After a month of communing with nature we were ready for livin’ la vida local in central New Mexico and there’s no better way to get to know a city than on a bike.
The Spamway ride gave us a taste of the east side – the place you go to do top secret research, rent a cheap apartment, shop in a chain store, get outta town or get caught in a tourist trap. Very utilitarian. The west side had yet to be explored, so we mapped a route from Kirtland for an 11 hour “live life like locals” ride.
But first, aviation identification. We left out the Turner Gate checking off MH53, V22 Osprey, C47 et al to pick up the 50 mile activity loop til we dumped into a nearby neighborhood that would take us crosstown to Nob Hill. Eric likes to ride through the ones where all the houses have bars on the windows, dogs are viciously barking and cars are rusted out in the streets. You gotta see grit to make the local ride legit.
Nob Hill is the hip 6 block stretch on Central Ave, part of the old Route 66, filled with eateries, breweries and boutiqueries. Eric got his much needed number 3 at the Nob Hill Barber Shop from owner, Sunny before we locked up and window shopped our way through town. Nob Hill is a lot like most city hotspots – trendy, expensive and good people watching.
About 2 miles outside of the Nob Hill party district is the get things done district. We brought our shopping list and hit the Ace hardware store for a tub stopper and bolt to repair the lounge chair before picking our way through the Women’s Assistance League thrift shop and the Past Present & In Between Indoor Flea Market. The contents of most thrift stores don’t change – you can always get a margarita glass, clown figurine or colorful plastic platter. Looking for something that screams authentic New Mexico, we left empty handed.
Back on high speed roads without bike lanes, cars barreled past us as we made our way to safety on the beautiful University of New Mexico campus where we found Blake’s Lotaburger in the Student Union and split the #1 rated green chile burger combo, a NM original. We thought it was a lot like a In and Out burger, but with green chiles. Nothing special. But that dipping sauce for the fries? Liquid gold.
Touring campus, we found out next week is the Festival Flamenco Internacional de Albuquerque where dancers and classical guitar musicians from around the world will come to the UNM to perform. Eric checked out the engineering school which has three grand challenges – water use, opioid addiction and aging. Not seeing the aero connection and neither of us having flamenco dance experience, we ruled out third careers here.
Historic Old Town is the heart of the arts in ABQ. In 1706, Spanish Colonists settled there and built adobe homes around a central plaza. A local church group was setting up for their annual carnival, treating Eric to flamenco music as he caught up on the news while Sheri shopped her way around every gallery and souvenir shop in the 4 square block radius. Inspired and entertained by the creativity and talent of the painters, sculptors, jewelry makers, glass blowers, basket weavers and souvenir shop curators, we bought nothing but a jar of Heidi’s organic raspberry red chile jam in exchange for directions to more local New Mexico food at a grocery co-op in Nob Hill.
Pulling out of Old Town, we found the famous paved 16 mile Paseo del Bosque Trail along the Rio Grande with a bonus pop-up wedding. Eric just missed leaving train tracks as we scooched past to watch the rushing river at the end of the path. Unfortunately the trail was flooded in parts so we picked up the 50 mile activity loop and headed back toward Old Town for our hot date at the New Mexico Museum of Natural Science and History Planetarium’s First Friday Fractals show. But first, we brake for Tres Leches Cake at Golden Crown Panaderia.
Math geeks making movies about geometry made from quirky algebra, and shown in a planetarium. If we told you that it was a sold out venue – all four shows, would you be surprised? We were. The crowd was a diverse mix of scientists from Los Alamos Labs and scientists from Sandia Labs and their loved ones who obviously would do anything one night a month to keep them happy. The moderator was fresh off the set of the recently ended BBT where he coached Sheldon on voice and dress mannerisms. We flew through impossibly complex shapes in the heavens to psychedelic music for an hour than returned to Earth to ride our Como’s home before the real sun set, all legal and drug free – mathematician-style.
As if this blog isn’t long enough, there’s more. Post fractals, we backtracked to Nob Hill’s Food Co-op for 4 buckets of New Mexico frozen chiles – red mild, red hot, green mild, green hot. The tipster in Old Town said buy the Bueno brand, mix mild and hot for your chile cheeseburger recipes. And to load up on Seco spice mix in the bulk spice aisle. On the verge of dark, we were hungry for dinner so we picked up local green chile and cheese tamales with local 505 sauce to round out our local grocery haul.
It had been 11 hours of hot 36 miles livin the vida local. While ABQ is not the most bike friendly town, we figured out how to skirt around through neighborhoods. Maybe we have not started browsing Zillow for 1 bedroom condos on Nob Hill, but the town does have its charms which we enjoyed Como-style.
