42nd Annual Balloon Festival (Day 1) — Albuquerque, NM

Day 1 @ Balloon Fest (click on pic to enlarge)

DAY 1 — Started at 5 am this morning. Quick shower, quick breakfast, quick dog walking, and out into the 40-degree day.

Then off to the park and ride so we could catch a shuttle bus — a 1-hour ride on a yellow BlueBird bus. Just like the school bus I never rode (thank god). By the way, you cannot take your skateboard on the bus.

As we pulled into Balloon Park, the first hot air balloons were just heading skyward. They’re incredibly beautiful in the morning because when a balloonist fires his balloon up to gain height, the whole balloon lights up in the sky.

However, we were concerned that we’d miss the show, so when our bus stopped, we rushed onto the fair grounds, and towards a couple of balloons that were just inflating.

After then balloons went up into the dawn sky, we thought “Is that it?”

We we wrong. Suddenly balloons were inflating all over the park . . .

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Two short movies of Day 1 . . .

American RV Park — Albuquerque, NM

We arrived at American RV Park in Albuquerque, NM on Friday after an hour drive from Santa Fe and set up camp.

We’re staying at a corner site which means we have a “yard”.

We’ll be here until Monday the 14th when we start our trek through Arizona towards our Winter home in Lake Havasu City, AZ.

Our yard . . .

Everyone else

Rancheros de Santa Fe Campground — Santa Fe, NM

On Monday we lunched at Harry’s Roadhouse on the advice of our campground host. Good decision. Great meal (Lunch Menu).

I had a grilled chicken breast burrito and black beans, topped with red and green chile, melted Jack and Cheddar, guacamole and sour cream.

Jan had one of the vegatarian specials —  a sweet potato mixed with chile peppers, quinoa, black beans, and served with kale.

We’re going there for dinner tonight (Dinner Menu).

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On Tuesday we took a 40-mile road trip to the Puye Cliff Dwellings just north of Los Alamos.

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A panorama photo taken from the top of the mesa . . .

Click to enlarge

NEXT STOP:  American RV Park outside of Albuquerque, NM.

Rancheros de Santa Fe Campground — Santa Fe, NM

I Photoshopped out the utility pole wires

Arrived Sunday afternoon after a 4 -1/2 hour drive from Trinidad, CO.

Tonight we rest and watch the Homeland season premiere.

We’re planning the other 3 days that we’re here — so far it’s one night for dining (Beth, we need help here). Another day is Jan’s day to check out art galleries, and the last day may be a visit to an Anasazi site.

More later . . .

Trinidad Lake State Park — Trinidad, CO

Fisherman’s Peak as seen from Trinidad State Park (click to expand image)

After a 2 1/2-hour drive from Colorado Springs, CO, we arrived at Trinidad State Park in Trinidad, CO in the early afternoon on Friday.

Driving through Trinidad was goofy-challenging as both of our GPS units (Rand McNally 7220 & iPad CoPilot) didn’t seem to have the latest road construction information. We decided to go with our eyes on this one.

Trinidad State Park Northern Campground

When we arrived at the campground, we discovered that the site we reserved (#3) was not level enough for us. What a shame since as we had to give up this full hookup site.

We tried a couple of other sites (marked by red “X“s) and finally settled into Site #10. We marked a number of sites (#34 – 52) in green as these are the “prime” sites for great views.

One of the park rangers told us that temperatures were going to drop into the 30’s over night so we turned on one of our heat pumps. Glad we did. Temperatures dropped to 31 degrees, but we were cozy.

We are loving Colorado state parks. Here are some photos from Trinidad State Park . . .

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NEXT STOP: Rancheros de Santa Fe Campground in Santa Fe, NM.