Hampton Inn & Suites Albuquerque-Coors Road, Nm

So, I'm off on my Paris/Italy adventure. My brother and sister-in-law had their flights postponed by the airline for 24 hrs......so I'll spend tomorrow on my own in Paris. I've scheduled a photography "class" for the afternoon so I'll get that out of the way before my family arrives on Saturday.

I awoke this morning at 5am with the intention of making it to the airport by 5:30 for a 6:30 ...

... with Devon and John. By now, the idea of making it back to Atlanta by Thanksgiving was out of the question. I had stayed in Albuquerque a week longer then expected, but I never would have had the chance to make new friends and find the real beauty of New Mexico. A stark beauty that only reveals itself for short times throughout the day. If your paying attention, you can find beautiful things where you least expect.

... No cell phone signal there. At least not until I left their compound. Then it was okay. My GPS couldn't find a satellite until after I had left either.

Next stop was Belen. Have you ever seen the old Judy Garland movie The Harvey Girls. Well there is an old Harvey House Hotel in Belen. The folks have done a real nice job ...

Leaving the winter home, Sharon came for a week vacation and to drive with me back to Madison. We drove to Bosque Del Apache via a few missions. Spent the night at the RV park for the birds and got up really early to see the birds fly ...

... The following comment may sound stereotypically touristy, but the inside of the Albuquerque airport turned out to be a fun part of our vacation for me. Being an admirer and collector of Native-American crafts, I had a blast browsing through the airport's stores with names like "Earth Spirit" and "Distant Drums." At Earth Spirit, I bought a copper plaque with an image of La Virgen de Guadalupe that I hung on my Christmas tree back in Orlando, as ...

... later we finally started driving through the Sandia Mountains and approached Albuquerque. Absolutely a sight to see.... quite frankly we were busy looking at the scenery when a rock came blasting towards us and cracked the windshield. No good. No good. At that point, I'm pretty sure our bodies (between yesterday and todays drives) had completely conformed to the shape of my car seats and we were beyond ready to get out ...

I was in Times square in NY taking photos about the crowd crossing the street then i went straight to the airport, get a flight to Albuquerque, there, i picked up a rental car and drove 8 hours to Monument Valley in Arizona, so, exactly 24 hours after time square i was standing in a desert, with for only company a lost dog...actually i appreciated the difference.

I get to the airport in Albuquerque at 4.30pm. my flight is at 6:30pm..I quickly hit the mens room
and eat 8 gelatin capsules of dried, powdered ( fine), peyote. within an hour of consumption
I'm through security and sitting with my laptop and the peyote kicks in."...Woah Mescalito !!!!
..please let me maintain and not have a major freakout here in the airport....just let me maintain and get me on the plane!!!!".....once on board it's smooth sailing...lol

... people kept asking for my business card, which I rarely carry. I couldn't seem to make them understand how it is done in Colorado. Anyone can make a business card so it does not pass for identification. Rather, my Colorado Supreme Court bar card gets me into any jail or prison in Colorado, and I showed them that. If it is not convincing, then we encourage doubters to call our attorney registraton office and verify ...