exit albuquerque...sunday 6/25/06

i didn't want this day to happen in any way. but you just can't avoid life, and we were destined for home. needless to say, i was pretty melancholy about it, but we still had time to hang out in albuquerque, and we decided to go down to the rio grande river. pam wanted to dip her feet into it, and we had seen it from up high when we were leaving taos. down in albuquerque, it was a lot less menacing and certainly less scary!

we ended up at the bosque rio grande nature reserve. we walked through the preserve on this sunday morning, and down to the river. it was squishy with mud and i stepped in and took out some rocks, which were not easy to find in this place. across the river were some interesting adobe buildings. we took some pictures and hung out a little while in the sunshine and then headed back to the car.

we went back to the plaza to look for the ankle bracelet for pam. the trader i had bought mine from was not there, but her daughter was. pam found one that she liked that was made of sleeping beauty turquoise from the santa domingo pueblo. the girl shortened the bracelet for her so it would fit. i bought meg an ankle bracelet from the same trader and then we left and went to lunch at the route 66 diner.

that was a cool place, one that had been around when 66 was active. it was decorated with all sorts of memorabilia from that era and pictures of 50's movie stars. i had 1/2 a meatloaf sandwich and their version of green chile stew. this stuff was even too hot for me! pam had yet another enchilada (this one chicken), fried okra with ranch sauce on the side. we took pictures outside of the diner, and then we had to reluctantly go to the airport...where the first bad luck began to happen!