decided to go - in fact, this was one of the main reasons we decided to come down here - so made the commitment to get up before dawn and catch the train down to the big city.

Four o'clock comes pretty early, and dark and cold. But we got up, got our togs on, put some food into our stomachs, and walked off to the rail station. New Mexico has this new commuter train called the RoadRunner, which is very popular. It is usually a commuter run, but they had put on a special run for the Fiesta. It was amazing to see about four hundred people lined up and pretty happy that early in the morning, waiting for the train. It was a crowd of families, couples, and solo people, all heading in the same direction.

Th train let us off at Albuquerque, we got herded into shuttle buses, and were off to the balloon grounds. This event has been going on for over thirty years, so they have a dedicated place, complete with a Balloon Museum, in town. What was spectacular about this yesterday, was that, as we drove into the grounds, there were some balloons in the air, checking out the winds, and so on. When they turned on their burners, to heat the air, it lit up the entire balloon. So the sky was dark, with the lit balloons in the air. Wow!

As the sky lightened, about 6:30 here, we were on the ground by a balloon getting ready to launch. Now try to imagine what it is like to have in the order of six hundred balloons that you want to launch. Logistically very difficult. They would let a bunch of about 25 launch at a time, then move onto another bunch. So there were always some that were partly inflated, others mostly inflated, others about to take off, an others launching, until there was no balloon left on the ground. the sky was full of them, or so it seemed. Most were the usual balloon shape, but some were more streamlined (more like a vertical oval) for racing, and others were just fun. There was a Nemo balloon, a Smoky the Bear, a Cow, a pop can, and so on. And the weather cooperated, with light winds and a mostly clear sky. Thousands of spectators were there to watch. And of course, the tents selling everything from breakfast to beer to tailgate chairs.

It was great fun, and wonderful to see. By 10:00, it was pretty well done, although there were other fair-type event through the day, and a night-time rising as well. But we were going to try and catch the 11:30 train back home.

We got back to the train station with lots of time, but then noticed an announcement that there was to be a delay, of uncertain length. We found out that the train had had a collision with a car, and there was no clear indication of when it would be cleared. We waited for two hours for the first train back home. But I met an older man, and had a pleasant talk with him. He was 84, had been a union organizer for asbestos workers in New Mexico, and was now on a trip with his grand-kids, who he was helping to get through university. We talked abut asbestos (and Quebec, although the mines he knew were in Texas), the struggle to get proper compensation for the union men. We talked about the state of medicare, education, wars. He was a WW2 vet, very opposed to the current wars, and in favour of Obama. Nice to see, and a pleasure to talk with. So the time went fast, and we were back off home.

The day ended at home, with an at-home supper and early to bed.

Sunday (today), we are up early, and off to get a breakfast at a cafe, before Darlene heads off to look at art galleries on Canyon Road, then to Quakers; I am going to the Palace of the Governors (the oldest public building in the US), for a tour of their History Museum.

Bonne Fete, Bob

October 2, 2009

This being my birthday, I got to do the schedule. So we slept in a bit, but got up in time to walk to the Plaza for a breakfast at the French Creperie, in the La Fonda Hotel. Served by a French woman, the breakfast was very chic. And we finished in time to go to the State Capitol Building, where we had been told there was an art gallery we might enjoy.

That was the great surprise. the building was newly-renovated, built as a circular structure to resemble the New Mexican Zia symbol. We were met at the door by a security guard, who opened the door for us, told us about the place, and wished us a pleasant visit to the building. This was such a change from what we had expected that we almost fell over. And the art that was there was remarkable in its diversity, its accessibility to the public, and its extent. We ended up spending over three hours just touring the area, and marveling at the art that was available for public perusal, even encouraged by the folks working there.

New Mexico, we have discovered, has many unusual things. Their state legislature is run by people who are elected, but do not get a salary or stipend. They get a per diem when they are working, and their expenses are covered. But the legislature itself only sits for sixty days per year. Interesting. They also have a state cookie! and an insect, and a poem, and so on. So it's a clearly different place from what we're used to.

It now being noon, we were walking back to the centre of town, when my cell phone rang. Not the first time it has rung here (I got a call from paging on Monday), but this one was much nicer: it was from Dan, wishing me a happy birthday. We agreed to talk later, since Darlene and I were on our way to do something else. Which we did. then went back to the hotel, hooked onto their wifi network, and called him back. Nice to talk with him, and kind of neat to do it from this distance.

And then it was time for our afternoon glass of wine. Santa Fe is a low-rise city. The main hotel in town has a height of five stories, which pretty well makes it the tallest structure in town. There is a bar on the top floor, so we went up there, and looked down on the town. Paid too much for a glass of wine, but the view was impressive.

This cafe life, it does take time to enjoy. And the sun: boy, it's hard to take. Big decision this afternoon was where to have supper. That done, we went back to the apartment so I could have my beauty sleep and a shower, before heading out for supper. Le Cafe de Paris did not disappoint, and they even gave us a free dessert for my birthday.

Early to bed tonight, up tomorrow to get into Albuquerque before dawn. Tomorrow is the opening of the Balloon Fiesta, and there is a mass ascension at dawn. Looking forward to it.

Art or Bust

October 1, 2009

We had the car until noon today, and had decided to go back and try to find the gallery of an artist called Diana Bryer (if you've been in Darlene's private office, you might remember one of her pictures). When we were in Tuchas on Monday, we had stopped at an artist's co-op to look at some things, and had y chance intercepted a phone call from Diana while there. So we felt we were pushed to go and see her (no great pain for either of us, since we both quite like her work), and only had to find her. This was harder than you might expect. She did not put her address on the website, but her town was on it. Which was fine, except that the town was not on the map. So we set the GPS to take us somewhere near, and thought we would ask when we got what we felt was close. Of course, we took the incorrect turn, but it didn't turn out to be "wrong". We went back to the co-op we had been at a few days earlier, and asked the woman there. She was local and said things like: "go to La Puebla, then go further and you will se it....", but La Puebla also didn't make it onto the map. And when we asked for clarification, we were told to go past this or the other artist's place (which she assumed we would know, but we didn't), and so on.

To make it more exciting, we were running on the reserve tank in the car, so we needed to get gas, and soon. And of course, there was no gas station for many miles, so we were doing some praying. Fortunately, we were mostly going downhill, and we made it to the one gas station (an Old Boys-type place where we were abut the only gringo, the guy wouldn't do a fill-up, but you bought your gas in dollar increments, and there were large grills on the outside, along with a community bulletin board).

Found the gallery of Diana Bryer, and it appeared no-one was home. But as we went around the corner of the house, we were met by a young good-lloking man who turned out to be her son, and took us to the back of the large yard to her house, and her separate gallery. The gallery was in a construction trailer which she has painted to resemble a gypsy wagon. We were admiring this when we met Diana, and that's another whole story. She is wonderful, eccentric, laconic, verbose, opinionated, friendly, open, and just plain fun. We were in a hurry, but you couldn't hurry this woman. There was a story with each painting, and sometimes a story behind the story. Darlene was using her group-leading skills to keep us a bit on track. But we bought some prints, talked for an hour longer than we expected, went into her home as well, and left on the friendliest terms with hugs and kisses all around. She's a neat lady, and I expect we'll see her again.

Then it was high-tailing it back to the car place, to return the car. They were very nice, forgave us our hour lateness, and even drove us back home. So to celebrate, we went to the Oro House on the Plaza for a beer and some food, before walking back to the apartment. It was tiring, and we both felt like sleeping a bit. In fact, I think I will do that right now.