Renya On The Road

11/29/12 to 12/1/12 - Sitting around the dining room table at Flagstaff, Arizona hostel, I met Elisa from Switzerland and Gwenael from France. The three of us connected strongly. During our conversation, I mentioned that I was driving to Gallup, New Mexico in the morning for a Hot Air Balloon Rally, to which their wide-eyed child-like expressions communicated their desire to join me. Solo traveling is wonderful and yet it seemed all three of us were ready for some 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' group fun and decided to embrace spontaneity and head for Gallup in the morning.

By mid morning we were on the road fueled with great excitement. After 2-1/2 hours of driving, we checked in at Motel 8, shared a hodge-podge economical dinner and arriving at Red Rock Park to watch hot air balloons glowing in the dark and Navajo dancing.

The night air was mighty cold, but it didn't matter because the elation of being there mattered most. Back at the hotel we bubbled with joy behaving like three long time friends celebrating a reunion. The reality was that we'd just met 24 hours ago. Being accustomed to hostel accommodations in order to keep expenses minimal, we laughed at ourselves in hindsight of our unanimous decision to share a bed and dubbed ourselves for the night ~

"Three Queens in a King-sized bed."

Barely awake at 6 am, we turned on the lights and scurried about the hotel room getting ourselves together to get in the car and back to the park in order to meet the pre-sunrise arrival of balloon pilots before the mass release of 100 balloons ascending in the sunrise skies.

It has been my desire for many years to ride in a hot air balloon. Being quite a costly adventure, I've almost paid the cost on more than one occasion, but then ended up stopping myself. Arriving at the rally, I discovered that I could sign up to volunteer as crew and perhaps (although not guaranteed), receive a free balloon ride in return. What an exciting possibility! Gwenael and I signed up while Elisa decided to view the balloons from atop the red rocks and began ascending the vigorous climb.

What more can I say than check out the photo below to wet your appetite and then check out a lot more photos on my Facebook page in the Hot Air Balloon Photo Album.