Albuquerque – OsteoPraxis on the road

On a mission to collect a few more ticks on the Route 66 dance card we headed off to try to find the Railyards. Google was not particularly helpful on this quest……but what she did find was one of Albuquerques’ real gems……Wheels Museum.

This is a small but magnificent little museum dedicated to the history of transportation in Albuquerque. It’s run entirely by a wonderful group of volunteers and funded solely by donations.

Lots of Route 66 stuff…..A very real and tangible reminder of just how difficult and risky it was for those escaping the dust bowl, searching for that new life out west.

….and just plain cool old car stuff……

….and some ironically relevant connections for us…..!!!

I almost tripped across this old thing propped against the wall…….it’s a motorcycle….!!!

We met and chatted with Ron Perea historian and author, generous, engaging and informative volunteer at the museum. The museum version of Mariachi Elvis, but this time a stand-up comedian, with an equal enthusiasm and an incredible in-depth historical knowledge.

His area of interest was the Alvarado Hotel. There is a scale model of this historic building in the museum…..it was host to many celebrity guests in its day…..

He also gave us a bit of the history of the Harvey girls, which we also found hugely ironic as you might imagine…… here’s the Harvey girl…with the Harvey girl….LOL

The staff in the museum were also very helpful directing us to the Railyards market…. a huge indoor/outdoor vendors market/farmers market in the old railyards in Albuquerque…right behind the museum….LOL….

You may recognise some of the shots if you were a fan of the Breaking Bad series.

The Wheels people were there too….. 😁

……..and then of course….we have to do the evening run through the city to secure the pictures of their Route 66 neon.

Yes…shades of Tulsa…this is me creeping along at walking pace along the main route through the city, keeping pace with the blogtographer…not crashing, finding parking spots to pick him up again……not stressful at all…!!!

….beautiful tho….!!!

Wednesday arrived, as did our new air conditioning unit……time to get it switched out…..

Yayy…!!! Two functional AC units again…….Phewff…!!!

Extra Pix

The campground selection for Albuquerque turned out to be a point of interest on the Rte 66 list. Enchanted Trails, I was just trying to pick something reasonably close to the highway and more to the west of the city…and really…Enchanted Trails….who could resist…. 😃

It’s maybe a bit close to the highway (nighttime road noise) but otherwise a pretty good pick. Lots of 66 memorabilia and some vintage trailers (rentable)

First order of business was to see if we could get a timely fix on the AC. After days of trying to arrange something with a couple of places by phone, the lady at the Enchanted Trails desk recommended Good Sense RV. Jeremy Hogan, the service manager was terrific….. ordered the unit on the spot as we stood there in his office on Friday and tentatively booked us to switch it out the following Wednesday……. So 4 extra days in Albuquerque….I’ll tell you there’s worse places to pass the time…. 😁

What a great city. There is a flavor of artistic pride here. The bridges have murals or friezes or at least some decorative element. The architecture embraces the Adobe rounded, earth coloured aesthetic which makes the buildings less imposing.

We stopped in to a new route 66 visitor centre just across the highway from the campground. There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot…we poked around a little and it was closed.

Just as we were about to leave a door opened and the guy asked if he could help. Turns out the centre had just and only just, been gifted to the city after its original planners/developers had run out of money. He let us come in and have a look around…… ( Thanks Dominic..!!)…..

….there was an impressive collection of Route 66 cars……

The upper floor of the centre is an event space….with the most amazing view from the balcony…..

He made some great recommendations for things to go see in the city………and also shared with us his ‘Breaking bad’ story……the guy with the crazy moustache is his dad…. 😁.

On Dominics recommendation we found a great parking spot downtown to walk the Old Town of Albuquerque. A touristy spot, but a quite lovely walk around the old original town…….and a big dose of Breaking Bad that came with it……!!

The Old Town was built on a grid, perfect for a bit of touristy traipsing around…..

It was hot that day…..but it seems like that terracotta colour of the stucco and concrete of the sidewalks does not reflect the heat in the same way as that regular stone/grey colour.

Or maybe there was just enough shade to keep it comfortable. There were lots of lovely little artisan stores, weavers, antiques, jewellery and more. Lovely for browsing.

The Breaking Bad store was a must stop too….

It was more like a museum of the series and spinoffs with a gift store attached. It was a cool little place…

Next task was to scope out the Kiva Centre and where the parking was in prep for Lyle Lovett in concert. (Did I mention that Scott had scored us tickets for this, the opening night of this years’ big band concert series……!!)