Saturday - Santa Fe to Albuquerque to Twin Cities to the Motor City

Once again we got up at an hour that humans should not be expected to be alive, much less awake and we left our wonderful little casita that had been home for the past week and took off for Albuquerque. We got there faster than we got to Santa Fe, then again, how many people were awake at this time of day?

As we drove into town I noticed a couple of hot air balloons in the sky. As most people know Albuquerque is a big area for hot air balloons. We stopped to gas up the rental car before returning it. While Bob/Rob/Robert was gassing the car I spotted someone readying a balloon for flight. This was something that I had never seen before. They were just across the parking lot from us so I got a pretty good view. I saw the balloon go from flat to completely inflated.

One last stop at Sonic for breakfast before we returned to Sonic-free land. When we returned the rental car I was certain that the guy was going to say something about the mud on the car. The dirt roads in New Mexico become mud roads after it rains. I guess that it takes a lot to faze a rental car guy, he said nothing. I do have to add that I did hear that a school district was on a two hour delay on Friday due to muddy roads. This was a reason for school closing/delay that I had never before heard.

We got to the airport, got luggage checked and got to the gate with time to spare. I did discover that Northwest has slightly larger seats and a little bit more leg room than Continental. Continental might feed you, but give me more room, please. We landed in one county in the Twin Cities and our next flight was taking off from the next county. There was a tram, but it only took us to the end of the concourse that we were already on. Time to take off on foot. No moving walkways either. We had debated getting something for lunch before we got on this flight, but decided that we were fine. Good thing we got to the gate in time to get in line to board. There we sat eating apples and granola bars. I was amazed at the number of people who had their own food with them.

Our luggage came up fast, the shuttle to our parking lot was right there on the curb and the car stated. The perfect end to a great vacation. The cats are adjusting to us being home, the laundry is almost done and we should be through all of the mail by tomorrow.