While in Albuquerque we stayed at the Coronado RV Park which was very nice.  Our space was conveniently located behind the clubhouse where we went to play online bridge with our Lake Charles Bridge Club almost as soon as we arrived.  After our less than memorable bridge game, we had a 3:30 reservation to visit the Hot Air Balloon Museum.  The museum was interesting, but would have been more interesting if all the hands on exhibits weren’t closed because of Covid-19.

The most fascinating exhibit for me was the one documenting the flight of Salomon Andree, a Swedish engineer, who set out on July 11, 1897 with two fellow countrymen on an exhibition to the North Pole in a hydrogen ballon. After Andree and his two companions lifted off from Svalbard, a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean about 400 miles north of Norway, the balloon lost hydrogen quickly and crashed on the pack ice after only two days. The men were unhurt, but not prepared  with proper  equipment or clothing and lacked the fortitude to make the grueling trek back south and died. Their ship, journals, undeveloped film, supplies and skeletons were found in 1930, 33 years later.  They had survived almost 3 months.

Andree camp

 

Back at the RV Park we visited with a couple from Houma, LA for several hours.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

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Tom’s favorite place to eat—Tuscano’s Brazilian Steakhouse

 The National  Museum of Nuclear Entergy Museum

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Replicas of the Atomic Bombs Little Boy that was dropped on Hiroshima and Fat Boy that was dropped on Nagasaki 

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This watch was stopped at 8:17 am on August 6, 1945 when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" detonated over Hiroshima.

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This tricycle belonged to three=year-old Shinichi Tetsutani, who was riding it in front of his house when the atomic bomb flattened it.  He died that evening.

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25 cent stamps that were purchased one stamp at a time and when $18.75 was accumulated, the card was traded for a war bond.

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Cute little postcard in the gift shop 

Old Town, Albuquerque 

We walked around  the square at Old Town in Albuquerque.  The shops all feature the typical Indian 

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