It seemed doable when I was making our flight plans at the beginning of the year. My goal was to maximize our time in Florida on Thursday to get two days at each main park before flying to New Mexico. Leaving at 7:40 pm and arriving in New Mexico at 11:00 pm seemed reasonable. Sure it was going to make it a short night as we wanted to get up and head for northern New Mexico for a train ride, but it was doable, especially for Gary who is an early riser.
It wasn't until we were actually flying in the plane that night, when I realized how impossible this whole plan was turning out. First, we had a layover in Dallas for an hour. And that late night arrival at 11:00 was Mountain Daylight Time...for us after several days in Florida, it was going to be around 1:00 am our body time. And that didn't include the time getting luggage, picking up the rental car, and getting to the hotel. Doing the math (finally) in my head....we would get to our hotel if we were lucky by 12:00 (2:00 body time) and then getting up to drive three hours to catch a train ride and then a 3 hour drive back Friday evening and then another early morning on Saturday for the Balloon Fiesta......I think the most important number in the equation was--we are 63 years old. We are not as young as we used to be! I actually felt a bit proud of myself when I told Gary that I thought we should not go north and do the train ride, but use Friday as a rest and regroup day. Sometimes I can make the "grown-up decision" despite what it seems the rest of the time. He agreed. The Balloon Fiesta was date-dependent and we didn't want to miss that chance since we were here, but the train will likely be here for many more years and we can make a stop on a trip to Texas sometime.
And because of delays in our plane arriving and doing all of those things I mentioned, it was actually around 2:00 am Mountain Daylight time by the time we got settled in our hotel. We were so glad to climb into bed and know that the whole day was ahead that we could sleep.....and sleep we did!
Well, mostly slept......I had twisted my shoulder getting out of our seats on the plane when my book bag caught on a chair and pulled my arm and shoulder back. It ached a bit during the night and I was missing a heating pad. Getting older stuff--no big deal We slept until about noon and it felt so good to rest.....
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