You will notice the Sandia Mountains while driving into Albuquerque, NM

Our Impressions of Albuquerque & Madrid

The last time I was in Albuquerque was probably 35 or 40 years ago. I was hesitant to return for fear that Albuquerque would have deteriorated like a lot of other big cities. While many decades have gone by, the city has respected its roots and has even taken over the old rail yard and repurposed it into a vendor paradise on the weekends (more about this later!).

I do not remember going to Madrid the last time I was in the area. It is a quirky, quaint two-lane highway with shops, businesses and restaurants galore.

Attractions

Geographically, Albuquerque is in central New Mexico, west of the Sandia Mountains. Madrid is about 30 miles north of Albuquerque on NM 14.

Albuquerque

The Railyard is now a tourist and local destination for shopping and eating! The old rail yard was three huge factories where railroad engines would be taken to be refurbished, twenty-seven at a time! One building was where the engines would be disassembled, one building was where the engines and boilers would be refurbished, and a third was the machine shop. Since its closing, the city of Albuquerque has taken over the machine shop building and made it into an open market place with food and craft vendors. There are at least a couple of hundred vendors selling pretty much anything you can imagine! There was even live music.

Madrid

Downtown Madrid is a one-mile strip of thriving, small, quaint shops, stores and restaurants. There is even a concert venue! When we were there, a rock band was playing and every seat was filled! Wandering the street is the attraction of Madrid. It was fun and relaxing to check out the small souvenir shops, each with their own character and options.

If you have ever seen the movie Wild Hogs, you have seen Madrid! Wild Hogs is a 2007 comedy about four middle age friends taking a motorcycle road trip and being mistaken for a biker gang that’s terrorizing the town. Bikers still line up outside Maggie’s Main Street Diner!

Downtown Albuquerque & Madrid

Albuquerque

Downtown Albuquerque includes both the Old Town area and where the University of New Mexico is located. No parking meters. Lots to do and see in both areas.

Madrid

Madrid is just the one downtown street!

Food and Drink

Albuquerque

The Frontier Restaurant has the best sweet rolls and fresh squeezed orange juice anywhere. The sweet rolls are as good today as they were the first time I had them 40 years ago! Extras are in our freezer!

Saggio’s, formerly known as Nunzio’s is a staple pizza joint next to the University of New Mexico (and across the street from The Frontier!). The Sicilian pizza is as good today as it was 40 years ago!

Madrid

The Mine Shaft Tavern is a quaint local restaurant with great hamburgers and fries. Live music. Attentive waitstaff.

Home Base:  The Campground

For us, a campground is not our destination. Our RV is self-contained. Except for water, electric and sewer rarely do we use campground services or amenities. We are explorers, not campground reviewers!

This was an unusual for us place to stay. We stayed on site 150 at Nomadland RV and Boat Storage in Albuquerque. Yes, we did say RV and Boat Storage! Nomadland currently has a few sites for overnight stays. Dan, the owner of Nomadland, is in the process of building a traditional campground with 40 FHU sites across the street from the RV Storage. 30 and 50 amp service will be available. The storage facility was clean, gated and has live on-site 24-hour security. Our full hook up (water-sewer-electric) site was on level pavement. Our site was long enough to leave the Jeep hooked up. There was good cell phone coverage (Verizon). We didn’t hook up our satellite dish, though I am sure it would have worked fine (good open southern sky).

Dan called us on the day of our arrival to make sure we had received the code to get in. He texted us the day after our arrival and asked how we liked our stay. He couldn’t have been more cordial or accommodating.

One of the interesting things about Nomadland? This RV and Boat Storage had a full covered, coin operated (or credit card) bay where you could wash your motorhome! I haven’t seen THAT at any of our stays across the country! We can’t wait to see what Dan does with the campground across this street!

Fun Facts

Albuquerque has 310 days of sunshine every year!

The Sandia Tramway runs from the base of the Sandia Mountains to their summit, Sandia Peak. It is the longest aerial tramway in North America, spanning 2.7 miles.

Albuquerque is the home of racing greats, Bobby and Al Unser and Al Unser, Jr.

Every October Albuquerque is host to the world class Albuquerque International Balloon Festival where over 800 hot air balloons participate.

Madrid is in the oldest coal mining region in New Mexico. There is evidence of primitive mining as early as the mid-1850’s when Madrid was called “Coal Gulch”. By 1892 the yield from Coal Gulch was large enough to warrant the construction of a 6.5 mile standard gauge railroad spur connecting Coal Gulch to the main railroad line of the Santa Fe Railroad. In the early 1900s Madrid flourished as a “Company Town” of 2,500. Today there are 321 residents.

	Albuquerque	Madrid
Population	562,599	321
Elevation	5,312	6,020
Founded	1706	1869
Average Income	$30,284	$26,250
Average Price of Houses	$338,000	$212,500
Median Age	37	60
Website	www.visitalbuquerque.org/	www.visitmadridnm.com/

Summary

We loved our visit to this area. We were able to visit relatives, eat some great “comfort food” and see how the area is trying to provide residents and tourists with enjoyable family-oriented things to do. I was so grateful The Frontier and Saggio’s (Nunzio’s) still exist and that the food is exactly the same as I remember. We will be back!

Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn and Dave
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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No person, business or attraction has paid us for an endorsement. AI has not been used to create any of the content in this blog or website. All of the photos in this blog and website were taken by Dave or Kathryn Harrington.