Day 9

We are in Albuquerque.  We parked our camper at my Aunt Darlene and Uncle Mike's house, then met up with my cousin Tarah and Renee and Pace at Petroglyphs National Monument.  More Junior Ranger  programs, this time with Renee.  The children are enjoying playing with cousins and Pace made fast friends with Ken (Ken was willing to hold him up to the water fountain several times). 

From the NP we can see smoke rising from the Dog Head fire to south and east of Albuquerque.  

We had dinner with Hayes and Toni Price at The Range Cafe on historic route 66 in Bernalillo, NM.  How sweet it is to be reunited with friends!  (photos later)

Tomorrow, Ken and Uncle Mike will have the SUV checked out, while the children and I visit with Aunt Dar.  Hopefully we can take about an hour and a half to head back to Petroglyphs NP for National Junior Ranger Day activities, then spend the rest of the day with Aunt Dar, Uncle Mike, Tarah and more! 

One thing I didn't pack enough of is lip balm.  I make homemade lip balm and have 20-30 tubes of lip balm at home, but only one or two made it for the road trip.  Perhaps because we use it primarily in the winter, it didn't occur to me that the desert heat would necessitate lip balm so we may end up picking some up the next time we get groceries.

We have all enjoyed the sights so far.  We are enjoying catching up with people now as well!