October 9th: I choose . . .

Serendipity.

This little vacation has been filled with happy accidents.

At the airport I asked if I could switch from and aisle seat to the window seat. I got the exit row with no one next to me. When we went to get our car, we paid for economy (Yes, we were being cheap. There are more exciting places to spend money than on a rental car.) When we went outside to pick a car, all of the economy cars were gone and we got a free upgrade.

We were supposed to go for a hot air balloon ride on Friday morning. It was rained out. Instead we met a nice waitress at a little diner, a great photographer, Robert Crispin, and then had a great day wandering in the Jemez Mountains.

Saturday we slept in (got up at 7 am). We decided to go back to the Jemez Mountains to see the Caldera and all points in between. As we headed north out of town, we saw balloons flying over the city. The pangs of what we missed tugged at my heart. We planned to come back for the evening glow, but took 7 hours to get up the road to the old volcano. We met several nice people, two Basset Hounds, one Cocker Basset mix, and a Golden Retriever who belonged to the Basset Family. (No kidding). We met a nice man who worked at Amanda's Trail Shop, and saw so much beauty around us.

Sunday would be the day to go to see the Hot Air Balloons. Another 4:30 am wake up call. When we got to the  Field, I suggested that we put out name on the waiting list to go up in the balloon. We were two of the last three people to go from waiting to riding.  There is no way to explain the sensation, the beauty, the wonderful time that I had. A few pictures might help a little.

Lift Off

Aliens

Touching the Rio Grande

So, to continue with Serendipity. The balloon pilot was Andy Williams from Galena, Illinois. One of his balloon chasers, Garrett, is the nephew of a patron at the Sycamore Library. Another crew member has her Master's in Library Science. It's a small beautiful world.