Albuquerque, NM

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta - a must see once in your life!  What a display of color and the coordination it takes to get hundreds of balloons off the ground (pretty quickly) without running into each other.  It was truly an amazing show.  Saturday night was too windy for lift-off but they dazzled us with a "glow show".  Sunday morning the conditions were just right (cold and calm) for a pre-dawn glow followed by 2 hours of back-to-back lift-off of hundreds of balloons!

the "Zebras" who make lift-off happen

We enjoyed this display with my brother, Michael, and the family - Meghan, Taite and Jax.  The boys especially loved the fun balloons like Smoky The Bear, Spider Pig, Darth Vader, a cow, a pig, a butterfly, etc.

me and my little brother

Taite

Meghan, Jax and Becky

Michael and Jax

Meghan and Becky trying to stay warm!

Michael, Meghan, Taite and Jax

Jax and Uncle Tom

We enjoyed a special sleep-over with Taite who decided he was leaving his parents behind (at the hotel) and coming to stay with us for the night.  Thanks again, Taite!  It was a fun time!

I'm not a huge Facebook person but thankful I happened to browse it on Sunday to find out RV friends of ours were at the Balloon Fiesta as well!  We quickly touched base and met for dinner.  We haven't seen them since April, 2012 so it was a really nice surprise to have this chance meeting.  Great time, Tony & Marilyn!

Tony and Marilyn

When we were hiking Wheeler Peak we ran into two ladies on the trail who suggested we try their restaurant in Albuquerque.  So we stopped in to say hello and then also met for breakfast one morning.  Great getting to know you, Kathy and Deb.  Best wishes with everything and definitely keep your plans of RV'ing one day!  Keep in touch and happy hiking!

Deb - at Tomato Cafe, which she has owned for 20 years - great place, Deb!

Kathy and Deb

We found a place still roasting chiles so we decided to give it a try again.  This time we selected MILD (we are wimps)!  One bushel - roasted, peeled and bagged - 8 zip lock bags.  Yummy!

after being roasted you leave them in a garbage bag for a few hours to continue steaming, then peel, bag and freeze

peeled chiles ready to be bagged

So now the dilemma of where to go (we must decide this morning!).  We are scheduled to go to White's City, NM to go to Carlsbad Caverns National Park as well as Guadalupe Mountains National Park (highest point in Texas).  Ugghhh!  Will the Parks open soon?  We've been discussing options the past few days and will make a decision to head south and hope the parks open or to head east on 40 and perhaps hit a few more high points along the way to FL.  Decisions!  :-)

Til next time...Happy Trails!

Two more state high points in two days!

New Mexico and Oklahoma!  That makes a total of 14 for us so far!

October 1 - Wheeler Peak, highest point in New Mexico at 13,161 ft. - 8.2 miles round trip - 3 hours up, 30 minutes on the summit, 2 hours down - awesome hike!

On the drive to Wheeler we had the pleasure of seeing a beautiful black bear run right in front of us across the field towards the mountains.  Not sure what he was doing in town (up to no good of course) but it was so nice to see him close up and yet from the safety of our vehicle.  This was the start of a great hike.  The wildlife did not stop with the bear.  Approximately 45 minutes up the trail we ran into 6 Big Horn Sheep (4 moms with 2 babies).  They were gorgeous and they didn't seem to care about us sharing the trail with them.  For the next hour we hiked together and crossed paths many times.  While they headed straight up the mountain we took the two-legged route of nice switchbacks and so we had a great time leapfrogging with them up the beautiful mountain.

October 2 - Black Mesa, highest point in Oklahoma at 4,972.97 ft. (hey, that's what the marker says!  don't know why they didn't just round up) - 8.4 miles round trip - 1.5 hours up (well, mostly flat with a 640ft. climb to the top of the mesa), 1 hour at the summit enjoying the beautiful day with a few gentlemen from GA & FL, 1.5 hours down - another awesome hike!

We are now in Tijeras, NM (approx. 15 miles east of Albuquerque) for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.  We will be here for one week before heading further south to Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Guadalupe Mountains (highest peak in TX) National Park (hoping they are open by then!).

Til next time...Happy Trails!

Sad goodbye to Colorado...but hello to New Mexico and new adventures

Leaving Colorado was a sad day but we know we'll be back again when we're out west in a few years (or maybe sooner if we fly for a summer trip in 2014).  We figure we need AT LEAST 2 months to check out more of the areas we enjoyed this time around and to explore new areas as well.  It's an outdoor playground (like I've mentioned about Oregon as well).  

After my hike on the Barr Trail (Pikes Peak) with my cousin, Donna, I showed Tom the pictures and told him about the Incline Trail.  To my surprise, he said let's go do it!  So 2 days after hiking Barr Trail and going to Barr Camp we hit the Incline Trail.  This trail is the remains of a former incline railway which washed out during a rock slide in 1990.  Now it's a huge fitness challenge for locals and tourists.  It has grades as steep as 68% in places and climbs over 2,000 feet of elevation in less than one mile (.9).  Yikes!  The plan was to climb the incline and then decend Barr Trail (another 2.5 miles back to the parking lot).  After making it to the top in just over an hour (not bad for our first time), and then getting our legs and lungs back to working order, we booked a reservation on the cog to be picked up at Mtn. View (1.5 miles from Barr Camp) and continued hiking up to Barr Camp to visit Renee & Anthony one more time (and to save us the trip of hiking down!).  In addition to spending some quality time with Renee, and getting to know her better (Anthony had hiked into town this day so unfortunately we only saw him for a few minutes before catching our cog), we had some fun times with the 35 Army service men and women who were training on the Incline and hike to Barr Camp.

See the start of the Incline WAY down below?!

Great to see you again, Renee & Anthony!  

waiting for our cog pickup

Dear friends from "home", Tess & Scott Cunningham, sold their house in PA (to Lady Gaga's boyfriend, no less!), bought a house in Divide, CO and moved in Labor Day weekend.  What timing!  We were staying in Monument, CO for a few days which is only an hour from their house.  We really enjoyed a great afternoon with them checking out their new dream home (and figuring out where our RV will fit in the driveway!) in the mountains (at 9,800 ft!), catching up and grabbing dinner.  Miss you!  Hope to see you next summer if we fly out!  LOVE your home!  Can't wait to hear how the winter goes.  Tess has promised next time we visit we will hike (after they get rid of PA lungs and acquire CO lungs).  :-)

Scott & Tess - their new home - HUGE deck with an incredible view!

Tess & Scott's house tucked in the woods on the mountain - 9,800ft

Great Sand Dunes National Park - Although we didn't spend much time on the dunes (we did some dune hiking in OR last year and that was enough for us...for now), we took a great 4WD road up the mountain (in the National Preserve) to the trailhead for Medano Lake which sits at over, 11,000ft. elevation.  What a great 7 mile roundtrip hike!

Next up...bagging two more state high points (New Mexico and Oklahoma) before heading to Albuquerque, NM for the Balloon Festival.  Excited to see my brother, Michael, and his family who are flying in on Friday to join us at the Festival this weekend.  See you soon, Bro, Meghan, Taite and Jax!

Til next time...Happy Trails!