Out West ~ Day Two, Albuquerque

After having had a great time meeting and dining with Arni and Nina Anderson in Oklahoma City, OK, Barbara and I started out early the next morning, Tuesday, on our way to spend the night in Albuquerque, NM, with plans to see the Grand Canyon the following day.

We have a friend, who lived in Pontotoc a few years ago and later relocated to Claude, Texas, which would not have been very far off our planned route, but unfortunately Linda Maddox could not be reached by phone, so we stopped in Amarillo, TX for lunch at a Cracker Barrel restaurant and then continued our leisurely drive across the northern Texas Panhandle and were into New Mexico by early afternoon. We enjoyed seeing the changing landscapes from state to state and photographing items of interest along the way.

The mountains on the west side of Albuquerque are truly beautiful. I was not intimidated by their height, probably because the road into Albuquerque was cut along their lower ridges.

After checking into our motel, I phoned my cousin, Ken Gaillard, whom I had spoken with earlier about getting together for dinner. Generally, I stay away from Mexican restaurants, but at Cousin Ken’s suggestion I decided the adage “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” should apply. After all, he and his wife Pat stated the best food in town could be found at Sadie’s restaurant, where authentic Mexican cuisine was the daily fare.

As there was a Sadie’s adjacent to our motel, I thought we would simply meet them there, but Ken said the original Sadie’s was a few miles away, and they’d pick us up at our motel.

“Pat says the food is better at the original one,” Ken explained.

Ken was driving Pat’s relatively new PT Cruiser. I was impressed with its pep, as Ken accelerated into Interstate traffic, and the ride was comfortable, at least from my perspective on the passenger side.

Though the restaurant was crowded, we were soon seated and Ken and Pat advised us concerning what to order, especially with regard to the “red or green” question. The red chili sauce has less heat, but the green is more flavorful. I chose the green to go with my burrito. I think it came with a pound and a half of ground beef inside as it had enough meat to have feed tacos to Barbara, Jason, and me (family at home) with meat to spare.

The inside of the restaurant had the “southwest” look, and there were native American and Mexican blankets hung from the ceiling, of which Ken explained.

“The original owner, Sadie, two generations removed, would take product in exchange for food, so she accumulated a number of woven items through the years. Some of those blankets you see are quite valuable on today’s market, fetching $10,000 or more.”

I’m pleased to say I suffered no gastronomic issues following the Mexican meal and on our way back to the motel, Ken suggested a trip to Old Town, Albuquerque. Old Town sprang up around the first Roman Catholic Mission built there in 1793, a structure that remains a prominent feature even today. Old Town is best enjoyed afoot, so we parked and strolled the streets and window-shopped for a half-hour or so.

As darkness began to settle over us, Ken asked if we’d like to see the lights of the city from the nearby Sandia Mountains. Sandia means watermelon in Spanish, and the mountains do have a reddish hue about them at sunset. In explaining the name associated with the mountain range, some historians suggest Spanish explorers mistook local gourds for watermelons, but of the two schools of thought, I like the sunset reasoning the better.

Soon, we were high above the city of Albuquerque enjoying the expanse of lights below and toward the west. Ken offered to take us even higher up into the mountains, where suddenly the roads became more like paved trails…more precisely, narrow trails. I felt a growing sense of unease as Ken zipped through the darkness with only automobile headlamps to lighten our pathway. And, it didn’t help that Ken shared how one of Pat’s nephews had plunged his small pickup a short distance down a steep slope when the road he though was there, wasn’t.

Ken found the lookout he was looking for and we parked momentarily for an even better view of the lights of Albuquerque. I took a couple of pictures, but without a tripod, the best of the two was but a blur of lights, unworthy of being reproduced.
As we descended, I was glad Ken knew where we were and how we got there, and in no time at all we were back on a real road heading to our motel.

Apart from family funerals, I seldom see my Albuquerque relative, so I was glad we had the opportunity to visit on his turf. If he doesn’t move east, one day, perhaps we’ll return there for another visit when we can stay longer, and I can arrange to have Ken take me on one of his famous fly-fishing adventures.

Pics and comments at http://rrnews.org/Day2