American International Rattlesnake Museum - Albuequerque, New Mexico

We left Pimentel and Sons and found our way to the Turquoise Museum.  I love turquoise so I was pretty excited about this stop.  Unfortunately when we got there we saw a sign on the door that said they were closed for a private event and wouldn't open until later in the afternoon.  We would already be on the road out of town by then so we missed getting to see it.

Next on our list was the American International Rattlesnake Museum.  This was mostly for Nicholas but we were all at least a little bit interested because this museum has the largest collection of live rattlesnakes in the world.

We arrived a little before the museum opened but we were entertained by two beautiful rescued African Spurred Tortoises in a stock tank outside.  This is the third largest tortoise species in the world.

The gift shop has a lot of great souvenirs.  Both of my children bought their own authentic rattlesnake fang to bring home with them.  They are small but very sharp looking.  I cringe at the thought of that piercing my skin.

Before I show you around the museum, did you know that all rattlesnackes are born live?  Vipers and boas also have live births.  They do not hatch from eggs like other snakes.  

Here is a Mottled Rock Rattlesnake.  It lives in the dry rocky lands of Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas so its mottled dull colors help it to camouflage with the rocks around it.

This guy below is a Royal Python or Ball Python.  He is called a Ball Python because if he gets scared, he will roll up into a ball shape and just roll away!  I would have liked to have seen him do this but I guess he is used to big human faces staring at him all day long.  Ball Pythons are non-venomous and they usually doesn't bite at all but they are constrictors.  These snakes live in Africa.  Their coloring is usually dark brown or black with tan markings.  

There are more than just rattlesnakes in the museum.  I was fascinated to see this platypus skeleton.  Did you know that a platypus is venomous?  Yes it is!  It has venom glands connected to spurs on his hind feet.  

Now this guy was one that Nicholas had hoped to find in the wild while we were hiking in the Sonoran Desert.  The Gila Monster!  It is the only venomous lizard in the United States.

Why would Nicholas want to encounter a Gila Monster in the desert?  Because he has seen Coyote Peterson find them there.  Check out Coyote's video below:


What I find really crazy though it that Nicholas has probably also seen the video below of the time that Coyote was bitten by a Gila Monster yet he still wanted to catch one on his own!


This next guy looks scary but he is harmless to humans.  He is a Vinegaroon or Whip Scorpion.  He is an arachnid but he doesn't have fangs like a spider or a stinger like a scorpion.  He doesn't contain any venom at all.  However, when he gets scared he will spray a vinegar-like substances to scare away the threat.

There are lots of unique historical snake items throughout the museum like the old sewing machine that looks like a snake and these antique bottles of snake oil and snake liniment.

Nicholas loves catching lizards and this display of 14 species of horned lizards was interesting to all of us.  

The last room in the museum has a seating area and a movie about snakes.  It also has the most snakes on display.  Nicholas was quite happy here.

I loved that the displays were made to include information that adults would appreciate as well as information that was easy for children to read on their own.

At the bottom of the display there was a card with the common name of the snake and a simple description of it.  It was down low so that small children would be able to read it.

Then above the display was more detailed information for adults and a map of where they could be found.

Ok, back to the snakes.  Snakes are not aggressive unless they feel threatened.  If you don't get too close to it, it will likely just slither away from you.  

This is the Costa Rican Rattlesnake.  He is found in South America and Mexico on the grasslands and savanna.  He is a pit viper which means he has a pit near each nostril that he uses to sense slight temperature changes which helps him locate his prey.  He has a neurotoxic venom.  He typically grows to about 3-6 feet.

Rachel and I spent some time looking at this next snake, the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.  

The Western Diamondback Rattlesnake is a pit viper.  

It has a dark diamond pattern on his back and a triangular head.  There are black bands at the end of his body just before the rattle.  I didn't notice until Rachel pointed it out but you are actually looking at two snakes here.  Can you see the head of the second snake?

Most people think that a snake that is shaking its rattler is being aggressive.  However, in reality, the rattler is a sign that the snake is afraid and he is just trying to scare away whatever he feels is threatening him.  They can move their rattle up to 60 times per second!

The American International Rattlesnake Museum is located at 202 San Felipe Street NW in Albuquerque, NM, phone 505-242-6569.  Adults are $6.00 and children age 3-12 are $4.00.

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• Route 66: Cadillac Ranch {Texas}

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• Pimentel and Sons Guitar Makers - Albuquerque, New Mexico

Pimentel & Sons Guitar Makers - Albuquerque, New Mexico

We slept quickly and woke up ready to explore Albuquerque a little before heading home.  I had brought a few of our library books along to help pick out things to do along the way.  This one had some good options for Albuquerque.

I would have loved to have seen the Petroglyph National Monument but is was on the opposite side of town and we didn't have much time to spend here.  We decided on visiting the studio for Pimentel and Sons Guitar Makers, the Turquoise Museum, and the American Rattlesnake Museum.  

Since we knew we might not actually have time for all three of these, we started at the most exciting one, Pimentel and Sons.  Nicholas and Stuart both play guitar and it was a neat idea for them to be able to see how fine guitars are made.

Pimentel and Sons makes one-of-a-kind handcrafted guitars.  The business was started by the father of the family, Lorenzo Pimentel, who began making guitars as an apprentice.  He was poor but his wife encouraged him to to build guitars to sell.  He began his own business in 1951.  Now the Pimentel name is known around the world as one of the best guitar brands.

Lorenzo Pimentel has passed on but his four sons carry on his passion for guitar making.  They make each guitar by hand and they are uniquely tailored and custom made for the individual customer.

When we arrived at the shop, Rick Pimentel was gracious and welcoming.  He offered to give us a full tour of their studio!

Pimentel and Sons uses the finest woods available.  To ensure quality in the finished product, they buy their wood already aged and then they age it at least another 10 years before using it to make a guitar.  Some of their woods have been aged for as long as 60 years.  Once the wood is ready to use, they slice bookmatch pieces, attach them together, and sand it by hand.  They check the tones by tapping the wood to determine if more sanding is needed to create the perfect balance between treble and bass.

They design the patterns of the rosettes.  They glue together hundreds of strips of dyed wood to make a large piece from which they can slice a thin layer off each time they need to use it in a rosette.

Turquoise is the only stone that can't be cut on a CNC machine because it would shatter.  It can only be cut by hand.

  
The Pimentels show their artistry in each guitar they make. These pictures are not just drawn or painted on the guitar.  They use real turquoise, coral, ebony, and abalone to painstakingly piece the pictures together by hand.

The teeth on the skull above are made from real bone.  The fingerboard is so beautiful.  The black is ebony.  The leaves and branches are made with abalone and the tiny veins in the leaves and the black lines of the rose are made with real ebony inlays. The red rose is made from coral.

The neck of a Pimentel guitar is made with three pieces of wood so that if the guitar were to get dropped it would be less likely to break because the grain is not going in the same direction.

Bracing is an internal structure that provides support for the guitar but it also influences the vibrations and sounds of the guitar.  

For the sides of the body of the guitar, they soak the wood then they use a heated iron to help the wood hold its shape.  They have templates to use as guides but the wood is all manually shaped.

Once the guitar has been built, they apply a lacquer and hand rub the finish.  Pimentel and Sons is keeping the craft of guitar making alive while sharing a family dream.  Their guitars are works of art and some have a 1-3 year waiting list.

Here are just a few more pictures of the beautiful Pimentel and Sons guitars.

Nicholas has put this Phantom of the Opera themed guitar on his wish list.  I think even I would have to learn to play guitar if this beauty was mine.

Pimentel and Sons also give guitar lessons from beginners to advanced.  They are located at 3316 Lafayette Drive NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 505-884-1669.  For more information, please visit the Pimentel and Sons website or the Pimentel Facebook page.

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• American International Rattlesnake Museum 

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• Route 66: Petrified Forest National Park {Arizona}

Route 66: Petrified Forest National Park {Arizona}

Our next stop on path of the Route 66 was the Petrified Forest National Park.  This is the only National Park along Route 66.  I knew I wanted to stop here because my happy place in on a trail in the woods so a forest sounded like a wonderful place to explore.  However, I didn't actually read about the park until we were on the road.  My, what a surprise we were in for!

There is no actual forest at the Petrified Forest National Park!

In fact, it is often called the Painted Desert due to the amazing color striations on the rocks and the desert-like landscape.

So why is it called a petrified forest?  Well in prehistoric times there was an actual forest here.  It is unknown if this forest died of natural causes or it was the fault of a catastrophic event.  Either way, the trees died and were washed away and buried in sediment which protected them from oxidation and decay.  The wood absorbed the mineral-rich water and silica in the ground and eventually crystallized into quartz.  As a result, the landscape of the Petrified Forest is scattered with logs that have been petrified and turned into rocks.

These rocks are a beautiful rainbow of colors telling the history of this area.

Researchers have found other types of fossils in the park including ferns, reptiles, amphibians, and even dinosaurs.  I would have loved to have learned more about the park but we were on a time crunch and couldn't stay in the visitor center to watch the movie about it.  We had to get out and explore!

This is inside a petrified log!  Isn't that amazing!

Reds, whites, yellows, black.  And it all has the texture of a rock, not wood.

We walked around and climbed on top of lots of petrified wood.  The park is 230 square miles and we only saw a tiny bit of that but it was impressive and fun to explore.

The map of the park shows the main points of interest where visitors would want to stop and explore.  There are paved trails to follow if you'd like.  We had about 40 minutes to see the entire National Park before it closed so we picked a few spots that sounded good and just hit those.

One of our stops was at the Crystal Forest.  Again, no real forest here but you can see where the living trees once stood.  

The bark of the logs has a different look and feel to them because they have now turned to quartz.

But the real difference is seen when you find a log that has been sawed through so you can see the inside of it.  It's just amazing that this colorful rock was once a living tree!

As beautiful as these rocks are, you are not allowed to take any pieces of petrified wood from the park.  But don't worry.  There are plenty of gift shops outside the park that are happy to sell you a piece of petrified wood harvested from nearby areas outside of the park.

This is my favorite close-up picture of the petrified wood.  I just love all of the beautiful colors of crystal.

Our last stop was at the Giant Logs Trail.  This spot has the largest logs in the park including "Old Faithful" which is the largest.

Old Faithful is 10 feet across at its base.

I just had to include this sweet picture Nicholas caught.

Ok, maybe this picture is actually my favorite.  It is just so beautiful.  

I found this color chart on Wikipedia which explains the elements that contribute to the different colors of petrified wood:

• carbon – black
• chromium – green/blue
• cobalt – green/blue
• copper – green/blue
• iron oxides – red, brown, and yellow
• manganese – pink/orange
• manganese oxides – blackish/yellow

Some of the other points of interest in the Petrified Forest National Park that we didn't have a chance to see include:

• Route 66 Alignment - a 1932 Studebaker marks where Route 66 once cut through the park.
• Agate Bridge - features a 110 foot long petrified log bridge.
• Puerco Pueblo - visit ancestral Puebloan home remains
• Newspaper Bridge - see over 650 petroglyphs.

Yes we missed all of this!  I would have loved to have seen it.  The main problem was a lack of planning and poor navigation on my part.  There are two entrances into the Petrified Forest National Park.  As we were traveling east on I-40, we should have taken the exit for 180 and entered the park at the southern entrance.  We would have arrived sooner and had more time to spend in the park.  We could have then followed the main road all the way north until it exited again on I-40 and we would get back on our merry way heading east to Albuquerque.

Instead we missed this important fact and traveled much farther to get to the entrance on I-40.  It may not seem like a big deal since we need to keep traveling east on I-40 when we leave the park anyway.  But the problem is that when the park closes, the park rangers drive down the road from the northern entrance and force everyone to go out of the southern gate.  Not only does this mean that we had to race to the southern part of the park so we would be the last to get kicked out and could squeeze a little bit more time into our exploring but this also meant that we lost that distance and time spent driving to the I-40 entrance and ended up repeating that drive again when we got pushed out at closing time.  

Oh my goodness!  Missing that exit at 180 cost us probably 1 1/2 hours of drive time!  Unfortunately that meant that we were really tired when we finally made it to Albuquerque around midnight, especially Stuart who was doing all of the driving.

Earlier in the day, we had decided that we needed to make it to Albuquerque by evening because we needed to make it home by tomorrow night. While on the road we were making calls to hotels in Albuquerque trying to make a reservation for the night....because this trip is happening entirely without a flight plan. We quickly learned that there were two big conventions in town and every single hotel was booked.  We looked at driving about an hour north to find a place.  Fortunately we finally found a Holiday Inn on the east side of town that a few rooms left (apparently the conventions were more on the west side of town).  Happily we took the room and when we arrived to check in there was a sign on the door letting others know that they had no rooms available.  Whew!  We were so grateful to have made that reservation instead of just rolling into town to see what was available.  Ok, so maybe a little planning ahead is a good thing.

Next Post for Road Trip 2018:

• Pimentel and Sons, Albuquerque, NM

Previous Post for Road Trip 2018:

• Route 66: Standin' on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona