Our third and last stop for the week was Albuquerque, NM. We had absolutely no expectations for our time there, but were pleasantly surprised. Our neighbor and friend, Bob, has spent a lot of time at Kirtland AFB, so he sent us recommendations on what to do and most importantly, where to eat!
We arrived early Thursday morning and spent the afternoon working. Jeff knocked out a couple of deals and then we took off to find us some green chiles, the culinary trademark of New Mexico. Bob recommended Sadies, for ridonkulous nachos, so that was our first stop. His recommendation was on point. Fortunately, we both like spicy food as they are an unashamedly spicy joint. The menu pretty much states, "suck it up or leave".
We had a meeting and some work to do on Friday before we could do more sightseeing, but we did get to go see the Old Town area of Albuquerque as well as take a scenic drive up into the Sandia Mountain range. Jeff also wanted to visit a real deal western saloon, so he had googled one just north of town and quick glance at google maps, showed us that there was a road that would take us up the south end of the mountains and then we could connect with a road that would put us out at the north end, where we could then head to the saloon for happy hour.
Imagine, please, Jeff's utter delight when we reached the peak and connected with the clearly marked HIGHWAY that would take us south, to find that it was little more than a rocky, dirt, winding mountain road that he was going to get to descend in a Jeep. Being in a National Park at dusk, I was slightly concerned that we would reach the bottom and find a locked gate and we'd get stuck. The smile on that boys face, though, made it worth the harrowing adventure!
About an hour before reaching our destination in Durango, we started seeing signs for an ancient Pueblo Ruins site, so I pulled up google maps to see if there happened to be bus parking. We were in luck and we found a parking spot and then checked them out. It was a site that was excavated in the early 1900's of an old Pueblo village that dated back to the 900's. A nice little surprise on an already remarkable journey!