Roadtrip Day 11

We decided that the big event for the day was for the three of us to head to the Sandia Peak Tram.  The clouds and wind from the prior day that grounded the Balloons had cleared.  From Old Town the base of the tram was a short 15 minute drive.  Arriving at the entrance we paid a parking fee and provided the toll person some putty.  He appeared to be young, well to us anyone under 30 seems to be young now, so we told him not to let any of the putty get into his mother’s carpet.  He chuckled and thanked us for the surprise gift.

Aaron helped us collect our electronic do-dads and we headed up to the ticketing area where we purchased two tickets.  When we provided a putty sample to the ticket person, she was overwhelmed; she was very appreciative of her new gift and smiled.   We were herded onto a room (the Tram) with 139 other people, well really only 30 but it seemed like more.  Fortunately Aaron has been watching his weight and remains his slim ½ inch thick self. 

On the way up we struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger and her grand-daughter.  Passing out sample putty to the young girl we also provided some temporary tattoos.   They were from Dallas and were intrigued by our trip and Aaron.  The tram cables pulled us up thousands of feet past two towers to the tower at the top.  We looked down between tower 2 and the top tower; it did not seem that high but the Tram operator told us that we were 1000 feet in the air.   A spring at the top of the mountain enabled deciduous trees to grow at over 10,000 feet. 

 Arriving at the top we escorted Aaron to several overlooks before heading to the top of the Sandia Ski area.  The view towards both the South over Albuquerque and to the North towards a mountain filled vista was phenomenal.   Cris, Jim, and Aaron headed out for a walk in the woods where it was noted there might be bears.  Jim was calculating that by holding Aaron over his head, the resulting shape would be about 11 ft tall; certainly enough to scare off all bears under 10 ft tall.  Hmm, how tall is a bear when it stands up?  Jim reconsidered and looked at groups of Aspens forming a hedge alongside of the road and told Cris and Aaron if a bear shows up, keep the trees between them and pelt the bear with rocks or pine cones.  Cris was looking quite worried at this point and frantically looking around for potentially hundreds of bears.  Lucky for the bears, Jim and Cris saw none.

After a mile or so, Jim and Cris retraced their steps to the lodge, took some more photos, and handed out some more putty; to a man from Kent Ohio, to a waitress in the lodge, and an interpretive guide who was of German decent that indicated that putty with .. above the ‘u’ caused the pronunciation to change to ‘pitty’.  All were grateful of this new, albeit unusual, gift.

We boarded the next Tram down and along the way provided a sample to a Lady who lived near Whidbey Island in Washington State.  A man in the Tram asked if the Aaron adventure was like ‘Flat Stanley’.   Arriving now at the Tram base we ventured into the gift shop making sure that Aaron did not knock over any of the pottery.  We scanned the shop and made a beeline for some garish fridge magnets and a stuffed animal for a friend who lives a long distance from Nebraska.

We tried, unsuccessfully to have Greta help us with some sights; we first selected the Gruets Winery, arriving at a two story building with a Trailer park rather than a vineyard behind the building.  We weren’t quite sure what type of wine one would get from a trailer park (perhaps balloon wine?).  Feeling we needed a bit more fun we selected ‘tinkertown’.  A series of closed interstate entrances confused Greta who turned a 7 mile trip into a 45 minute journey that left us again, unsatisfied. 
Cris picked a national park that had Petroglyphs.  We ventured 30 minutes down the trail looking for ancient figures.  We did see what appeared to be more modern graffiti but minimal ancient figures.  We looked and looked but really saw only piles of rock.  Reading the literature it indicated that the figures chose who they reveal themselves to.  Jim thought that perhaps hallucinogenics were required.  It was hot, dusty, and it was getting late in the day so we returned.  Some research will be required before we return to that particular park again.

We returned to the same Church Street Café for the second time in as many days for dinner and afterward indulged in an ice cream cone.  We returned to the room to ready for our trip to Taos tomorrow, stopping to see a friend along the way.

Comments

[executive sales recruiters]

This is my first time i visit here. I had a great time reading this.