Time to Head Home

A week at the sons went by fast.

It was a wonderful time, filled with many memories, but when it comes time to leave, we always want not too! We settle our hearts with plans of returning and hit the road.

 

 

After we said our goodbyes, the Grand's were still asleep, but our neighbors came to see us off, we were on the road.

 

 

While hubby drives, I review the route ahead.

Looks like we might drive into some weather.

This trip was planned to leisurely make our way up via back roads, taking 2-3 days to get there, taking in the sights. The return was in similar time but by way of highways. The way home will become the route we’ll most likely travel on return visits. Our son takes this route when he comes down and does it without stopping, 16 hours straight. I doubt we will ever do that marathon, but figure we can do it with 1 layover.  

 

Time to stop for gas…

 

 

Check out what came in behind us….

There must have been 50 of them…

Next stop…

Trinidad, Colorado…I saw a sign (didn’t snap it fast enough) that said, “We saved the best for last.” I don’t think so! This was, in no way, better then anything we had already seen in Colorado. Not knowing, we decide to take the business route to see.

Well,  that was a waste of time! Did manage to eat lunch so it wasn’t a total bust.

Wasn’t long before we crossed into New Mexico. Unfortunately there are still signs of the fire.

Our plan at this point was to stop in Santa Fe for the night.

Well, that didn’t work out. Seems we arrived at the beginning of the Balloon Festival and were are NO RV spots available. Since we weren’t really doing any sight seeing on the way home, we never checked into what was available. We thought, since this was going to be a regular route, we would pick up information for future trips along the way. I assured hubby things would be fine, that I was cool with a parking lot for the night. There was no way I was going to let him drive past Albuquerque!

You see hot air balloons thrill me. When we lived in the Napa Valley they flew over almost every morning.  When we moved to Yuma and saw our first Balloon Festival here, I was like a kid at Christmas. Our dream had always been to see the festival in Albuquerque. My MIL always loved them too. A cousin lived close and one year she got to see them. She knew how much we wanted to, too. And now the opportunity has landed right in our path. BLESSINGS!

First we need to find a place to stay the night.

We didn’t want to wait to long to find one, so when we saw a camping sign on an exit we took it. Had no idea where it was taking us or if they would have any vacancy but we held on to FAITH. When we saw RV leaving from the direction we were traveling, we saw it as a sign.

Sure enough, they had spots, and lots of them. Guess this place was just to far out for everyone else. Not knowing just how far out we were we wondered if we would see balloons in the sky the next morning.

I woke at the crack of dawn, anxious to see something, but for not. We got back on the road wondering just what will be ahead. We already agreed we would stop, just didn’t know what we would find.