Lisa and Michael

We returned from Carlsbad Caverns last Monday to a late summer monsoon storm, and I happened to capture this from our bedroom. Lucky me!

On our trip through Tucumcari a few weeks ago, we were really surprised by the number of closed and boarded up businesses and old motels and storefronts torn down.

Example. The old junk store Doofnac Xemi (think about that for a second) is no more. As seen in November, 2008:

Fast forward to 2010, it’s now a parking lot between the warehouse and white fence. The photo location is the vacant and falling down Westerner Drive-In.

Tucumcari has certainly seen some better days. (?)

We went on a West Texas trip this past weekend to graduations in Dalhart and Amarillo, and of course passed through Tucumcari.

No trip there would be complete without a stop at Allsup’s for their tasty Famous Beef & Bean Burritos.

Don’t be a fool and eat one without Allsup’s equally famous Taco Sauce. Simply tear off a corner and slather some yummy sauce on the top before each bite.

It’s to die for. (Except for Lisa, I’m not sure why she doesn’t share my passion!)

Albuquerque seems to be losing all of its Allsup’s, and I really miss that distinctive Allsup’s smell. If you’ve frequented the store, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Mmm, ahh! Don’t tease the panther.

I suppose it’s not technically a dump. Lisa and I took a field trip to the Eagle Rock Convenience Center today.

We did some heavy work in the back yard and ended up with a bunch of bags full of trimmings that we needed to unload. The Convenience Center is certainly convenient. You pay your $3.60, back your vehicle up to a concrete trough, and dump whatever garbage you need to get rid of. A tractor pushes all the trash to the west end of the center where it drops into waiting tractor-trailers, which then haul it all away to the real dump, where I guess is somewhere west of Albuquerque. Not sure.

Anyhow, it’s all quite exciting, and run in a very professional manner. I’m impressed.

We weren’t able to get all the trimmings hauled away today, Scratchy can only carry so much. We’ll dump the rest next weekend along with a pile of carpet we’ll be removing from the sun room later this week, as we decided to strip down to bare concrete and acid stain it. YES!

Looking through the camera photos on my BlackBerry, I ran across a picture I forgot I had taken while at Hoover Dam. It’s certainly an interesting and fascinating example of the Art Deco style one will find in use everywhere at the dam, in areas one would not necessarily expect, in this case, the urinals in the men’s room on the dam:

Art Deco urinals

Lisa and I took off this past weekend for a quick trip to Las Vegas. I was going to check out the Lobos playing in the MWC tournament finals while Lisa was going to shop. Well, the Lobos didn’t make it to the finals, but we still went anyway, and I ended up hitting the outlet mall with Lisa.

We had a great time, but found ourselves out way, way too late, until around 4am, and we had to drive back to Albuquerque that day! We’re too old to be doing that. We made it back though, and still had time to tour Hoover Dam and drive over it one last time before all traffic is diverted to the bridge being built just south of the dam.

…hop on a flight to Las Vegas for a few days!

We haven’t been back for a few years, so there was a lot of new stuff to see. CityCenter is simply amazing, we’ll certainly have to stay there next time.

Robin came back with money, but the rest of us didn’t. I claimed the booby prize and brought back a nasty cold. Yuck.

Granny, Lisa, and Robin enjoying cocktails with Donny & Marie

Lisa terrified but Robin excited?

Yes, I’m still in shock! I can’t believe we went from coast to coast in two weeks. What a great time. I think Michael should plan all of the vacations from now on. He did awesome and he can keep a secret really good. We are almost done with Christmas shopping, planning our Auntie Robin Thanksgiving and also planning a wedding right now, so we really needed that vacation. Thanks so much Hubby! You did an awesome job–can’t wait till next year!

I finally finished sorting through over 1400 pictures taken from our 2009 Mystery trip and and posted them to Picasa. You’ll find 500+ photos of Denver, San Francisco (including separate Russel Wright exhibit at the San Francisco airport), New York City, and Miami Beach. Now I just have to go through and add captions to all those pictures!

This was a trip of a lifetime, with so many memories. A number of things stand out for me:

1. How cold San Francisco was.
2. The booze cruise around San Francisco bay.
3. Breaking my finger climbing down to Sutro Baths ruins.
4. The NYC subway system.
5. 9/11 in NYC.
6. Accidentally encountering Barack Obama in Wall Street.
7. My unexpected Miami Beach sunburn.
8. 3 baseball games in 3 different cities.
9. The columbarium in San Francisco and the gothic churches in NYC.
10. The Italian influence in South Beach.
11. Hookers in the subway. Cranky ones at that.

Oh, the list could go on. But most memorable was hearing Lisa scream in delight when I told her finally where we’d be going, and of course watching the amazement and joy in her face those 2+ weeks we spent on both coasts.

Thanks for sharing this special time with me Lisa, can’t wait for next year!

Long travel day home, very tired after 20 hours up and a drive from Denver to Albuquerque!

Excellent trip, one we’ll never forget. Have about 1200 pics to download, should have them posted in coming days.

Good night.