Day 30: Albuquerque, NM
Welcome
Yesterday we had a rest day in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Having completed our little excursion to Denver, we headed south, passing through Santa Fe again and stopping in Albuquerque so Rob and Golden Sparkle Face could rest. I woke up in Uptown Albuquerque to find us parked in the shadow of a Hyatt Place hotel. To the east of us were symmetrical suburban streets, and to the west were strip malls and huge multiplexes with their adjacent carparks.
My breakfast process began with a trip across the road to a bakery named Panera. I purchased a ‘sourdough’ loaf, and had it sliced, before taking it back to the bus. Next I rifled through the fridge and found a selection of leftover fruit and vegetables from the last few riders that looked fresh enough for consumption. I prepared my plate by laying down a smear of hummus, and a smear of yoghurt. Atop the hummus I laid sticks of celery, discs of cucumber, and hooks of green capsicum. Atop the yoghurt I laid discs of banana and scattered a handful of blueberries and raspberries. Two slices of Panera’s finest sourdough bread adorned a gap on the edge of my plate.
There was a Guitar Centre that looked pretty close on the map so Gabe, Jon, and I headed there after eating. Even though it’s always great to go to a place of great cultural significance, it was somewhat of a disappointing visit. The selection of used guitar pedals was tiny and there were no nice microphones to look at.
Jon and Gabe look at the display pedal.
On the way to Guitar Centre.
In the afternoon we gathered most of the tour party and made our way to the northeastern edge of Albuquerque where the mountain ridge known as Sandia Crest lies, a natural boundary for the city. We set out for a walk on on the Embudo Trail which began as a wide, sandy path, but soon became a windy dirt track as we headed into the foothills. The scenery was beautiful. We could look back to the west and see right to the far edge of the city, while up above us to the east there was scattered snow on some of the craggy peaks along the ridge line. After a while we made our way into a ravine which was filled with enormous boulders, and old dead trees scattered around the place by a past weather event. The walk got more challenging here and we had to do a few intrepid maneuvers to get up and over some of the rocks. Eventually it got so intrepid we had to stop and turn back. Tristan and I ended up coming back down on a different trail, which offered us some nice downhill jogging opportunities.
While we were out hiking Sidney Gish did what Sidney Gish does best, which is find the best attraction in town. Yesterday’s attraction was the Rattlesnake Museum and Gift Shop, a tiny museum that has been operating for so long they managed to get the domain name http://www.rattlesnakes.com/
They have 34 types of rattlesnake, a venomous lizard, and of course a very extensive gift shop which has a large tortoise roaming around that you can feed.
In the evening everyone watched the climbing film Free Solo. Everyone except me, for I was too busy enjoying the many features of our Hyatt Place hotel room. I can’t think if we have stayed in a Hyatt Place before but this room definitely felt exceptional. Someone worked hard with the layout, and fit-out, of this space. I’ve made a note of all the features I most enjoyed. If you have stayed in a Hyatt Place and have enjoyed a similar, or different experience, please leave a comment below!
And here I am utilising the business centre in the lobby.
The boints chart is in the best shape it has ever been in after Jon worked late into the night on a feature upgrade. He implemented Log base 2 on both axis to help with the scaling that was causing problems with such a high boints differential. We have also begun tracking the height of all the participants in order to better understand the way boints interact with other facets of our touring.
