Beethoven In Trance - Episode 35

2007 Colorado and New Mexico trip.

Open road, big mountains, sunny sky without a shredd of cloud, and a v6 engine car.
We started from Denver. Flight a red-eye there and started the day right after we got the rental. I didn't sleep well the night before as usual when I have to sleep early than usual in order to get up early next morning. I ended up taking the naps at the airport and plane. The seats there were so uncomfortable, and my butt still hurts.

Sat in the rental and finished the breakfast, we went for our first stop - Pikes Peak in Colorado spring. After 1.5 hr. drive, we saw some amazing rocks and reached the foot of the mountain. It took $35/car and 2hr. just to get up and down the mountain. The ride up the mountain is quite nice, blue sky, fall color leaves, low speed limit so that we can enjoy the view, zig zag paved road (for a while), and very often some overlook area for us to park the car and take picture of the nature's beauty. 19 miles total and 14000 meters to the top. I started to feel difficulty in breathing when we hitting the top, and when we actually reached the top, we went into a shop (the only shop), I grabed a Gatorade (@ $3.41) and we each got a free donuts (with coupon that we printed out before the trip). It was cold on the top, air is thin, some elder is carring a oxygen can with him. Mother-in-law started to feel dizzy and we quickly went back into the car and headed back. We stoped by in the middle of the road as there is a pretty amazing lake rested in the mountain. The tire took the some beat as the road is not paved half the way, rocks were grinded under the tire, setting off a strange, burning smell of rubber.

Finally, we got back down, and we headed to the next point of attraction. It was about 4pm already. The next attraction is not far away. Within half hour we reached Garden of God. We saw some interesting rocks, big rocks sitting on top of small ones without falling off. We took some pictures of the light brown rock with blue sky in the background. The dirt is also brown and red. Soon we found out the whole state is in this color as all the houses dress in this redish brown with a blue door.

We finished day 1 and got back to hotel afterwards. I didn't sleep well that night either.
Day 2 we headed to New Mexico. We drove by Trinity Welcome Center to get our free T-shirt (yes, they have free T-shirt available for order online), then we reached Santa Fe around noon. We walked around downtown Santa Fe (the Plaza), took pictures, got some "Canitas" from the food cart there for lunch ($5). There is another food cart on the other side of the town center square called "Fajitas", unfortunately when I finished my Canitas and wanted to have another beef fajitas ($4), they sold out beef already. They still had chicken, but chichen is for chicken. I left there with some regret.

Next stop Tent Rock in Albuquerque. It's an interesting place with rocks looking like tents. The road to get into the park was not paved at all, and it was a very bumpy ride to get into the park. Finally we reached the parking lot. We packed some water and Gaterade (that we got from a supermarket the day before @ $1 each). It's about 1.5 mile to get on the top, we saw some beautiful rock and scenery along the way. The hike wasn't difficult, but not wheelchair friendly either. We finished the day with me and father in law climbing into a rock cave 20 feet above the ground. We went to hotel afterwards and that was day 2. I didn't sleep well that night.

We got up early (3am) in the morning the next day. Day 3 was supposed to be the highlight of our trip, 2007 International Balloon Festival. We bought "Park N' Ride" tickets and got on the bus fairly soon after we arrived the bus stops. Still there was a line about 50 people already in front of us when we got there. The ride to the balloon park is about 30 minutes. The bus took the short cut by passing through a General Mills factory (where I smell cinamon buns). We finally arrived the park when it was still dark. But the park was packed already, we stoped at the food court at the gate for the 'Award Winning' breakfast burito ($5) and cinamon bun (that I heard about from Fudor.com when I was doing my research on the trip). I was content. The breakfast burito is essentially egg, cheese, sausage, and frys wrapped in the tortilla. We went into the park only found out the park is surrounded by food tents selling breakfast burito. I felt hungry very soon and bought another burito ($4, location does matter here). Soon trucks started to stop in the park and people started to pull out giant balloons. Before we realized it, balloons started to be blown up one after another. Then, it comes the light, the sun showed her face, sky turned blue, and balloons had a golden coat of color. I started to run around the park with the camera in hand capturing the lauching and flying balloons in the sky. By 9:30 am in the morning, most of the balloons are in the sky. It was pretty.

There was not much to see after 10am, we wondered around the park and got some freebies - Spam in a pack, and potato chips with apple or cheese flavor (which turned into a major food source for our trip later on). We walked out of the park, and ran into the traffic of people waiting to get out of there at the same time. We were roasted in the sun for almost 1 hr. before we got on the bus. It was a chaos. Finally we got back to the hotel and we took some rest. There was still evening session in the park that night, so we went again around 4pm. When we got there, it was still early, I took some black and white pictures of the people in the park (as I think it captures the character and feature of the locals). Around 7pm, we saw the the fireworks for about 20 minutes. No balloon though, as it was windy that night. We left the park afterwards. That night, I got some red bell pepper, ground beef and cheese from the local Safeway, and cooked in the hotel room (yes, we brought a electric burner and tow pots for cooking instant noodle). I sauted the beef with cheese (as oil alternative), and added pepper, and some potato chips (as we didn't have salt). I toped it with avocado, and it turned out great, and I instantly felt I became a travel chef. That was Day 3. I had a good sleep that night (I think leaving air condition on in the afternoon helped).

Day 4. I felt well after a good night's sleep. We were leaving New Mexico for Colorado again. We passed an overlook where we saw a zig zag of canon from a distant (the locals call it horseshoe). We dropped by Tao, and visited a local church, where we took some pictures. We arrived downtown Tao around noon, and again, pictures. I bought a T-shirt there for $4.99 and only found out it was too small for me. My wife took it gladly.

Next stop Sand Dune park. It's an interesting park with sand dune as its attraction. We didn't have time to explore the park, only hit the sand dune as soon as we arrived the park. It was late afternoon. My wife and I started to climb up the sand dune. It took us about 1 hr. 15 minutes to get to the top of the highest dune. It was windy up there. We couldn't wait getting down there, and we didn't even remember to take a picture. Anyway, we got down with 4 shoes of sand. I still have sands in my shoes today. we drove to the hotel afterwards. It started to turn dark, and we drove through the mountains and arrived Salida (which we noticed is writting next to 'Exit' in an airplane). We stayed in a Days Inn and that hotel was the best in our trip. clean towel with light scent, clean beds with 2 pillows for each, a square table for us to sit down together to have dinner, and a view of the forrest through the window. The only reason we got this room is because I talked to the manager (who is from Russia interestingly, consider all the other hotel managers seem to come from India) and he said he remembered me as I stayed with them before. "Well, ok, if I stayed here before, would you give me a discount?" I asked him, he said "no, but I will put you in a nice room". Works for me. I didn't have a good sleep that night though.

Day 5. We headed to Royal Gorge, the world's highest suspenion bridge that across the two sides of the cayon. It suprised me to see cars are allowed on the bridge. I felt pretty comfortable and safe walking on the bridge though. we also took the air tram to cross the cayon. It was a smooth ride. Down under the cayon was the Kansas River. We also took another tram to get down to the cayon so that we can feel the river better. I found the mini old western town very interesting, and took many pictures of them. In the afternoon, we left the park, and headed to Seven Spring. When we arrived 7 springs, it was almost 5pm. The gate keeper told us that we were late, and we were paying a full day's price for only 30 minutes. We turned around and found we were in another state park (as a matter of fact, 7 springs is only an attraction in the state park). So, we drove into the mountains again, and took more pictures, and saw the creek drifting down along the mountain. It was nice. We got back to hotel, and my wife and I went out afterwards to find some food for dinner. We shopped in Safeway, and I found some scallops. One guy in the shop was nice enough to tell us that we could ask the cashier to give us a shop card with the application so that we could get the discount today. We tried and worked. Money saved, and we were happy. We got back to hotel and made seafood noodle with scallop. Very yummy.
Day 6, say good bye to Colorado. We drove from Colorado spring back to Denver for the flight. We put in too much gas in the tank though. We purchased a full tank from the rental and planed to return it as empty as possible. Well, we didn't plan well, we still have more than a quarter of a tank left. So, I turned on the air condition, with windows open, I break, accelerate, drove around downtown, just tried to use the gas, and it was not successful. The 2008 Hyndai Sonata is a keeper.

We got back to cleveland late that night as there was some delay at the airport. It was a great time, and there was some good food made in hotel. I will bring the burner for sure in my next trip and a bigger pot too. The Days Inn manager in Salida recommend us to visit Aspen and Glenwood for the hot spring and amazing mountains. Well, we will, along with Rocky mountains.