July 8th - Albuquerque, New Mexico

Since it was forecast to hit 100, we decided to walk the Route 66 Volksmarch in Albuquerque first thing in the morning while it would be relatively cool, in the upper 70s. We drove to the Sheraton Old Town and signed in, and were relieved to find both written directions and a map on the back—it’s so reassuring for us directionally-challenged folks to have a map to get lost with! This walk started by a short leg over to the Old Town section of Albuquerque that featured many nice boutique stores around a small central square. We saw lots of jewelry and antiques and some vendors selling wares directly on the sidewalk, bazaar style. The square itself is a pretty little park with a band shell, and one side of the square has a very old, historic Catholic church. The interior of the adobe-walled church is very pretty and also very cool, so if you take this walk you would be well advised to step inside for a few minutes to enjoy the church.

From Old Town the trail led to the new downtown section of Albuquerque, which featured high rises that were mainly big banks, as far as I could tell. Our walking instructions mentioned the historic Kimo theater and the proprietor was working outside as we walked past. He invited us to come in, look around, and take pictures, and we took him up on this offer. The inside was decorated in a southwestern theme that certainly is unusual and I think very nice. If the theater is open when you do this walk, step in to look around and, once again, cool off.

We followed the old Route 66 for a while where it was Central Avenue, the main downtown street, and it was lined with thriving businesses of all sorts. Some storefronts were so unusual I couldn’t even figure out what the business was, but we didn’t see any vacant storefronts. The last leg of the walk was thru a pretty residential neighborhood and past a golf course. We were “shade-hopping” by this point, which is walking on whichever side of the street affords the most shade. We felt this was a very nice walk but certainly one to do when it is relatively cool rather than in the direct heat of a southwestern summer. It’s quite flat and level so it’s only a 1 in difficulty, but take plenty of water and sunscreen for the walk.

We joined my brother Terry and Phyllis for lunch, and then all of us visited the Atomic Museum. We particularly enjoyed the exhibit on Madame Curie—I hadn’t known how much adversity she had to overcome to have a career in physics, nor that she had won 2 Nobel Prizes and her daughter had also won a Nobel Prize. That’s a family record that’s really hard to beat!

The atomic energy section of the exhibit was thorough and informative. What made it frightening was President Bush’s current push for resuming nuclear testing, developing new battlefield nuclear weapons, and authorizing a “first strike” use of such weapons in future conflicts. The effects of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima were dramatically illustrated in the museum’s presentation of the film “10 seconds that changed the world”, and I just can’t imagine using those weapons as a first resort in the next military conflagration. With first strike policies, the threat of a widespread nuclear exchange causing a nuclear winter and a decimation of the human species becomes much more likely. Optimistically, I hope my descendants will be around to read these words and laugh at my unfounded worries, but only time will tell.

Monika had a visceral reaction to the clips of strategic bombing. The whistling of the bombs reminded her of the wartime bombing of Hamburg, which she barely survived, and brought back some very frightening memories. Those of us who have not lived thru the nightmare of strategic bombing just do not realize what it is like and do not have those reactions, partly explaining the very different European view to war compared to the U.S. view (see Wanderung 2). Still, even she agreed that the museum was very interesting and educational about nuclear issues, up to and including the current debate on the irradiation of food. Under pressure from the food processing industry, our Commercial Congress had redefined the term “Pasteurization” to include nuclear irradiation! So now if you purchase milk that says “Pasteurized”, you have no idea if it was heated in the traditional way or simply nuked. It makes me wonder what other common words or dear legislators have found new meanings for and what other traps may be out there for the unwary, perhaps because the old term “campaign contributions” now includes the meaning of “bribes”.

After the museum we wandered around Old Town and had a more leisurely look at some of the stores. We bought a very small black pot crafted in the Casa Grande style and Terry bought one that had the form of a snake on top (which he later gave to me!). I thought it was quite nice, but Monika is not partial to snakes. Then we all had dinner at a Greek restaurant and retired to our hotel room for a good night’s sleep.