The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

 Albuquerque, NM

More like Land of Dormant Volcanoes at the moment, thankfully.

A Science Museum on a Holiday

We are in our last few days here in Albuquerque (I can spell this easily now) and The Mew Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science was on my list of places I wanted to go to before we left so we went today only remembering it was a holiday as we were walking up.  It ended up not being overly crowded but there were still more kids there than we would have liked.  It is a small museum and it only took us about an hour to see.  My key takeaway was that there were a lot of real fossils and bones.  There were also quite a few signs with words on them so I took fewer photos than I normally do.

Don't try this at home!  Only try it here at The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science!

This was kind of a simulator elevator that didn't really go anywhere.  It exits around the corner.  We didn't do it so I am telling you what it is based on assumptions and seeing the exit around the corner.

Pinball Practice

After the museum, I dropped Donna off to hang with Francis and went to Sister Bar to practice pinball.  I wanted to accomplish a few goals.  Here is the list I typed up for myself before I left;

Venom

Eddie Brock Strat

- Shoot light shots and skip 2 ball MB by holding down action button.  Start 3 or 4 ball MB

Work on Carnage MB during Mayhem MB

Foo

Find van upgrade skill shot

Start Area 51 MB with 5 right ramp shots

Prepare Overlord MB, start it with New Orleans (Purple repeat shots)

Mando

Find mission ramps shots

These might not make much sense to you but my goals were clear to me.  When I got there I noticed that Venom had been moved so I wasn't able to practice on that one.  I did play Foo Fighters and Mandalorian and was able to piece together a few of the goals.  I think the only goal that evaded me was starting Area 51 Multiball, but I know how to do it now so that is key.

I had my best game ever on Mando.  It's a score I would be very happy with in a tournament.

I also got a ball VERY stuck on Foo Fighters.  Not, not the balls on the left, those are supposed to be there (they are referred to as "Captive Balls".  My stuck ball is on the right circled in red.  It isn't going anywhere!

I have been putting a lot of effort into pinball in preparation for a number of tournaments in Phoenix and the surrounding area.  I will be playing in my biggest tournament yet the next week.  I don't expect to win but I hope to finish in the upper half of players.  I have been gathering info and strategies on all of the machines they have there.  

I have updated my spreadsheet to include hyperlinks to the best info I can find on that particular machine.  Some of the links have incredible detail and write ups by top players.  I am hoping this will help give me a refresher on the machine and not just flail away at the ball.  As you can see, there are a ton of machines at Electric Bat and I won't find out which ones I will be playing until right before the round.

Now that I am better at making the shots I want to make, knowing which shots to make and in what order can really help with score.  

I also really improved on Tales of the Arabian Nights.  I am very happy with 26m on this machine.

That's it for today.  Just a few days until packing day.  On Tuesday we pack up and on Wednesday we drive from Albuquerque, through Gallop NM, head south at Flagstaff AZ, and end up in Phoenix for the rest of the year.  I am really looking forward to our Phoenix stay.  It will also be interesting how it feels to be in one place for more than a month.  We haven't done that since early 2022.

If you missed Happy Accidents, check it out.  It's a very cool bar.

Happy Accidents

 Albuquerque, NM

Nob Hill ABQ

This evening we took an Uber (it was supposed to be a Lyft but there were no Lyfts available in our area) to Nob Hill to go to Happy Accidents for drinks and dinner.  Our first stop was The Yarn Store.

We arrived at Happy Accidents at opening.  I am always worried we aren't going to get into places I want to go to so we get there at opening and usually say, "well I guess we didn't need to get here this early".  We don't want to be out late anyway so getting there at opening suits us just fine.

Happy Accidents was recommended to us by a bartender at Hell or High Water.  You can read about that visit here. 

Get Happy was projected on the sidewalk out front.

Getting there at opening allows you to get great photos of the bar with no one there.

You can see them using a heated stamp to put their logo on the ice cube.

I got a fantastic Martini.  I don't often get Martinis at bars because we can make great Martinis at home, but this one was worth it.

Donna's cocktail had beet juice in it.  It was also very good.

Besides our drinks, we got really great fried mushrooms, delicious chicken wings, and 2 desserts.  Everything was really great and the staff was fantastic. One of the bartenders overheard us talking about travel and asked about what we were up to.  We filled her in on a few of the cities we have visited and she asked what was next.  We said Phoenix and a few minutes later she gave us a hand written note with her recommendations on it.  Bartenders do know the good spots and it is always great to get recommendations.  We wouldn't have found Happy Accidents if it wasn't for a helpful bartender.

Our ride home was in a Lyft.  We were in a more populated areas so I guess there were drivers available.    

That's it for today.  If you missed It's Been A Minute (or a few days), check it out.

It's Been A Minute (or a few days)

 Albuquerque, NM

No Internet

A few days ago we were happily watching The Great British Bake Off and Netflix stopped streaming.  Our internet was out!  I checked online and the website appeared to show an outage and that Century Link was working on it.  We didn't think much of it so Donna read and I played Animal Crossing the rest of the evening.  

The next morning we woke up to the internet still being out.  This time I looked harder and there was no widespread outage so I contacted our host.  After a few hours they came back with, "It's a localized outage and the internet will be back on Tuesday."  It was Friday now so that meant a long weekend and a long Monday with no TV.  We do get out but we also stream a lot of TV when we aren't out.  A few months ago we dumped Verizon for Google Fi and love it.  We have unlimited data so I figured we would try to connect via Hot Spot tethering.  It worked!  We were streaming The Great British Bake Off again!  All of our problems were solved until our tethering stopped working on Saturday.  I was troubleshooting the problem when I found out our plan only allowed 5 gigs of tethering.  I had gone through 9 gigs and Donna had tethered 6 gigs so Google was pretty generous to a point.  I looked an the next Google Fi tier up gave us 50 gigs of tethering so I made the change, but just for this month.  

On that Monday we saw workers working on the lines.  The trucks said Century Link so we were optimistic.  Turns out there was some sort of fire that took out a poorly protected DSL thingy (my words not theirs).  We saw this DSL thingy when we first arrived in Albuquerque.  It was a post with tons of wires coming out of it, exposed to the air.  At the end of the day Monday we still had no internet.  I assumed there was one more step that needed to happen to get things back up and running.  

On Tuesday there was another Century Link truck at the spot where the lines were fixed and buried.  I was sure this was going to be the fix and it was.  On Tuesday afternoon we had internet again.

What Have We Been Doing (Besides TV)?

So for the past few days we have been taking it easy.  I have been playing a lot of pinball at various locations around ABQ, we went hiking to try to see Scaled Quail, we have been cooking, and we also went to The Rio Grande Nature Center State Park (I had to look this up because I thought that was the name but it sounds so weird).  

The Rio Grande Nature Center State Park has a birding area inside with giant windows and a speaker pumping in the sounds from outside.  It is AWESOME!

They had a learning area for kids (and me).  You could make animal tracks in a sandbox.

One night we watched Meteor!  It's a 70s Sean Connery disaster movie that a pinball machine is based on.  While watching I saw 2 pinball machines in the movie.  It's like pinball inception!

Here is info on the pinball machine if you are interested.  I wanted to see the movie because most people don't know the pinball machine is based on a movie because you can't really tell.  Also I did a search in Google for "meteor" and they play a cool little animation.  Check it out.

We went to a beer release at La Cumbre Brewing.  It was great so we bought a bottle to take to Phoenix and share.

Francis ignored the other dog at the beer release

We also bought very cheap onions.

We learned that all of the Javelin throwing we have been doing at the park is illegal!  They should put this sign at both entrances.

I played a lot of pinball. I want to practice for all of the tournaments I will play in when we are in Phoenix.

There are 4 Boxing Bear brewing locations and three of them have pinball so I have been to them all.

I also got to play, what I believe to be, the ugliest pinball machine ever made.  It's fun but it's UGLY!

We have 1 more week here in Albuquerque and then we do a 1 day drive straight to Phoenix for the rest of the year.  We still have a few things to do before we leave so we aren't in a hurry to leave or anything.

If you missed Do you Know the Way to Santa Fe? (probably not, in fact you probably saw it 3 or 4 times by now) check it out.

Do You Know The Way To Santa Fe?

 Santa Fe, NM

We know the way!  It's on the Rail Runner.

Taking the Rail Runner to Santa Fe

This morning we got up and headed to the park and ride at the Rail Runner station.  Our train leaves for Santa Fe at 9:45.  We got there with about 20 minutes to spare so I explored the station.  Online ticketing was down so we would have to buy tickets on the train.

As we stood waiting for the train, we noticed that all of the riders waiting were older than us which is unusual.  Once we boarded I looked to see what the deal was.  Do Seniors ride for free?  Sure nuff!  Wednesday is Senior day.  Everyone 60 and up gets to ride for free.

We arrived in Santa Fe at 11:15, right on time, and headed right to lunch with about half of the train.  There is a great restaurant steps away from the downtown Santa Fe station.

 After a delicious brunch we walked across the parking lot to the Vladem Contemporary Museum.  This museum opened about a month ago.  We used our NARM membership and got right in.

Elias Jade Not Afraid -  Virgil Ortiz
For over two decades, Virgil Ortiz has been developing an elaborate narrative, Revolt 1680/2180, to globally educate people about Po'pay, the Tewa leader who led the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 against Spanish occupation and the subsequent survival of Pueblo culture. Historical fact blends with science fiction to present a time-bending tale of resilience and ancestral memory. 

Pantaloncini: Work No. (Indeterminate Stillness) (Emma) - Angela Ellsworth
We also saw Angela Ellsworth's work in Denver.

I didn't catch the name of this or the artist but it was cool.

Cloud Drawing -  Leo Villareal
Leo Villareal works with lights.  The installation we are most familiar with is The Bay Lights installed on The Bay Bridge while we were living in San Francisco.

The Archetype -  Emil Bisttram

Pumpkin - Yayoi Kusama

Untitled - Helen Pashgian

Cu: C - Susan York
This piece was commissioned just for this corner in the museum

The Santa Fe Rail Runner Station from the museum balcony

Capitol Building Tour

After a short walk we arrived at the New Mexico capitol building.  The building itself is just okay but it is stuffed with art.

Ullassa - Helen K. Tindel

There is a dome that is VERY New Mexico looking.

"Please no more questions!"

Slide 2008 - Laura Rosenfeld

The Senate and House floors are very utilitarian.  The capitol building was built in the 60s and it shows.

Ristras II 1994  - Marnie Johnson

Zozobra  - Will Shuster

Hoshonzeh  - Douglas Johnson

Buffalo  - Holly Hughes

Donna thought this looked like the plans to the Deathstar.  She isn't wrong.

New Mexico Museum of Art

After our capital time at the capitol we walked to the heart of Santa Fe and visited the New Mexico Museum of Art.  It was a short visit because we wanted to catch the earlier train.  We were getting tired and missing Francis.

Our walk took us along Historic Route 66.

The New Mexico Museum of Art building is really cool.

So is the courtyard within

Turquoise Persian Set  - Dale Chihuly
Everyone has got a Chihuly!  

Wasco  - Preston Singletary
We have seen a lot of his work in the Seattle area.

Stuben Glass Bowl with Jimson Weed image  - Georgia O'Keeffe with Stuben Glass

Chama River, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico  - Georgia O'Keeffe

Awakening, (Memory of Father)  - Agnes Pelton

The train ride home went smoothly.  We got to see some Sandhill Cranes eating seeds in a harvested field.  

Francis was happy to see us when we got home.

That's it for today.  If you missed Going Atomic!, you can check it out via the link.