Day 18- March 26, 2007

I checked out of the motel just before 0700 hours and headed east on I-10. It was only about 50 overnight in Tucson. The drive along I-10 went well and I got off in Deming to take the Hatch Cutoff to I-25. The drive across State 26 was easy. This time I didn’t have anybody to pass on the single lane state road. Only two vehicles passed me (and it wasn’t a tractor and a Ma & Pa Kettle house trailer).

I enjoyed the travel up I-25 with all the scenic views. I took a number of photos from the car as I headed north on I-25. Hopefully, some of them will turn out good.

I arrived in the southern part of Albuquerque around 1500 hours and got off near Bernalillo County Station 8. There was no one at the station. I stopped to get gas at a nearby station and just as I’m about to pull out of the station Bernalillo County Ladder 8 pulls in. I got photos. I saw the medic also drive by, heading west. The firefighters told me old Station 8 now only houses the arson unit. There is a new Station 8. They told me they were going to the other station across the Rio Grande River. I told them I’d head over there too. I should have gotten the address from the crew.

The former station (from my old map) on the west side of the Rio Grande is gone. I looked all over the area and could not find a new station. I even asked a mail carrier and he didn’t know where there was a station in the area. I gave up on that station and headed to another Bernalillo County Station just north of there. I knew about where the station was supposed to be, but I just couldn’t find it. After driving around the tangle-town area for 15 minutes finally I gave up.

I headed back into Albuquerque, as the car needed an oil change. I checked into a motel, unloaded some luggage and headed to a nearby rapid oil change place. I also needed to find a bookstore to purchase a Denver map as it looked like that was where I was headed tomorrow. I found a Barnes & Noble store and bought a map. I stopped by AFR Station 19 again on the way back to the motel but got no answer.

I started to set up a program on my Pro-96 for the trip up I-25 to Denver and then along I-80 up until Des Moines. I got the Colorado Springs, Denver and Aurora trunked systems installed in a program and uploaded it from Win 96 to my scanner. I then saved it in a V-Bank folder and re-loaded the V-Bank folder that had Albuquerque on it. Then I put all the Denver and Aurora stations on my new map using my DeLorme computer map to get the station numbers right. I was now semi-ready to buff in the Denver area.

It’s kinda funny that I almost took my Colorado Springs, Denver, and Omaha folders with me when I was packing for the trip, but figured there’s no way I’d need them as I was going back through Texas on my return trip. Little did I know….

That’s all for now.

Your Roving Reporter (Roving around more and more)