Road Trip

Thanksgiving was in Albuquerque at Casa de Pat en Sandia this year. It had been scheduled almost a year ago as soon as she had purchased the new place.

Mollie, Olive and Bear and Swamper arrived on Monday after a 16 or so hour trip from Truckee. Apparently it was epic. Mollie set her sites on Albuquerque and rolled in at 0500 in the morning and drove right past Pat waving and the gargage lights on. Highway hypnosis at its finest. Joni, Kiara and I hit the road around 0600 on Tuesday for an 810 mile trip. North to Barstow, turn right and follow Route 66 until Albuquerque. The CMAX was loaded to the gunnels as we generally travel pretty heavy. We hit ABQ around 8:00 PM.

The weather was fabulous! Pat’s house is very southwestern in design and it is in a great location. We spent all Wednesday and of course Thursday putting together the feast. Pies, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, salad, ham, turkey and on and on. The girls played cards each night and drank wine while I went to bed.

On Friday, we went up Sandia Peak on the tram. Top elevation is 10,364 feet AMSL. One of the interesting observations on our trip to Albuquerque, no asthma irritants while we were there. At 10,000 feet, hiking around I almost felt like I was young and in control again and could breathe (always good!). The kids enjoyed the hike (including Kiara). Olive was fascinated by the fossils in the limestone at the top of Sandia Peak. Bear found all the vegetation, particullary the branches that looked like firearms, fascinating. We had a long talk about tree bark and how it helps the tree live and shouldn’t be peeled off. Both of those kids are smart as whips.

On Saturday, we loaded up and headed home. Mollie, kids and dog caravaned with us and we eventually stopped at Barringer Crater to look over the best preservd impact crater in the US. I had been there before, but nobody else in the caravan had. I think they were all a little skeptical about how interesting a hole in the ground might be. Once there everybody changed their mind and finally believed me when I said it was one of the more interesting places I had been. Bear saw it and first thing he said was “ASTEROID!”. Nice that I have a family of science believers.

We continued on with Kiara at the helm of the CMAX and Mollie peeled off at Kingman to head up through Las Vegas and then on to Reno and Truckee while we made our way back to SoCal. Took a leisurely dinner stop at Barstow since there were accidents on the Cajon Pass slowing life down … welcome back to California! Through skillful rerouting of most of the map applications that we had, we ended up driving down the San Andreas fault waiting for the “big one”.

So the trip was a rousing success. Everybody had fun. We rolled into the garage about 9:30 on Saturday evening and immediately dropped into bed.

ROAD TRIP – FINISHED!