The launch today was the best, well, there were the most balloons we’ve had of 3 days. However, today they didn’t circle at all, they went straight south which meant we didn’t get photos of nearly as many as we’d have liked. Even Bill was totally impressed with it. There were at least 200 balloons. Many new ones we hadn’t seen. Bill’s favorites were the one with the NM symbol on them and the ones that had the western scene of a cowboy and cows. I still like all the character ones. Today we added Darth Vader, a huge cow, Smokey Bear, a duck and a pig with wings. It took over an hour to get them all up in the air. Amazing! They move so slow and majestically.
Then plan after breakfast was to go up to Sandia Peak on the tram. Well, once we got up there we quickly discovered it was everyone else’s plan after breakfast. The line just to get tickets was at least an hour and the trams are every 20-30 minutes. We decided to be there tomorrow when they open at 9 then when we get back to the RV pack up, have lunch and then drive to Santa Fe. It’s less than 2 hours so it should work out well.
The cowboys and all their horse trailers piled into the park today. This facility is actually set up for rodeo events, dog shows, horse shows, that kind of thing. This weekend was a team roping event and we heard them announce over 60 teams of 2 were entered today. After our failed trip to Sandia Peak we went to Wal-mart and the Sunflower Market, which is kinda like Whole Foods but not nearly as pricey. Then we ate lunch at home and went over and watched the roping for a while. Two riders keep the steer between them from the chute and one ropes the neck or horns then the other rider has to rope the hind legs. That looks so hard. You have to have perfect timing. We agreed the head was easier. It’s odd to see cowboys with baseball caps on, sunglasses and talking on cell phone. Really destroys your imagine of a cowboy. At least they all had on boots and spurs. I’m not sure what they are doing tomorrow but I’m sure we’ll venture over and watch a bit before leaving. The director of the park said we could leave any time.
For our date night dinner we went to the famous El Pinto which is a Mexican restaurant that’s been in business since 1962. Luckily it’s maybe only a mile away. They also manufacture a line of salsa so the factory is next door to the huge restaurant. The parking lot is also huge and we thought the wait would be over an hour but was only about 30 minutes. We went to the lounge and I had a yummy sangria to Bill’s diet coke. They have complimentary chips and their homemade salsa to tide you over. Dinner was OK. No better than Taquitos but I had a dish I hadn’t heard of. It’s a burrito stuffed with calabaza and pumpkin. It has cheese in it and on it but I wish I had only gotten the mild sauce as the hotter detracts from the delicate flavors of the squash and pumpkin. With all the chips before and saving room for my sopapilla and honey, I brought home 2/3 of my burrito. Bill had half of his chicken quesadilla so we have a dinner for one of the next 2 nights.
We got home in time to see most of the nightly fireworks, then we watched a show together and I watched another one and he watched football. Getting up at 7 and on the road to Sandia Peak by 8:15.
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