New Mexico - Day 17 - in the campground

Albuquerque North/Bernalillo KOA, Bernalillo

Wednesday, 17 November 2021

After the long drive yesterday, I didn't much want to jump up and drive somewhere else today, even for sightseeing.  Plus, Bernalillo is above 5,000' elevation, so in case altitude is what's causing me problems, I wanted to take a bit of time to adjust.

I'm much better than I was a couple of weeks ago, but I'm still having periods of dizziness and headaches.  Fortunately, the nausea has nearly gone away, so that's a plus.

This is a pretty decent campground and has 2 fenced-in dog yards.  One has lots of drawings across the wall showing dogs playing or with bones or sailing on a ship or like that.  The other has a large wall covered with a quote from Robert Benchley: A dog teaches fidelity, perseverance, and how to turn three times around before lying down.

The campground owner must know someone who can do murals, because another long wall of the campground showed a series of things visitors to the area could do.  One section showed the various places people could go fishing.  Another showed wineries and breweries.  Another showed restaurants, while still another showed where to buy chiles and chile sauce.  And there were maybe 3 or 4 more sections with different attractions like that.  I thought it was clever.

I wanted to know more about that Rio Grande Rift that I'd traveled across on my way to Taos, and my friend Paula told me she'd found some information about it at the Rio Grande Nature Center in ABQ.  And she told me about a path near there where people could walk their dogs.  I wanted to see a little more of Albuquerque, plus I had a few errands to run, so I mapped out a driving route to do those things on one day.

I also mapped out driving routes to two places didn't want to leave New Mexico without visiting: the state capital, Santa Fe, and Los Alamos, the center for the Manhattan Project.  Not far from those places were 2 other sights my friend Bruce had suggested that I wanted to see if I had time: Valles Caldera, an extinct volcano; Bandelier National Monument, with remains of ancient cliff dwellings.  Those two, though, were above 10,000', so I tried not to set my heart on seeing them but figured I'd play it by ear.

I also managed to write 2 blog posts, so now I'm only 2 weeks behind.  Oh well.  And I made reservations for where I'll be going when I leave this area.

All told, it was an action-packed day.