I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque.
My first introduction In life to the idea that there was a place with the unusual moniker “Albuquerque” was in a Warner Brothers cartoon. But with his distinctive bunny accent, Bugs rhymed it with the word turn. That wascally wabbit!
Today, we woke up at a hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is the hot air balloon capital of the world. I am officially fifty years old as of this morning (at 6 am, according to my parents’ recollections), and to celebrate, we’re headed up, up and away tomorrow morning. This morning, we did a trolley tour of the city, followed by enchiladas and chiles rellenos with a pair of margaritas. Arther that, we decided to head back to the hotel to change clothes for our evening, which will see us head to the top of the nearby Sandia Peak. As we learned this summer, altitude changes the weather a bit. It may not be the right night for shorts and sandals.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a convenience store to pick up a few bottles of water and a little bit of wine for the hotel room. And while it’s great that we had a nice morning- while it’s grand that we are headed out to float peacefully above it all tomorrow morning- while it’s wonderful to enjoy a new place and its cuisine culture and scenery- I got flippin’ carded. On my fiftieth birthday, 29 years after I was old enough to buy alcohol, I was asked by a cashier for my ID. On my birthday. And I didn’t see Cas tell the girl at the register to do it, either. He says he didn’t. So it was legitimate. I got honest-to-goodness carded on my fiftieth birthday.
So happy birthday to me.
We’re headed out in a little bit to take what they call a tram to the top of a mountain. I would have gone with cable car or gondola, but the box-on-a-string is taking us up for some beautiful views this evening. We’ll probably make a photo album after, but for now, here’s a pic of me and my guy, about to hop on a sightseeing trolley this morning. Happy birthday to me!
