TGJFRTO of 2012 - Day 3

Saturday morning we left El Paso headed for Albuquerque.  At one point traffic was diverted off the freeway by the Border Patrol and an officer with a large German Shepherd circled the car; fortunately for us, it was not trained to sniff out dirty camp laundry.  And the Border Agent at the guardhouse took our word for it that we are all American citizens.  Go figure.  (Could it have been our glow-in-the-dark complexions or the fact that we travel like the Clampetts, but without the rocking chair?)

We stopped in Truth or Consequences for gas, bathroom, and lunch. I don't know why it's called that...that would necessitate doing a google search.  We scored with customer appreciation day at Sonic and fed the five of us for $14. (Yeah, I know it's not organic, grass-fed, or sprouted, but I find that when we're on the road I forgo some of my high-falutin food philosophies.)

After checking in, we headed to the Sandia Peak aerial tram and took a 15 minute ride from the base (6559 ft) to the peak (10358 ft). If you don't like heights , do not get on this tram. Surrounded by windows, hanging from a couple of steel cables, with the occasional sway back-and-forth from the wind, looking down at the boulders and sheer drops below....  But the view from the top is amazing. And the temp 20 degrees cooler. Which we Texans appreciated. We hiked around up there for a while (avoiding the edge like the plague, cause nothing will put a damper on a vacation like someone plummeting down a mountain),  checked out the closed-for-the-season chair lifts on the back side of the mountain, and then trammed back down. Which was not as knot-in-the-stomach-inducing as the ride up...I assume because we weren't smack in the front of the tram car.

Next we stopped at Trader Joe's to pick up some stuff for dinner.  (And some stuff not for dinner.)  (Chocolate-covered almonds and dark chocolate mint creams, anyone?)

Historic Route 66 also winds through a stretch of Albuquerque, and is lit up with neon lights, but unfortunately for us, they were either out of service or not on yet when we drove it at dusk. Also, it's a rather eclectic-artsy-sketchy part of town with lots of vintage (and some just plain old) style motels, restaurants and other businesses (slightly reminiscent of the Montrose area at home) so not really conducive to stopping with three boys for photo ops.

And we capped off the night by doing laundry.  Finally.  And our noses rejoiced.

Tomorrow, Moab, UT.