I made an exploratory trip to the Albuquerque Biopark zoo yesterday, using the free ABQ senior transport van to get to the zoo by 10:30 AM, a half hour trip.

My goal: to see if a recovering senior citizen cancer patient could survive a day hiking around the zoo, and to learn how to use the city bus system for at least one leg of the trip.

I rode the biopark train to see the botanic gardens, aquarium, model 1900s farm, and went all over the zoo again.

Since it was supposed to be in the 60s, and I had to hike 3/4th of a mile uphill to get home from the bus stop, I wore my usual lightweight hiking clothes, with only a windbreaker.

But I was wrong..it was biting cold and windy, and I was FREEZING COLD.
I had to constantly duck into indoor exhibits to thaw out.

Since this was an exploratory trip, I attempted to use the Albuquerque city bus system to get home, since the ABQ senior van only allows you 2 hours.

The city bus schedule phone app. kept giving me conflicting bus schedules, with up to four bus transfers, and I only had exact change for two.

A sympathetic bus driver asked waiting passengers at the bus station, and two riders said they'd show me which buses to reach my stop at Irving and Golf Course Blvd with only two transfers.

I left the zoo at 4:30 PM, after walking for six hours..since I arrived at 10:30.AM., yet I still felt freezing cold, even while walking home from the bus stop at 6 PM.
It took 1 1/2 hours to ride the city bus.

I felt so tired this morning that I slept in until 8:30 AM, and then only walked Fergie around our usual loop - takes about 50 minutes; down a housing division street to Paradise Meadows Park, hiked back home through the desert valley, then clawed my way up the steep incline to reach the cul-de-sac.

Photo: two chimps looking at their photos on a smart phone yesterday, ABQ biopark zoo, Albuquerque, NM