We got out of bed around 7:00. A security person knocked on the door of the RV around 7:20 and said we couldn't park there. I explained, through the intercom, that we had gotten permission to spend the night, and he insisted that we had to leave until the zoo opened at 9:00. I told him we would be leaving in about half an hour. I had my normal breakfast, then we prepped the RV to move. There was a nice thin cloud layer — perfect for zoo photography. We left around 8:10 with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.

We went to Perfection Auto Craft at 8:30 to drop off the Jeep to get the driver's-side tail light and rear bumper replaced. (You may read about the Jeep accident on the blog entry for January 24, 2010.) We left at 8:32 in the RV.

We went back to the Rio Grande Zoo, part of the Albuquerque Biological Park, at 8:50. I went into the zoo around 9:10 and J stayed in the RV for a while. The large primates weren't out yet, probably because it was still too cold for them. I spent a lot of time at the large duck pond and photographed the hooded merganser, Mandarin duck, and some wood ducks. The female wood duck in the image to the left was stretching her wings, and I like the iridescent feathers on the inboard part of her wings.

I checked the large primates again, and they sill weren't out, so I checked on the koalas. They were feeding, and I was able to get some keepers. I met up with J, who had been in the zoo for a while, and we went through the African animals together.
The orangutans were out! The orangutan enclosure is good for photography, and the young orangutan (born in October 2008) was really independent, but still cute. In the image to the far left, she's climbing around the structure on her own. I just love her 'do! Later, she climbed up with her mother and they shared a tender moment (near left).

I returned to the RV around 1:05 to have lunch. I also downloaded the images I took in the morning and did a first downselect in iView.
I went back inside the zoo around 2:15. The clouds had thinned and the strong light on the large primates wasn't good for photography. For kicks, I walked through an area of the zoo that I hadn't visited yet, or even visited at all on our last visit, because I hadn't found it conducive for photography on our first visit. Well, this time, a lioness was in a great position, so I photographed her for a while. I even photographed the snow leopard cubs that were born in May 2009. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have photographed them because they were in an enclosure with heavy-duty chain-link fencing for the whole front of the enclosure. However, they were posing nicely near the back of the enclosure, so the chain-link fence was maybe 1/4 of the way from me to the subject and was in the shade, so it would probably vanish in the image. It did, and I'm quite happy with the image of one of the cubs (left). I met up with J, and we photographed the lowland gorillas and the orangutans after the sun went behind a thin band of clouds.

We left the zoo a few minutes before they closed at 5:00. After washing up, we left in the RV.

We picked up the Jeep from Perfection Auto Craft at 5:40. They had washed the Jeep and it was looking really good. However, the third-party gray plastic bumper was a slightly different color than the adjacent plastic fenders and J wasn't too happy about that. We left in the Jeep around 5:45.

We went to REI around 6:00 so J could return some things and so I could look for some neoprene gloves. I had been using a pair of neoprene gloves to protect my hands while hooking up and unhooking the Jeep and while watering the RV. They had developed a tear in one of the fingers and no longer kept my hands dry when dealing with the wet equipment. Unfortunately, paddling gear was out of season so they didn't have any neoprene gloves, but they had some SealSkinz® Waterproof Gloves that I decided to try. They have a hydrophilic membrane between an inner layer of wicking Coolmax® and an outer layer of abrasion-resistant nylon with grip dots on the palm and fingers. We left at 6:10.

We went to the nearby Panda Express for a quick dinner. I had SweetFire Chicken Breast and Kung Pao Chicken to go with the Fried Rice, and J got two servings of SweetFire Chicken Breast to go with her Fried Rice. We left around 6:45.

We went to the Trader Joe's on the east side of town around 7:00. It was our first time there (previously, we had gone to the store on the NE side of town), and J liked this newer store better. We picked up a few things, and left at 7:12.

We returned to the RV, that we had left near Perfection Auto Craft, around 7:20, and then left with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.

We went to the nearby Premier Gas gas station to fill up the vehicles with the cheap gas at $2.499/gal. J left after fueling the Jeep and went to the nearby Smith's to pick up some items.

I took the RV to the Smith's parking lot and hooked up the Jeep to tow while J finished shopping. We left at 8:05.

We reached the Isleta Casino, just south of Albuquerque, where we intended to spend the night, around 8:30. I downloaded the images I took this afternoon and did a quick downselect in iView. It was rather noisy because there were several tractor trailers idling their engines nearby, so we decided to leave. We prepped the RV, then left at 9:25.

We reached the San Antonio Riverside Park, in San Antonio, around 10:50. I was wired, so I downselected the images from today in Capture One (C1) before going to bed.