Checking out the Pueblo Mud Huts

We started the day by getting lost in Rio Rancho. We were way over on the west side of town close to the volcanoes before we realized that we were lost and had to come back and find our way to some display houses that we were looking for. sometimes we get caught up in conversation and miss the turn-off. The architectural style here is essentially Stucco -- keep moving or you will get stucco applied to you. Normally, a house has stucco walls but the roof line might give some variation. If it has a peaked metal roof it is northern New Mexico style. Flat roof is pueblo style. A tile peaked roof is sort of a Tuscan style and then there is a 'fusion' style that has all of it mixed together. We saw one brick house today that somebody insisted on building but everything else is stucco. When you look off in the distance the stucco houses are all earth tones and it all blends together and you don't realize it is anything other than dirt. In fact, they give you about five choices of colors....all subtle shades of dirt color. But no pink which is what people think happens.

We went up to see some display homes put up by Pulte....a national builder that is building homes here. They have about 20 display houses but not a whole lot of people looking at them on a beautiful Saturday. Some of the houses looked OK but nothing special and they are all slammed together with about 4 or 6 feet between the houses. You can pass the salt and pepper between some of those houses if you are out on your porch.

We went for lunch at an Applebees and then went to find a display house built by my builder. There is a world of difference. My primary purpose was to look at room sizes and kitchen styles. She is 'gung ho' on dressing up the interiors of her houses and I'll have to rein her in on much of that. She does granite counters and custom cabinets and I don't want much of that. I don't want granite anything. She has a lot of good ideas but a lot of those ideas cost a lot of money.

After we left the display we went to the Casa Rondena winery up in Ranchos de Albuquerque and tasted their wine and had a bottle of their 2008 Seranade which Paul said was the same as "Himmelswein" (Heaven's Wine) in Missouri and sort of between a dry and sweet white wine. It was pretty good. They are doing the same thing here with chocolate sauce and Port wine that they do at other wineries. Sadly, they don't make a Grappa.


We headed back to our motel and then went out for supper at the Two Fools Tavern over on Central Avenue. Central Avenue is old Route 66 as it headed through Albuquerque way back when and there are some of those old motels with the outlandish neon lights still there. We were in the "Nob Hill" part of Central Avenue which is close to the university and sort of Albuquerque's version of the Delmar Loop in St. Louis. Two Fools Tavern is an Irish pub so we had "proper" fish and chips (as Paul says) and some Irish beer. We walked around a little looking at the various sushi bars and micro-breweries and then came home.


"Home" is an extended stay motel that is where I usually stay when I come into town. This time we have had a little entertainment provided by the other guests. We aren't sure what is going on but people are walking back and forth carrying mattresses. There are people driving around the parking lot looking like they are lost. The street is torn up....well, there is actually a large pipe about eight inches in diameter running down the street that has traffic messed up so you have to carefully figure out your coming and going.


The Wal-mart visit yesterday was interesting. Paul says that every time you go into a Wal-mart it is the same people there...no matter whether you are in Florida or St. Louis or in New Mexico...it is always the same people. Maybe they are cloning them down in Bentonville Arkansas.