A Day in the 'Que
April 5, 2019: Apparently we don’t just procrastinate with chores, but also with fun things. That’s weird, I think! Leading up to traveling to a new location for a new job, we start making a list of the things we want to do while in the area, along with the coffee shops we would like to spend an afternoon working in and the gluten-free restaurants and bakeries we MUST not miss! However, we often find ourselves at the end of our stay realizing we still have things to see and do from our list. While some of it can be chalked up to having just too much on the list, often it is life that gets in the way; whether that be occasional laziness, grocery shopping, laundry or the biggest culprit being often being work. Living full-time in an RV seems to many people like it is just a full-time vacation and while many times it even feels like it to us, the trips to the bank and the post office and the loads of laundry and piles of dirty dishes don’t escape us. And fun or not, we do still have to work, luckily we have had some fun jobs along the way.
With less than two weeks until it was time to hitch-up and move east towards our next job, our Albuquerque To-Do list was still long. While we had to give up on a few of the items on our list that required more than one day to truly do them justice; i.e., a trip to Taos, visiting White Sands National Park and making friends with aliens in Roswell; we were determined to have some fun locally in Albuquerque on a day off from doing taxes!
We’ve said it before, but the coffee game is strong in Albuquerque, so picking out a coffee shop to stop at is a big deal. Discovering Cutbow Coffee just about two months prior, we had to make up for lost time. When we saw on their website, that they offered public cuppings every Friday at high noon, we were sold. Having never attended or participated in a public Cupping, we really did not know what to expect at such an event. It definitely made Russ chuckle out loud every time we said the phrase to each other, and definitely more than it made me chuckle. Sometimes I find his middle-school sense of humor funny, and sometimes, not so much.
We arrived a few minutes before and were led through the cupping, or tasting, by Cutbow Coffee owner and coffee aficionado Paul Gallegos and his lovely assistant along with six other guests. I won’t get into all the details of slurping and spitting and smelling that go into the proper cupping protocol. But we will tell you that we discovered there truly are endless flavor notes to coffee. We had done our own flight test at Cutbow on our first visit and had learned so much about the differences in flavor across the countries of origin. We were asked to describe the taste of the coffee using different adjectives and flavors we were given such as buttery, leathery, citrusy, smoky, molasses, etc. We were guided through the coffees starting with the most acidic and progressing to the ones with more body. Similar to our prior visit to Cutbow’s, my palette was most happiest in Papa New Guinea and Betsy was more of an Aged Sumatra type of girl. Definitely an educational and entertaining experience that was right up our alley and provided free of charge by a man who just loves his craft and loves to share what he knows about it. We learned a lot and would definitely like to catch another cupping in the future. We will try to keep our slurping, spitting and sniffing of coffee to a minimum unless attending one of these cuppings, so don’t worry if we invite you to join us for coffee.
Departing Cutbow Coffee, we headed toward Downtown Albuquerque to a rather unique museum — the Telephone Pioneer Museum of New Mexico. During a previous trip downtown, Russ had been quick to spot an old Bell System building and upon circling we noticed the small little museum located inside. Those of you that know Russ, know he and his family have a long history with telecommunications, starting with Bell of Pennsylvania, which morphed into Bell Atlantic, and eventually became Verizon. The museum, open only a few short hours three days a week, was not open on our initial visit, so we returned to check it out today. With a donation for admission, we were provided with a map of the four floors of exhibits. It was much larger than we imagined and we didn’t have much time to look around. The building built in 1906 was charming and the four floors told the history of the telephone industry. The gentleman working the front desk was quite knowledgeable, and even though we arrived close to closing time, was more then willing to share a couple of stories and facts about the museum and its contents.
A variety of switchboards and hundreds of telephones adorned the space as well as exhibits depicting major milestones in communication history, such as the first transcontinental call from San Francisco to New York. While the museum wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, we all continue to benefit today from the history it contains. This was a quick stop, but we enjoyed the brief glimpse into the history of an industry that made up 26 years of Russ’ adult life. Can you hear me now?
From coffee to phones, the next logical progression was automobiles, right? Yep, we made the short trip over to the Albuquerque Convention Center for the New Mexico International Auto Show. Russ can look at cars any time, and I can tolerate a large hall filled with new cars if she can sit in a few of the nice ones! Now, having been to the Philadelphia International Auto Show, which is one of the larger shows in the country, this show seemed small. But it was still a fun way to spend a couple of hours walking around and dreaming about what car or truck we would buy if money were no object. As might be expected, Russ’ wish list leaned more towards faster, smaller and sportier, while mine sat a little higher from the ground and was overall bigger. More specifically, I would have gladly driven away a new Nissan Titan XD. Yes, a full-size, diesel pickup truck was my final answer! Who knows? Maybe someday, right? We mostly looked, but not touched, the hundreds of new cars, trucks and SUVs that filled the ballrooms. We did have the need for speed and jumped behind the wheel of a few of sporty two-seaters.
Fast cars might be the way to a man’s heart, but diamonds are a girl’s best friend, or more specifically for this girl — baseball diamonds. When we caught a University of New Mexico Lobos basketball game at “The Pit”, we commented that we would need to check out Isotopes Park for a game once baseball season arrived. The Albuquerque Istopes are a minor league team and the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. We did just that, catching the second game of the opening five-game series vs. the Salt Lake Bees. The Isotopes stung the Bees, ending the night with a 7 - 4 victory.
Like many, you may be wondering where the team name came from and yes, it is from the TV series — The Simpsons. The fictional Springfield Isotopes first appeared in Season 2 (1990) where Homer temporary becomes the local baseball team’s mascot. Many seasons later, Homer tries to prevent the team’s plan to move to Albuquerque by going on a hunger strike. Apparently the Simpsons TV show was a fan-favorite in Albquerque, because in a poll to help chose a new name for the relocated team by the Albuquerque Tribune, 67% of the 120,000 votes cast were for the name Isotopes. The team president did admit the name came from the television series, but did say the name was also deemed appropriate due to the well-known scientific labs in the area that deal with nuclear technology. The team’s name did deem well for the franchise in that, in the three months after the name was announced and before a single game was played, they sold more merchandise than the previous team name had sold in any single season. Lucky for us, we hit the free long sleeve t-shirt night, we we now have our very own Isotopes-themed merchandise. Buy your own gear here!
As with most minor league games, the atmosphere is fun with entertainment between each inning and that fact that you can score great seats at a fraction of the price of an MLB game. I even scored a photo (see above) with Orbit, the Isotopes’ mascot of a yellow, orange and red alien. The day started with coffee and ended with baseball, so overall a great day in the ‘Que. And since we will have to return to Albuquerque someday to finish the rest of our to-do list, maybe we will get the chance to cheer on the Isotopes again someday!
