The New Mexican Adventure!

I don't think you could've started a road trip between Abilene, TX and Albuquerque, NM more epically than we did. The very first thing that we did was pop in our all rock CD and started with "Highway to Hell". Thus began our nine hour trek. Our goal, to go to New Mexico and see all they had to offer. One of my friends, Jason, was originally from there, so he was our "tour guide" if you will. It was also his grandparents house that we would be staying at all week while we were there, which was free to us by the way, allowing us to spend the little money we had exploring New Mexico.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped at some sort of park where there was a small river and waterfall. There were a few tourists around and we went exploring. There were some fantastic old pathways made by the natives of New Mexico that led around and behind the waterfall, where we took some pictures. Hutton and I decided to try to cross the river, which wasn't that big, just for the fun of it. A few rocks dotted the rushing water, making it seem like there could be a path if we jumped to each one, however, that was a bad idea. Those rocks were super slippery, and we ended up getting soaked in icy cold water. I remember when I tried to jump to the last one before the shore on the other side and slipped right into the river. It was more than just a little embarrassing, but it is a fun story to tell.

We got into Albuquerque at about mid-afternoon Monday of spring break and spent most of the afternoon catching up and talking with Jason's grandparents. While they were indeed interesting people, most of us didn't really know them that well, so most of the conversation was small talk.

That night, we decided to take our first adventure in New Mexico and ride the famous "longest aerial" tram, Sandia Peak Tram, up to the top of the foothills, and, let me tell you it was cool at night, an absolute must. The cityscape at night was absolutely breathtaking, and we ended up taking a dozen or more pictures of us with it as a backdrop alone. And, the tram really didn't have any internal lighting, so it was extremely dark the entire way up and down, which just added to the cool effect. While we didn't eat at the restaurant up there, we did go in and talk a bit (Jason is friend's with the Assistant Manager of the place) and warm up.

On Tuesday, we decided to trek on over to Santa Fe to partake in the tradition the native people have there in selling handmade jewelry and other odds and ends in a bazaar/market like setting. The experience was truly what I'd imagined it'd be like in medieval towns and cities, with the marketplace being primarily held in open, uncovered areas with people setting booths up right next to each other. I absolutely loved it, though, I couldn't afford to buy anything. In fact, none of us bought anything, but we had a blast just walking around the place. We also visited a number of old, historical churches within the city, lovely places. You could definitely see the influences in architecture from the modern age all the way back to the influences of architecture that existed almost a hundred years ago, perfectly preserved. When we started to head back to home base (Jason's grandparents' house), we stopped at a natural spring, and a what I would call a winter wonderland.

The natural spring was everything we'd thought it would be. Steam from the hot water literally engulfed the icy air around us, and Hutton, myself, and Jason decided to take a small dip. Needless to say, it was fun.

As for the "winter wonderland" I'm not quite sure exactly where it was or what it was really called, but, it was some huge snow covered area open to the public. Dusty and I went and frolicked in the snow for a while, it was the sheer scope and size of the place that impressed me.

Also, we visited the site in New Mexico that was literally full and volcanic rocks. I mean the horizons were stuffed with thousands and thousands of volcanic black rocks everywhere. There was a section that was created for tourists, but, the best part was that you could go off the trail and simply explore. This was something that seemed common in New Mexico, which was another major difference I saw between New Mexico and Texas. A lot of New Mexico was more open and ready to just wander around and explore. And, I love to explore, so we did. We even spelunked in a few of them, though the "caves" weren't deep at all. Exploring became the centerpiece of our fun and time in New Mexico.

Another thing that was really amazing to me on the trip was all the snow on the ground. I'm from Texas, so I'm not used to seeing snow period, especially in March. I remember the climate seemed to change almost suddenly when we entered New Mexico, it was like entering a whole new world. Fun stuff.

As for Wednesday, we went to the Los Alamos site famous for it's affiliation to the Atom Bomb. We visited a few museums and other places of interest, noting that some sites were still blocked off to the public. At one of the museums, the official Los Alamos one, we learned all about the creation and historical climate behind the Atom Bomb and all the personal stories of people involved with it. Not to mention the fact that we bought one of the coolest toys ever from their gift shop, the Cube of Knots. To be more specific, Hutton bought it. What it was was basically a magnetic ball you could create different shapes out of. We all wanted to play with it when we were on the road, and it also lead to one of the most persistent jokes we had on the trip. The instruction manual stated different "things" you should try with it, one of which being "Imagine molding it underwater" as a meditative practice. It was hilarious!

Anyhow, Thursday was our trip to White Sands, a first for many of us. If you've never been there, it's literally just endless dunes of white sand, but, it's still pretty cool. Especially rolling down them. Jason, Dusty, and I decided to try to trek out as far as we could on them to find the biggest dune, and we did. I swear this dune must've been around 4 or 5 stories high. And rolling down that thing, it was intense. All in all, it was a blast, though, we had an amazing amount of sand on our body and clothing after it was all said and done.

Coming back in to Albuquerque, realizing it was our last night there, we decided to go out and watch a movie at the dollar theater. The movie was one of the best I've seen, and still is ranked highly in my list of top movies. It was "No Country for Old Men". Hutton recommended it, and each of us was awed by it's goodness for lack of a better word. There was no better way to end a night.

When Friday rolled around we said our goodbyes over breakfast, which incidentally had been served to us by Jason's grandparents every day, though we had to fend for ourselves for lunch and dinner, and headed back. The snowy landscape that seemed so beautiful and foreign to me at the time slowly melted back into the rugged Texas terrain of hot, dry, and, well, Texasy. We got back in late Friday night, and stayed up playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Although it's besides the fact, I won at it. For the most part, haha. And, so ended the vacation, till our next.

Those involved: Jason, Matt, Hutton, Dusty, and myself :)