We’re back.

Hard to believe it all started more than a week ago today. Anna and I hopped a bus to LaGuardia Airport in Queens and jumped on a plane and flew to the big D (and I don’t mean Dallas (actually, I do)).

Everything in Texas is bigger, even from the air. We flew in over huge pools next to huge houses next to huge football fields.

But we didn’t stay long and were soon up in the air again, headed to our final destination, Albuquerque (yes, I can spell that from memory).

We neared the Duke City as the sun was setting, outlining mountain ranges in the distance. The orange warmth of the sun at the horizon evaporated into cool blues, purples and then black. I tend to get excited about things like this, probably repeating “This is awesome” to Anna about 15 times.

A few minutes later, we banked around the mountains and touched down in New Mexico.

Our friends and gracious hosts Dan and Chrystal (among my favorite people in the cosmos) met us at the airport.

I met Dan back in high school in Minnesota. We ran track together, drank a lot of pop at one of the local grocery stores and listed to a lot of oldies. Dan moved back to New Mexico, but we kept in touch over the years. We’ve only met up a couple of times since high school, but when we do, we seem to pick up right where we left off.

From the airport we headed to the Elephant Bar & Restaurant in ABQ Uptown for a late dinner.

Sadly, I didn’t have much of an appetite (To the time machine!).

You see, I didn’t have anything for lunch and our layover in Dallas was right next to a Wendy’s. It’s probably been a year since I’ve indulged in the legacy of Dave Thomas. I couldn’t help myself and enjoyed a 1/-pound Double-Stack with Cheese (pronounced “Chi”), fries and a Frosty (the most delicious frozen treat known to mankind). And then, wouldn’t you know it, we sat down right next to a Taco Bell. I finished my burger and still wasn’t quite full enough (this is Texas, after all). With a little sweet talking to my wife (something about back rubs), she agreed to wait in line and actually buy me a couple of tacos (score!). Ten minutes later, I felt fully satisfied, experiencing the perfect balance of discomfort and nausea.

Back to New Mexico (To the time machine!). We finished dinner and headed home to get some rest.

On Friday morning we woke up around 6 a.m. and made our way to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta to catch the mass ascension at sunrise. As we neared the grounds we saw the first of the balloons taking off into the quickly fading darkness.

Soon dozens of balloons rose to life as sunshine crested the Sandia Mountains.

To be continued…

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Manhattan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.