Land of Enchantment. And Rental Cops.

Strange town, Trinidad... and yet it's the first spot of true verdant, well, anything after leaving Colorado Springs and heading South.  I was hoping for some 'A Whole New You, While You Wait' parlors along Main Street, but alas, Trinidad's reputation was not matched by reality, at least in that aspect.

Tammy hit on the brilliant idea to look up the smallest, middle-of-nowhere towns that we passed through on her phone (hooray for iPhones) and surprisingly, there were some pretty stellar things in some amazingly blasted looking places.  There wasn't an app for 'make the stupid headwind stop' though, and we managed to stay on a greater than 1:1 miles to the gallon, but only just.

Wandered among the great unwashed at the balloon festival, and my theory was once again validated: there is no event, no matter how high-minded or full of artistic merit that cannot be improved by the liberal addition of carnies.  We gorged on turkey legs, pulled pork sandwiches and almost made it to the funnel cake line... and then realized the crowds we were pushing through WERE the funnel cake line.  We absconded to the bus, and returned to the mall, making it barely in time to have a Mall Security Officer (like a real officer, only with less fat and twice the USDA recommended fiber!) tell me I was no longer welcome on the mall grounds.  I thought about being hurt, but then decided to eat candy by the handful while sitting on the hotel bed instead.

Oh, the balloons were really cool, lest I fail to mention that.  They finished up the night with a fireworks display, but sadly, not one timed to coincide with the balloons being in the air, and perhaps allowed to fire back.