Day 23: Albuquerque - Amarillo

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Early morning this morning to go out and do some hot air ballooning! I was so excited about this. We arrived at the launch field around 7.15am and watched them set up the balloon. A couple of the boys held the balloon open while it was inflating, but I dont think they quite expected the burners to be turned on. Im pretty sure they jumped atleast a foot in the air.

Once we got in the air it was amazing, not so much the view but just the experience. Albuquerque is a pretty big city, so most of the time we were flying over the metropolitan areas, with a view to the outlying hills. One of the highlights was skimming quite close to the freeway and getting people honking at us, but it was equally special when we descended really close to a small river, so close that we could have gone fishing from the basket. We ended up landing in the carpark of an office building, where some onlookers came out to take photos. Eveyone from the basket helped pack away the balloon, with a promise of champagne breakfast if we did. Packing the balloon up was like trying to stuff a sleeping bag back into its case, except the sleeping bag weighed 700lbs. With 10 of us doing it though it wasnt so bad.

Once we were back on the bus it was a long driving day, punctuated by short stops in Santa Fe and Santa Rosa. In Santa Fe I had the chance to go to a "Five and Dime" (I did not buy my first real six string there). I did however buy a cowboy hat and a sherrif's badge for the cowboy rodeo night we are having while in Dallas.

Once in Amarillo we had a bit of time to freshen up before heading to the Big Texan Steakhouse for dinner. Two of the boys (Rhys and Michael) had accepted the challenge of taking on the Big Texan Steak Challenge, which is a 72oz (2.04kg) steak, a potato, salad, bread roll and either mac n cheese or shrimp cocktail. For the rest of us we got pretty much the same thing, but the steak was smaller and we had no mac n cheese or shrimp. It was easily the best steak I've ever had, it was amazing! So juicy and tender, but it had a really nice bbq flavour. And for the record, neither of the boys finished. Rhys came the closest with only 7oz of steak left.

After this we were shuttled over to a bar called Buckles' where we spent the evening. It was a real dodgy place, but when I say dodgy, I dont mean dangerous. It was just a usual trucker's hangout place, so there were a few drunken old guys there who took great delight in dancing with the girls in the group. One was a particularly bad dancer, but insisted on having a dance off with Amanda and Rikki. It was fantastic. Some of the group even ended up line dancing during the country songs, being expertly tutored by Laura. The last songs of the night were Mr. Brightside and Wonderwall, so we all went out on a bang. It was about 2.30 by the time we arrived home, but it was well worth it, it was a great night, tempered only by the fact the whole place was filled with smoke. Smoking is still allowed in bars and clubs in America, it's like going back to the dark ages.

Tomorrow we have a full day of driving with no real activities, heading to Dallas.

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