Sedona, AZ -----as beautiful as ever ---- I say that every time I'm here!

After a wonderful Baha'i Fireside and potluck in a home near Curt and Pearl's on Saturday evening, I left Albuquerque on Sunday morning. The rental car I have is another good one. The trip went smoothly to Gallup where I met Lauren (1990's co-worker and owner of doublewide I rented in Shiprock in summer 2007) at Earl's Restaurant, and we had a wonderful two plus hours visit. We knew we could have enjoyed even more time together, but there were "miles to go" before my next stop. Arrival in Sedona was before sunset, so I got a good view of the beautiful red rocks from 89A. And it is wonderful to be here again. This is true inspite of the new "round-abouts" at 89A and 179 and lots of road construction right at the entrance to Los Abrigados. Actually, this last thing helps because it's always been a challenge to get out of this property, and now there are two traffic manager persons to help cars in and out.

A couple more photos from Ghost Ranch Friday trip

RV practice

Our second "day trip", on Saturday, just Curt and Pearl and I went for a ride up to about Sante Fe and over to Madrid (pronounced MA-drid with accent on the first syllable) where the funny movie "Road Hogs" was filmed. This day trip was for Curt to get more driving experience in their new RV. He wanted to see how it handled in wind. We expected a little wind, but while we were gone, a tremendous storm came up with winds predicted at 75 mph. We kept listening to the radio to know the whereabouts of the storm and avoided the worst of it. We never got driving in really bad winds, but Curt was pleased with the handling of the RV in the conditions we did experience. When we got back home, there were little piles of hail in the driveway.

Driving around Albuquerque, early fall colors and other sights.

We made two day trips the end of the week. On Friday, Curt and Pearl and her mom and I drove in Curt's car to Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. Peg Dunn had taken Mom and me to that area about ten or twelve years ago. It is very beautiful. Several photos here of rocks and trees were taken at Ghost Ranch, as well as one of the "painted pony" at the office entrance.

Special shapes glodeo and fireworks

The evening we were at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival included the glodeo and fireworks. Balloons don't go up at night, but there were hundreds of them on the grounds, and often they would all fire up at the same time, creating the "glow." Pearl and I settled ourselves on the ground, she in a chair she carried, and me on a bath towel, and we were right in front of the Scarecrow balloon. In one of the photos I just posted of the stork balloon being inflated, the scarecrow is visable laying on its side, also being inflated.
After a while, all the balloons are deflated rather quickly. It reminded me of watching the disassembling of a circus show because it all came apart so fast. Then there was a really well done fireworks show, and I was able to get a couple photographs of that worth adding here.
Then everyone wanted to leave at once. Still, everyone being respectful and polite, but man! so many folks. When we got in line for our particular bus route (there were 8 or 10 routes using school busses from all over the Albuquerque area), looking ahead at all the people in line, I thought it would be over an hour wait before we boarded a bus. We called Curt, but he was in his car, in a lot, waiting for traffic to move, so that he could himself move at all. Pearl and I stayed in line, made friends with other people around us, took turns walking to the ladies room (there was a trailer of rest rooms, as well as portapotties all over) and we waited only about a half hour till we got on a bus. Well organized.

Special Shapes new stork balloon

The hot air balloons are so big! We went to the activities last Thursday night, the best day of 2008 Balloon Festival in Albuquerque. The weather was perfect. The crowds were huge, but everybody always enjoys the hot air balloons, so it's a joyful time and temperaments are always all positive.
Pearl and I were there for hours. We took the bus over from a church lot near her home. Curt was already there, volunteer parking for Civitan Club. This was the day of the "special shapes" with copies of Disney characters and other creative unique animal and building shapes. Many of the balloons return year after year, but there are always new ones. It was interesting to watch the balloons getting inflated, especially the new stork balloon. I'll post photos taken of the process, from seeing the very large flattened white fabric on the ground through the gradual inflation, seeing the shaped beak on the ground, and finally the total stork, complete with a bundle hanging from his beak (no baby inside that.)

Albuquerque hot air balloons

Like I remember from other years, it was fun driving around Albuquerque when the weather was good and the hot air balloons went up. One time Pearl and I were close enough to a balloon that we waved to the folks in the basket, and they waved back. Often, the balloons were off to the east from us, and so my camera was looking into the sun, but I'll post a couple photos that came out pretty good.

ELVIS lives

I prepared for this photo, even wore the shirt purchased in Memphis, Aug 2007, when Pearl and I stopped to celebrate with thousands the 30th anniversary of Elvis's passing. I prepared for this photo when I knew it was an Elvis memorabelia place where I'd meet my new Baha'i friend in Swansboro, NC, day before yesterday for lunch. I prepared, and she took the photo, but I had no idea it would be quite this funny! It makes me laugh, and I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

On the road again

On the road again.......or more accurately, In the skies again.....Man, is this an easier way to get to the southwest than driving.
Flights today so far from Wilmington to Charlotte and Charlotte to Phoenix. Went over Albuquerque and wished I could jump out with a parachute and my luggage....what an entry! But I chose to stay in the plane and now will backtrack to Albuquerque after a couple hours here in Phoenix. US Airways makes this wait easy. I'm near my gate. It's relatively quiet for an airport. I'm on my own laptop with it and my phone plugged in behind the trash can right near where I'm sitting.
I'm adding a photo...could be entitled Many Bags makes herself at home at Sky Harbor