Thursday, April 9, 2009

Lessons in serendipity

You can call fate, coincidence, kismet...I prefer serendipity.

A series of events lead to us learning some valuable pieces of information.

While looking for an autoparts store based off of a google search, we were inspired to pull off in a shopping center plaza and park. The reason being a vintage vespa with a sidecar at a neighboring scooter shop. (if you do not know, I am a scooteristand love vintage scooters) As it turned out, the vintage vespa siren responsible for our detour was actually a Stella (a modern reproduction of a vintage vespa) but very cool anyway. In the shop, the shop girl noticed the quote on the back of my shirt. "Dance first, think later, its the natural order" And commented that she danced. I mentioned that we were Lindy Hoppers and she got all excited. Apparently there are swing dancers in Santa Fe and one of them owns a scooter shop.
The owner came out and chatted a bit (as scooter shop owners tend to do). They let us know that we missed the Monday night dancing in Santa Fe, but should not miss dancing in Albuquerque an hour south.

We left the scooter shop headed to the Local Community Rec center for a shower, thanks to the directions given by the scooter folks. Stopping for a gas cap at a Napa first, we then headed to the nicest rec center that I have seen. We were inspired to go for a run at the indoor track and took showers. Feeling energized and excited we headed to Albuquerque.

In Albuquerque, we realized that neither one of us had payed close enough attention to the instructions from the scooter folks and did not know where we were going. Ending up at the Albuquerque convention center, which rang a bell for both of us prove we had bad memories. Some advice from local guys on fixed gear bikes, looking through the local paper, and finally stealing some WiFi from a pizza place, we found our location. The Heights Community Center. Some driving, missed turns and turning around and we arrived at our destination. Dancing proved fun, though lindy hoppers were scarce and the music was funky. Natalie danced with a guy and mentioned that we were on our way to the Denver Area. He inquired if we were going to the Mile High Blue Festival in Denver this weekend. We looked into it months ago, but forgot about it.

We slept on the street outside the Community Center, got up early and hit the road for Colorado Springs. I have family there and good Denver dancing is on Thursdays and Thursday dancing the day before a dance event is going to be great.

We powered through eight hours of driving. Stopping for E85 and a walk around Toas, NM. We arrived at cousin Lisa's house in the dark, stayed up late catching up and slept in a real bed. Thank you Lisa. Now we are chilling, doing laundry, planning a dancing trip tonight and figuring the semantics of visiting family. My mom is in town, my future sister-in-law is too with my new nephew along with other cousins. Looks like we might stay in Colorado Springs for a few days, my brother is coming in tonight and Easter is Sunday.

Yeah for showers, beds, and Family!

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