Balloon Fest.

Weeee!

drive in at 5:20 a.m. to catch the balloons starting their day. Mass Ascension! ...would have been a little bit cooler, if there hadn't been 60,000 other cars on the road trying to get the same place as us! oh yeah ... and it was 34 degrees. in the sun.

balloons - sweet - when I get some pics uploaded, you can see for yourself!

headed out to the petroglyphs with a friend of John's fam. they were okay ... a bunch were obviously made by some grafitti artist who knew what he was doing, and wanted to get some laughs when people took pictures of the 'crazy alien petroglyph' and posted them online.

... so I took pictures of them too.

but at least I know which ones are totally fake, and which are possibly real.

Food:

-breakfast burritos. eggs, bacon, cheese, green chilis, salsa, hash browns, flour tortilla. can you say, amazing-mouth-watering-almost-too-much-to-eat-but-so-delicious-that-you-have-to? yeah.
-half pound burgers, fries, bottled water. ...Dasani... not that I dislike it as intensely as some of my compatriots ... but if I am going to drink tap water, why not just get it in a dixie cup for free from the spigot? Now ... Figi or Volvic ... those have to come from tropical desert islands hond extracted by naked voluptuous natives who caress the bottles with lush flowers before shipping. I'll pay for that.
-mini-donuts made in a sweet spiral deep frier! that's right. they start in the middle, an automatic flipper flips them half way through, and the flow of the oil spins them through and out to the sugar pit to be tossed and bagged! I need one.
-hot cocoa. marshmellows. whipped cream. they do it right.

balloon glow - also barely conveyable in writing, but amazing in images.

and then the best news yet: it's going to drop down below freezing tonight ... and ... SNOW! yay! snow will be so much fun! I'll just tug on my boots and snowpants and when we're done come back inside for coca and sit on the couch by the fire and watch tv and .......................... camping. no wood. no snow gear. it's dark.

the reason that it was good news is that the idea of freezing to death was so immobilizing, that the only body function still operable was the cell phone. And then the gas pedal. And then the pack-up-all-of-your-tent-and-crud-wicked-fast-because-it-is-literally-freezing-to-the-
-ground-as-we-speak function. Then the unload-all-your-stuff-into-Motel-6 function.

and so all was good. and there was much rejoicing. and light. and things of that nature.