DAY ONE: 9/10/09

Left Seattle on the 6:04 AM flight (thanks, Katie, for driving us to the airport). We had about .5 hour before we had to get on the plane so we visited the Red Carpet Club. Since they switched to cereal (not in individual containers), there were no more granola bars. I asked about that but was told they are going “totally unwrapped”. Darn! That’s where I get my granola bars for my weeks on the road. We reserved seats 6A and 6C on the flight to Denver, hoping no one would take the middle seat but no luck there. We gave her the window. We purchased two LUXE snack boxes on the plane; I ate the hummus and chips but Matt didn’t even open his. We had about 1.5 hours in Denver so we went into the Red Carpet Club and had some water and snacks. There wasn’t much out since it was still breakfast time. Our flight to Albuquerque left on time; it was only one hour so we only had drinks served.

It took about 40 minutes to have our rental car delivered! I was appalled! It’s a Mazda mini-van so we have plenty of room. I have a video of Matt inspecting the car. It took two brains to figure out how to lower the 3rd seat so we could fit our suitcase in it. We went downtown Albuquerque to find a lunch place. I thought we should eat at Roosters, but we ended up at Maloney’s Tavern. Apparently, the non-smoking pattern has not reached this city yet. It took us about an hour to get out of the city (including lunch).

Our 60 mile drive to Santa Fe was held up by an accident; we literally crawled along for about 4 miles, taking 20 minutes. After we passed the scene, it was quick driving into Santa Fe. We had no problem finding the motel. I asked for a room with a king bed and a tub. They only had one; she gave us two keys to try but the larger room only had a shower. I just can’t cope with that. As usual we immediately took a nap. Just as we left the office, the rain poured down on us. Of course, we did not have an umbrella!

We were told about the “Burning of Zozobra”. The guidebook says, “85th Burning of Zozobra: The torching of 50-foot-tall Old Man Gloom, a puppet stuffed with thousands of scraps of paper bearing the citizenry’s sad thoughts, is a highlight of Fiesta time”. I had understood it was to occur at dusk. We drove towards it and parked in an event lot ($5, not $50 like Seattle) and started to walk the .3 miles to the site. Several people were going up a hill; I mentioned I heard that was where the people watched from who didn’t want to pay the $5 - $10 entry fee. So, up we climbed. We had a good view from about .5 mile away. Instead of dusk, we sat there for about an hour before they torched it. There were fireworks now and then, and occasionally the puppet would swing his head from side to side or lift an arm, but it was tiring sitting on cement that long. Plus, we had to listen to a drunken reveler on the higher part of the hill scream out obscenities. Before the fire began, Zozobra had to compete with lightening in the sky opposite his perch.

It was about 9:30 when we were returning to the motel so we just picked up some Sonic burgers for dinner. I upsized mine, thinking the coke might keep me up late. Luckily, I knocked my drink off the bedside table and spilled over half of it.