As the beginning of December rolled around, I was reluctant to commit to attending this year’s Red Rock Balloon Rally after several prior visits resulted in scratched weekends of flights. Those Gallup weekends were not bad adventures, but I just didn’t feel like shelling out for lodging this year. Still, I decided at the...
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Two weekends ago was supposed to be about watching balloons flying among red rocks, but the weather decided to change that. The 24th Red Rock Rally in Gallup was scheduled to occur at the same time slot it has held each year since the event kicked off- during the first weekend in December. By...
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This weekend I needed to get out for a bit, and earlier in the week, someone in the Facebook “American Southwest” group gave me my excuse. Curiously enough, they had posted an image of a page from an old NM travel guide (1969’s “101 Trips in the Land of Enchantment ” by Betty Woods)...
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I had pondered it for a few months, but in the end, it was an impulse that launched me west from Albuquerque towards Gallup, New Mexico. Seeing recent photos taken by others of hot air balloons lingering over red rock walls gave me the shove I needed to hit the road Saturday morning. After...
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Last weekend I joined my parents on a short trip they had both been looking forward to taking for some time. Before COVID-19 hit, they were planning to return to Monument Valley for a stay- and then the world shut down for a year and some. In recent weeks, the Navajo Nation and its...
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After going to Moab early this summer to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, I told myself I needed to go see some of the other amazing Southwest sites I’d long heard about but put off visiting. As the summer rolled on, a cheery weekend day in August gave me enough incentive to day...
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