“Worth seeing? Yes, but not worth going to see.”
- Samuel Johnson
This was worth seeing AND worth going to see - the annual Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM. Kendra had always wanted to see it in person; I was ambivalent but happy to go. She's been right about so many other destinations, I've learned by now to trust her.
What can I tell you? It's the Woodstock of hot air ballooning. 80,000 people descend on the place to watch 600 balloons take off at dawn in what is called "The Mass Ascension." It's the visual equivalent of a mouth full of Pop Rocks that lasts for an hour and a half. Stimulation overload. Have you ever been driving along somewhere and you just happen to see one hot air balloon in the sky? You kind of get excited, don't you? “Look at that!” you say. Well, imagine 600 of them all at once. There's a reason it's the most photographed event in the world.
It might be a cure for depression, or at least a start anyway; a sunrise filled with balloons. If you have any inkling that it might be something you'd like to do, I say go. You won't experience anything like it, anywhere, ever.
On another note, John Hiatt has a song called, How Bad's the Coffee? Let me tell you, in New Mexico this trip, it was pretty bad. New Mexico, you've got some work to do. I did have one cup that was so bad I consider it almost a gift. It was so memorably bad that it is the benchmark by which I will now assess all other bad coffee. “Man, that was a bad cup of coffee, but not as bad as that one in New Mexico.”
We did have some very fine Mexican meals and the solpillias were a delight. Maybe not quite as magical as I'd remembered, but what ever is? At the Mexican restaurants, as is usually the case wherever you go, the music of Mexico plays over the stereo system. That's fine, but I feel about it like I do reggae and zydeco music. It would be nice if they each had more than just the one song.
Birthdays in Music: John Mellencamp (1951). If you only know his music by his “Hits," you're missing out.
Name That Movie: “The Greeks had the idea that the steps you take to avoid your fate are the very steps that lead you to it.”