An aerial view of Albuquerque at night.                                               Wiki Commons

 Taking a Zero Day

    There's a wonderful expression popular with those doing long-distance hikes such as the Appalachian Trail. So much of life on the trail centers on how many miles are knocked off each day. The trip is defined by mileage per day with 10-mile, 20-mile, and even sometimes 30-mile days the norm. When hikers rest to resupply and rest a bit, maybe catch a few meals that don't involve adding boiling water to a foil packet or plastic Ramen dish, it's called taking a "Zero Day."

    After ten days of go, go, go, that's exactly what we did today here in Albuquerque where it turned out to be a rare rainy day with low-ceiling clouds obscuring the tops of the Sandia Range on the far east side of town.

    Roxie and Mary went off to run errands and do a little shopping while Bryan and I stayed at the house. He had some computer work to do and I spent a couple hours answering long-untended emails, paying bills online, and researching the route and other details for tomorrow's road trip a couple hours South to visit the Very Large Array radio telescope and ultimately on Saturday to the Trinity Site where the world's first atomic bomb was detonated.

    The high point of the day was a dinner of takeout pizzas from the renown Sal's Ristorante and Pizzaria where the calzones are so large they seem to be something created after an atomic blast in a 1950s science fiction movie. 

 Typical calzone at Sal's.  Courtesy Sal's

    Afterwards, during a break in the showers, we took a one-mile walk around the neighborhood. Part of that route overlooks the city where as darkness fell thousands of points of light filled sullen gray valley with welcoming glow.

    The alarm is set early because if the rain holds off tomorrow morning one of the first unofficial launches of the city's spectacular Balloon Fest is set to happen from the Painted Sky Elementary School at the end of Mary and Bryan's Street. Later we're off in our rented Urban Assault Vehicle for the two-hour trip south and the discoveries that await.

Painted Sky School, home of the Coyotes. Courtesy ADE

 

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