A rogue journalist slipped his chains escaping the content creation cube farm. On the run traversing the arterial highways of America, these are the Travels without Charley.
What is the purpose of Albuquerque?
Founded by Mr. Buquerque, first name Al, it began as a desert way station and I found myself there for just that reason, bedding down after a day of traversing the desert. Before hitting they hay I thought I would get the pulse of the city.
Night had firmly set in a few hours earlier, half of the streets were ghost towns, the other half still lively. Traffic crawled at sluggish red light, low riders, behind lifted trucks blared music, the sidewalk crowd strolled in step with the beats flooding from the roads. A stranger gave me a look, I asked, “how’s it going?”
He said, “living the dream.” That was when I knew Albuquerque was in dire straits.
When asked what they liked to do for fun, by far the greatest response was hiking up mountains. From coast to coast, why is everyone hiking these days? What are we all collectively running away from?
Is the purpose of Albuquerque to get away?
But not forever. Only for a short reprieve. Like a whale breaching to get a lungful of air before diving back into the depths. For this type of escape, Albuquerque takes to the skies.
Every year in October, Albuquerque hosts the international hot air balloon festival. While I have never been nor have I looked into it, I assume every single resident of Albuquerque, all one million people, go to their backyards light up their own personal balloons, then get into their large wicker baskets to slowly float, mingle with the clouds, dangle above the city, and clear their minds.
New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment. This was never truer than at an international balloon festival in the 1970s that saw the creation of the breakfast burrito.
What is the purpose of Albuquerque? Well, if the hot air ballon festival is any indication, it is a place to get high. After the success of a fictional show about the rise of an Albuquerque drug kingpin, maybe this is the ideal place to build an ayahuasca empire.