Sunday, July 13, 2008
El Rancho RV Park, Albuquerque, NM: May 1-31
Albuquerque was named after the tenth Duke of Alburquerque, who held the office Viceroy from 1702 until 1711, presiding over the vast Spanish possessions in North and Central America. Some time later, the first "r" in the name was dropped, though that doesn't make it much easier to spell! His descendent, the 18th Duke, visited in 1956 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding.We chose this RV park for convenience, both for visiting Gayle in his new home at La Vida Llena and playing bridge at the Bridge Center, as well as for cost. The location in the "war zone", named for the profusion of gangs, shootings, and street racers, is certainly not ideal, but if one displays a modicum of common sense, the stay here can be downright enjoyable. The park itself is quite pleasant, with grass, trees and little white picket fences. SKP friends Bonnie & Joe Nemmers were here when we arrived (Joe having recently undergone hand surgery at the VA hospital), and we enjoyed playing Mah Jongg with them, as well as eating out and visiting the Art Museum for an exhibit on British photographer Bill Brandt. Gayle subsequently mentioned reading a newspaper article about the exhibit, so we later took him & thoroughly enjoyed it a second time.
Gayle was already comfortably settled at La Veda Llena by the time of our arrival, thanks to the unselfish help of Doug's brother Bob & his wife Paula. We were especially pleased at how comfortably furnished the apartment was, since when we viewed the bare apt last November we were a little worried that the main room might be a little on the small side. Between the furniture that they brought from Tucson, and many newly acquired items, the place looks wonderfully homey. We helped Gayle with a few of the final touches, which pleased us & him very much.Much of the rest of our time was spent playing bridge or line dancing. The Bridge Center was as friendly as we had heard, and we got to know quite a few of the members, including a previous fulltime RVer who wrote a book about his time on the road. And we managed to win over 8 master points, in spite of the stiff competition. We were also fairly equidistant from four Senior Centers, all of which provided fantastic line dancing (among seemingly hundreds of other activities!). We were able to attend challenging and fun line dancing classes 5 or 6 times a week. We also attended a concert by the ABQ Philharmonic, a free community orchestra, that was quite good and gave us an opportunity to see a bit of the downtown area. We visited Gayle several times a week & had several enjoyable meals with Bob & Paula. We also had breakfast with SKP friend Ron Zunk, who sold us his barely-used 8" telescope. We are looking forward to using it at Chaco & Yellowstone.
ABQ is a city with many lovely gardens & city parks, as well as lots of cultural opportunities (we passed on seeing Cirque de Soleil & "Spamelot" was coming in early June). The roses were at their peak during our visit. We enjoyed being here enough that it is one of the few cities that we would consider settling down in, if or when we decide to give up the nomadic lifestyle. Not that we're having thoughts in this direction -- we have several friends who have "settled down", and their tales of constant yard and house "projects" make us shudder!# posted by Doug and Willie @ 5:35 PM 
