Kastle's Journey: Albuqueque, New Mexico - Inverter troubles, ABQ Biopark, Old Town Plaza, and Route 66 - Nov 1

Wednesday morning and a much warmer night, so we slept pretty good. It is a noisy RV Park though, being right off the I-40 where traffic never stops, nothing earplugs didin't fix for me. :)

We were up at 6 instead of 5 or 4:30 am, so a big improvement. :) Today we will find out hopefully, what all needs to be done to fix our power situation, I am so done with all this trouble. This appears to be the last day of the cold front, with temperatures rising to normal with high 60's to low 70's and overnight temps mid-40's. We'll take it! Our winter parkas can go back under the bed. 😆

We were all packed up and hit the road by 8:30 to drive the 1 mile to La Mesa RV. Once we were able to get checked in, it's a matter of waiting for their diagnosis on the electrical system.

Here Kyle's Kastle sits ...

While they were investigating, we took off to the ABQ Biopark. What a great place with lots of different themed gardens and an aquarium. The staff were in the process of putting up their Chrismas Light Display which opens after American Thanksgiving. It will be a great display of lights. Almost wish we were here for that, but would rather have warmer temps.

Entrance to the Gardens and Aquarium

We started off in a counterclockwise tour after paying for our tickets, only $7.50 each for us old farts.

They have two Biospheres, one with tropical plants and the other desert plants.

The Desert Biosphere

View off the passageway between each climate.

The outdoor part of the garden.

The Tropical Biosphere

Not much flowering at this time of year but we did see these beautiful blue flowers.

More Christmas Light Preparations

Ray in the rose garden, more fall colours on the trees.

Next the Japanese Garden

Reflections

Bundled up as it's cold outside!

There was a dad and a little girl feeding these carp (Goldfish crackers), boy were they aggressive for the food.

We carried on back to the Biospheres and went on the other side of the pond, past the space ship outside the Desert Biosphere.

Lots more lights going up. This will be a dinosaur display. Huge light sculptures.

"I'm gonna get you!"

At the end of the path is the Kids Zone, including a bug portion and giant garden with a castle.

After this, it's past the Model G Train set. It's huge. Apparently they dress it up for Christmas with snowmen etc, rather than their dinosaur cargo today.

Oops.... train wreck

Replica of the the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

We continued our walk to the exit and the aquarium's next. It isn't the biggest but still nice.

Otter Exhibit

Jaws ...do do do do!

La Mesa called us back at 11:30 and, as we suspected, the converter in the inverter is the problem. There was a miscommunication between Nicole and Ray. Ray told them we wanted a Victron system put in instead of Xantrex. They thought they were going to put it in, but Ray wanted the Victron people to do the job. Google searches talked about mistakes made by dealers unfamiliar with the Victron. Our current Xantrex is mounted upside down in the basement. If the tech did the same the Victron wouldn't have lasted 10 hours! Also, their shop rate at La Mesa is $200 per hour!!!

Ray arranged with Jordon at Victron for install on Friday morning. With this arrainged, we decided to go to Old Town Pizza for lunch, a couple of blocks away. Delicious. Then headed back to La Mesa to get the coach.

I have to say La Mesa Albuquerque is much better than the one in Phoenix (we waited a month just to see the estimator and two week wait for repairs) and hands down better than Tuscon with their extremely rude service manager. They took us right in and immediately began the repairs. The only downside is the $200 per hour.

As the tech started to remove our Xantrex, Ray waited an extra hour for them to put it all back together, while I waited in the car at Enchanted Trails RV. Here are a couple of pictures inside their office. They really kept to the Route 66 theme.

I remember that my mom and dad had a couch shaped like this in rose pink. lol

Anyways our electrical system all checked out, breakers are fine, thank goodness. As I said earlier, the converter in the inverter is shot. The new Victron inverter system will be installed on Friday morning, here at the RV park. The best part of this new inverter, is that if we ever have this kind of problem again you can just unhook the plugs at the back of the unit, join them together and get shore power which we can't do now. We also managed to get ahold of a local mobile RV tech who got our front furnace working, fixed the dripping hot water tank and got our tank fill lever figured out for Ray. Things are looking up.

So tonight, we are back to running electrical cords inside for power for lights etc and the fridge is plugged in directly to the power post again. :) 2 more nights and we should be back to normal! We have not watched any TV for a week now due to this issue, not that there is anything on to watch since the writer's strike. Lots of reading books at night, so bedtime is early.

We slept ok, Ray up earlier due to the traffic noise but we were warm! The overnight temps are 10 degrees warmer than they were. Ray headed out at sunrise for some pictures and then came back to have his shower.

Here is an old bridge on Route 66, Rio Puerco Bridge, just down the road from our RV park.

He then took a few pictures of the old trailers you can rent overnight here at the park with the old cars.

Today our destination is Costco for some more wine and gin for me, then we toured the Old Town Plaza. What a cute place. Lots of touristy stuff mixed in with quality native art and jewelry. Ray's in picture heaven with all the old buildings. There are also little plaza's between buildings.

The old well they have converted into a fountain/pond.

The Day of the Dead (Dia de Los Muertos) is usually celebrated on Nov 1 and 2nd, so the plaza is still decorated. I imagine lots of people attended the celebration on the weekend, just like Santa Fe's Plaza.

Shops and more plaza's

Ceremonial dress.

These would look good in my garden lol But where would I put it them until I got home!

Ahhh No Thank you!

San Felipe de Neri Church

San Felipe de Neri Church is a historic Catholic church located on the north side of Old Town Plaza in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Built in 1793, it is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city and the only building in Old Town proven to date to the Spanish colonial period.

On the way back, we noticed the Tricenntenial sculpture.

We left at 9 and were back at 12:30pm. Early lunch, a Costco hotdog. lol Three hours of shopping and wandering is enough. Back home for the afternoon with the tunes on to hide the I-40 traffic sounds. Time to also figure out where we are going for the next couple of weeks as our original plan is now in the garbage. lol With our "plan" renewed and a couple reservations made, we know which direction we are heading. :) Stay tuned.

Ray here, and off to see the Route 66 Visitors Centre. Still not really open due to paperwork from the County of Albuquerque. The view from their second floor ballroom is a spectacular as you can see below:

Route 66 Visitor's Centre

The car pictured below won the award for the best national low rider in class, three times running. The organizers asked the owner to retire the car so other's might have a chance. The car also made the Low Rider magazine front cover and a follow-up story a little later.

The delivery van pictured below is circa 1949 and used for delivering bread. The original owner, Orlando Coca or "Orlie", donated it to a shop with a new idea...... hydraulic lifts. According to the staff at the Visitor Centre, this is the first ever vehicle introduced with a lift kit.

Next are two oddities on display. A salvage dealer apparently used his spare time to build cars from parts of other cars. When he passed away, his family asked the Visitor Centre if they wanted them for display. You will see why

A local motocycle shop manufactured the beautiful chopper below. They then held a class for under privileged youth and built the chopped bicycle to show what they could do in life with a trade.

After dinner and just before dark, Ray headed out again to get some pics of Route 66 neon. It took a bit of investigation on his part as there is no longer a "strip" with lights. Google came through with some of the best locations in Albuquerque. (Ray's amazed he can spell Albuquerque now without having to look it up!)

The Crossing

The El Vado Motel a rejuvinated mid-century modern.

Obviously a popular place!

Still hosts productions decades later. A bit rougher neighbourhood.... the three "lumps" at the entrance were raising clouds of smoke and giggling away.... don't know what all that's about?? ha ha ha