Had kind of a restless night. The hotel is very comfortable, but the room had one of those connecting doors so a suite can be created, and the folks in the next room had their TV tuned to what sounded like some kind of annoying kids channel, with lots of noise. About midnight I tried knocking gently on their door to no avail, dialing the room on the phone with no answer, calling the front desk, and then finally about 1 am a couple of pounds on the connecting door finally got a response and a resolution.

I am off to Colorado Springs in a little bit. I had planned to drive up the 285 to the 24, which would take me through the mountains to the Springs, but as I am getting a bit of a late start (it’s now 10:15) and there is a fire burning rather close to that route I have decided to take the 285 up to Alamosa and catch the 160 which will connect me back to I-25.

Why the late start? Well, I did allow myself to “sleep in” until 6:20, and since I want to do some yoga but my arrival time in the Springs is uncertain I decided to take in a class here. I took the 8 am Hot Yoga class at Blissful Spirits Hot Yoga in Albuquerque NE, taught by the lovely Julie, pictured below. The price was definitely right: first class is only five dollars, but as I hadn’t brought any cash, just a debit card, Julie gave me the first one for free! The class was an hour long class, which was disappointing in my initial assessment, but it was a very intense hour and in the aftermath reminded me of my favorite joke about mat Pilates classes. Q: What’s the best thing about a mat Pilates class? A: It’s only an hour long! By the end of the hour I was thinking the same thing!

Julie, by the way, is a native Chicagoan as well, having grown up in Northbrook and lived in various places around the city, and her father, who is not that much older than me, is from a family of 10 and grew up in the city at the same time that I was there.

Wrapping it up for now and hitting the road!