Wednesday, September 29th we got up and out early, about 9:00 a.m. for our 170 mile drive from Needles, California to Williams, Arizona. Again I spent most of the trip watching the temperature gauge to be sure we didn’t overheat. We went from about 500 feet elevation in Needles to nearly 6,800 feet in Williams. Although there were only a couple of steep grades, the entire trip was uphill so the coach was working pretty hard and the outside temperature was still in the 90's. We did arrive in
Williams about 1:00 p.m. without any overheating problems and got settled into the RV park there. Since the temperature in Williams was only in the high 80's we decided to go out and do some geocaching. We were able to find nine caches in only a couple of hours. On one find we got yelled at by a security guy for being on the private property of the Grand Canyon Railroad, but we had already found the cache so we said we were sorry and were leaving. Our bad. After caching we went back to the coach for the night.Thursday, September 30th, was yet another travel day. We left around 9:30 a.m. and started a 130 mile trek East on I-40 from Williams, Arizona to Holbrook, Arizona. We stayed at a Passport America RV park there called the Root 66 RV Park. (Not misspelled, that’s what they call it) We had full hookups with 50 amps and a level site, but it was literally in the middle of nowhere about ten miles East of Holbrook. It looked like an old motel that went bust and they put in a bunch of RV spots around the buildings. Pretty rustic, but quiet. After getting settled in we
went out to do some caching. There were only six geocaches in the entire town and we were able to get to five of them in just a couple of hours. We skipped one because it was out in the middle of the desert and we didn’t feel like going out there in the heat. While caching we ran across a classic old Route 66 motel where the rooms were Tee Pees. There were vintage cars parked in front of each one. Very cool. After caching we visited the Holbrook Elks Lodge. The lodge is stuck back next to the railroad tracks almost under a freeway bridge, but the inside was nice. We chatted with the bartender for a while and then another couple came in and sat at the bar. After talking with them we learned that they were from California, near Sacramento, and were also heading for the balloon festival in Albuquerque. We also discovered that they had been parked right next to us at the Needles Elks Lodge on Tuesday night. We also got our lodge pin since we had never been to the Holbrook Lodge before. After a couple of drinks we headed home for dinner and stayed in the rest of the night.Friday, October 1st we left Holbrook about 10:00 a.m. We didn’t have to leave real early because the trip East to Gallup was only about 85 miles and the weather was going to be in the 80's. We arrived at the USA RV Park in Gallup about noon. We would have been even earlier, but we stopped to fill up with fuel so we could go
into the balloon festival with a nearly full tank. We will be dry camping and using the generator, so having sufficient fuel is important. We had stayed here at the USA RV Park last March after the FMCA rally in Albuquerque. It is a very nice, large park that is very well kept. The only issue is that it is right across the street from the main rail line, so there are trains going through all the time. After we got settled in and had lunch we went out to do our shopping. We went the local mall for a while and then to Walmart. We learned a valuable lesson at Walmart. Gallup is at the edge of the Navajo Indian Reservation and government checks come out on the first of the month. It had to be the busiest Walmart I have ever seen. Not only was the place packed, but people were stocking up in huge quantities. Costco and Sam’s Club are missing the boat by not building a big box store in one of these reservation towns. Although it was crowded and irritating to try to get around, it was kind of nice to hear all of the conversations in Navajo. It is a very lyrical, musical language that is pleasant to listen to. After our shopping we spent the rest of the day at the coach.Saturday, October 2nd we finally got to sleep in as we were staying in Gallup for two nights, so this was not a travel day for a change. After lunch we went out to do some geocaching in Gallup. There were only seven caches in the immediate area - apparently there is not a big caching community here. We did manage to find all seven caches within a couple of hours. After caching we went to the Gallup Elks Lodge. The Lodge is located on the North end of town, way up on a bluff which overlooks a golf course and the mountains, The bar is all windows and looks out over this view. It is a very nice lodge. We chatted with the bartender and one of the patrons, who turned out to be the secretary of the Lodge. We have never been to this lodge, so we made sure we got our lodge pin as well. As is the case with many lodges, we bought one drink and the lodge bought our second. We enjoyed our visit. After the Elks we headed back to the coach for the night.
Sunday was another travel day. We were continuing East on I-40 to Albuquerque, about 135 miles. We left about 9:30 and got into the American RV Park on the West side of Albuquerque about noon. We checked in, got set up and had lunch before going out to find our friends. We had known that our friends from Indio, Bill and Lynette, were at the American RV Park, but we were surprised to run into Lynette in the office doing laundry when we checked in. They had been at the park since Friday and were also there for the Balloon Festival. For those that are not familiar, the Albuquerque Balloon Festival is an annual event that runs for ten days. However, it is split into two “sessions”, one the first five days, the second over the second five days. They do a very similar schedule for each of the two sessions and don’t have too much going on for Tuesday and Wednesday, which are the days when people from the first session leave and people for the second session arrive. Bill and Lynette had come for the first session, but they were not staying at the Balloon Festival grounds like we were going to be. They stayed at the RV park, which is about ten miles from the grounds. They had to get up at four in the morning to be able to catch a bus, which took two hours to get to the grounds. Then they had to wait for the bus and wait in traffic to get back. They told us they were very disappointed in the Festival. With that type of schedule, I am not surprised. They said they would be leaving the next day, Monday.
After we visited with Bill and Lynette we got together with our friends Gary and Ramona Wilson, whom we had talked into coming to the rally. They were also parked at American RV Park, just around the corner from our coach. We had some cocktails and then all went out to dinner at a local Mexican Restaurant. The food was pretty good and we had a good time catching up with Gary and Ramona, who we had last seen at the FMCA Rally in Redmond back in August. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed.
Monday, September 4th we went out after lunch on a Costco run to get some more Absolute. Gary and Ramona went with us as they needed some stuff too. After we got back to the coach we met up with Rocky and Peggy Rahkola, the assistant Wagon Masters for our rally group, which is from Monaco International, one of our FMCA Chapters. Rocky and Peggy were parked just a couple of coaches down from us. Jackie had volunteered to help with the cooking, so we wanted to get together with them to find out what the schedules and menus would be. We also expected to meet up with Dave and Kay Piper, the Wagon Masters, who were also supposed to be at the RV Park. However, they had some trouble with their coach in Prescott, Arizona and were running late. Rocky said they were expected to arrive late that evening. Peggy gave Jackie a bag full of Velveeta and other stuff for the queso dip and cream cheese dip that she is supposed to prepare for each of the evening happy hours at the rally. We also learned that the Wagon Masters wanted us to come into the Balloon Festival grounds with them on Tuesday, one day before the rest of the group arrives. They considered us staff for the rally and wanted me to help with parking on Wednesday.
We had reservations at the American RV park for three days, but it wouldn’t cost us anything more to go to the rally site one day early, so we really weren’t losing anything, so we agreed to go with them on Tuesday morning. We knew we wouldn’t get a refund from the RV park, the Balloon Festival is their big money maker for the year. They charged us $65 a night with a three night minimum. The Festival draws tens of thousands of RV’s each year, so the parks really jack the rates up during the festival. The only thing we faced was one additional day of dry camping, but that still made only six days which is very easy for us to do.
After our meeting with Rocky and Peggy we made a quick run to Walmart for some supplies that we thought we could wait until Tuesday to get, and then we stopped to find two geocaches that were just down the street from the RV park. We had to get at least a couple of caches in Albuquerque and we knew that it was unlikely that we were going to get out to cache during the festival activities. We had happy hour cocktails with Gary and Ramona and then relaxed in the coach for the rest of the night.
Tuesday, September 5th we got up and prepared the coach for travel. We only had about ten miles to go from the RV park to the festival grounds, and we weren’t leaving until about 11:00, so we didn’t have to be in a big hurry. Finally, about
11:30 we left the park, following Rocky and Peggy over to the festival grounds. We got into our rally site and were set up by 12:30. We are in a gravel parking lot on the South end of the Festival grounds and are parked right on the front row of our parking area. We are the closest RV parking to the actual balloon field, which is a couple hundred yards North of us. If not for one low building a couple of big tents, we would have an unobstructed view of the launch field where all the balloons set up.
In addition to us and the two wagon masters, there were three other “advance” coaches that parked on Tuesday. Since there were no evening activities scheduled for Tuesday all of us went out to the Texas Roadhouse restaurant for dinner. The food was great and we had a great time meeting all of the other people who would be helping with the rally. After dinner we went back to the festival grounds for the night.Wednesday, September 6th we woke up at 6:00 a.m. and watched our first balloon flight. There is a normal morning schedule for the Balloon Festival which is followed each morning, weather permitting. At around 6:00 a.m., while it is still
dark, they launch four balloons which are called the “Dawn Patrol”. Their purpose is to check the winds, both direction and intensity, and report those back to the officials on the ground. Hot air balloons require a little wind, but if it gets too windy they won’t fly because it is too hard to keep them upright on the ground when setting up, and too hard to control them once airborne. At around 7:00 a.m., just at daybreak, they start the “mass ascension” which is basically as many balloons launching as possible. The actual launch field is a ninety acre grass field where the balloons set up and inflate. As balloons inflate and take off, more balloon crews take their place and set up. The result is a continuous flow of balloons for about 90 minutes. On most mornings there are about 600 balloons that fly. The normal morning winds blow from North to South, so when the balloons take off, they would fly directly over our motor home. Needless to say, we took a lot of pictures and had a wonderful time watching the balloons.
After the morning launch there is little activity around the park until the evening. Most of the balloons have landed by ten or so. After a brief meeting with the Wagon Masters we started the process of parking all of the members of our group, which started arriving about 10:30 a.m. I was one of the parking crew and we parked from 10:30 until after 3:00 p.m. We had 56 coaches attending the rally from Monaco International and we had all but about 5 parked before 2:00 p.m. We had a couple of late arrivals, and one that wasn’t coming until Thursday. By the time I got back to the coach I was dead tired and my back hurt from all the standing and walking. It was still a good time though, the parking crew was great. Plus, they gave all of us Subway sandwiches for lunch. I was lucky enough to be able to park our friends Gary and Ramona just one coach down from us on the front row. When they came in we had one front row spot left and the rally master let me put them there close to us.
At 4:30 p.m. we had the first of our rally happy hours and everyone attended. Jackie made her dips, and the wagon masters made hot dogs. There were also chips
and veggies to munch on. We had a good time visiting with our friends Gary and Ramona, as well as meeting new people. After dinner we cleaned up and then just crashed for the night. We were in bed by 9:30 because we knew we would be up again at dawn the next morning.Thursday, September 7th, we were again up at 6:00 a.m. to watch the Dawn Patrol take off. About seven the mass ascension started again. Like yesterday, the weather was perfect, 60 degrees, just enough wind and the take off’s going right over our heads. One thing I didn’t mention in yesterday’s description is an atmospheric feature they call the “Albuquerque Box”. This is one of the things that make Albuquerque a very unique place for balloon flying. With the box you have ground level winds blowing in one direction, in this case North to South, and then upper level winds, only a thousand feet or so higher, blowing almost the opposite direction. What this means if the balloons take off, fly South for a while, gain some altitude and catch the reverse wind at the higher level and fly right back over the field again. By going up and down they can do this “box” several times in one morning. It is really something to see. The box was working well this morning and we watched the balloons for about two hours.
The second session of the Festival features the “special shapes” balloons, which are the ones that have unique designs, shapes, and decorations. There are dozens of special shapes ranging from pigs to angels to monkeys to houses to you name it. We took hundreds of pictures, many of which I will post with this blog. There were also hundreds of regular balloons flying as well.
After the morning flying we relaxed for a little while until our 11:00 lunch time came around. Our entire group then car pooled to a local country club for a luncheon. The Tanoan Country Club was a very nice gated community in the foothills East of the Festival grounds. We had a cocktail first and then a very nice grilled
chicken lunch. It was standard banquet fare, but it was very tasty. We had rode up to the lunch with Gary and Ramona and we sat with them along with another couple we had not met, Bob and Honey Shellman. They were a very nice couple and we had a good time getting to know them. After lunch we went back to the Festival grounds and Jackie and I took a walk over to the balloon field. Since there were no activities during the late morning and afternoon, there weren’t too many people around. Many of the vendors and food booths were also closed for the afternoon, but would open later in the evening when the activities started again. We walked around for a while and looked in some of the shops that were open, but the only thing we bought was an inexpensive visor for Jackie. Jackie did manage to score a free breakfast burrito at one of the booths. We had been told by several people that the green chili breakfast burritos served at the Festival were not to be missed. However, we found that almost all of the food vendors served them and most had signs that touted “voted best burrito” or “award winning burrito”. Finally Jackie stopped at one booth and asked the guy how we would know which one was best if they all claimed it. He said that they had a contest every year for the best green chili burrito, and he thought they had won this year, but it hadn’t been announced yet. They then gave Jackie one for free. I am sure it was left over from breakfast and they probably would have tossed it anyway, but it was a nice gesture.After wandering around for a while we went back to the coach so Jackie could get her dips prepared. At 4:30 we had another social hour for the entire group. This time we had taquitos along with the dips and chips and other snacks. Since we had only had lunch a few hours before, it was plenty of food to serve as dinner. After dinner we gathered around the front area of our parking area to await the evening’s entertainment. On the schedule was a “balloon glow” which was to start right around sunset. A balloon glow is where they get as many balloons as will fit on the launch field, blow them up, but keep them tethered on the ground. Balloons don’t fly at night, but once they get stood upright the flames from the gas heaters cause the balloon envelope to glow quite brightly. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing too hard for the balloons to safely inflate, so the glow was cancelled. Around 7:00
they started the evening fireworks show, which was very nice. Again we took a lot of pictures. After fireworks we watched TV for a little while and then went to bed around 9:30 again.Friday, September 8th I got up about 5:30 a.m. because there was supposed to be a launch of the gas balloon flight. Gas balloons are the very large hydrogen balloons that folks race across the country and around the world. They fly at twenty and thirty thousand feet sometimes. They are totally unlike hot air balloons. The Albuquerque Festival always serves as a starting point for a race across the U.S. that lasts three days. Unfortunately, the launch of the gas balloons had been delayed several times. They were originally supposed to launch the Saturday before we got to the Festival, but it was cancelled because the balloonist that was lost during a race in Europe was supposed to have participated and he was well known in Albuquerque. Then the start got delayed a couple of more times because the weather wouldn’t cooperate. They were supposed to launch this morning, but there were thunderstorms in the area, so it was cancelled again. Although the thunderstorms were to the West and North of the city, the morning’s launch was still delayed. Hot air balloons do not do well in thunderstorms, so they ere on the side of caution. The weather finally cleared about 7:30 a.m. and they started the mass ascension.
I decided to actually walk down on the balloon field for this launch. Jackie chose to stay at the coach and take pictures from there again. Although it was a little more windy than it had been the last two mornings, a lot of the balloons still flew. Some of the larger special shape balloons inflated but didn’t launch. I spent a couple hours on the field, walking around, taking pictures and watching the activities. The balloons are very big when you see them up close, especially some of the special shapes. They have one which is a giant cow, 120 feet long! It has blown up every morning, but never launched. It needs very low winds to fly safely.
After I got back to the coach I rested for a bit and then at 11:00 we were off to our next luncheon, this time at El Pinto Mexican Restaurant. They had set up a buffet for us and the food was very good. We all had margaritas to go with lunch. We sat with some very nice people from Southern California and had a very good
lunch. After lunch we went back to the coach to rest for the afternoon and get ready for the evening activities. Jackie got her dips ready and at 4:30 we were back out with the group at happy hour. This time the nibbles were chicken wings/legs and shrimp cocktail. We were so full from dinner that we didn’t have much. I had a couple of wings and Jackie took some home for later. After the get together we noticed that balloons were starting to pop up into sight out on the field which meant that the evening balloon glow was going to happen. This would be our first glow since the one the night before had been cancelled. We debated going down on the field to see it close up, but decided to just sit in front of the coach
and watch. We could only see the balloons set up on the South end of the field, but we got some
good pictures. After the balloon glow, about 8:00 or so, the fireworks started and we had another great fireworks display. We watched the fireworks and took a bunch of pictures. After that we finally went back into the coach and crashed for the night.Saturday, October 9th we got up and got dressed so we could go down on the balloon field and watch the morning’s ascension. I had told Jackie how cool it was yesterday and she wanted to see it today. We walked down on the field about 7:00 a.m. and walked around for a couple of hours, watching them inflate the balloons and take off.
There were more balloons today than on previous mornings and I can only guess that some pilots can only fly on weekends. This was the best flying weather we have had all week, cool temperatures and very little wind. This meant that we were able to watch two of the larger special shape balloons fly for the first time since we arrived. One was Airabelle, the gigantic cow. This was the biggest balloon at the event at 120 feet long. We watched it take off a fly away. Right next to it was a huge stagecoach from Wells Fargo, which also flew for the first time. We had watched them blow these two up on previous mornings, but they didn’t fly because the wind conditions were not quite right. We took a lot of pictures, bought a breakfast burrito and went back to the coach to get cleaned up and have our breakfast burritos. Unfortunately, the one’s we bought had a lot of potato in them and were not very good. So many people had told us that the breakfast burritos at the Fiesta were great. We were a little disappointed. The one Jackie got for free the other day was full of potatoes also. I guess it’s a matter of personal taste.
For the first time since we were arrived we didn’t have a provided lunch as part of the rally. Since we had our breakfast burritos, we weren’t hungry anyway. We spent the day just relaxing at the coach until we had to start getting things ready for the evening’s happy hour. Tonight’s meal was all the leftovers from the previous nights and there was plenty. After happy hour we settled into our chairs in front of the motorhome and waited for the evening’s balloon glow. They put up a few balloons for the glow, but none of the big one’s because the wind was a little too strong. We don’t have a lot of pictures of the glow because it’s hard to get the timing right to catch the balloon as it lights up. After the glow they had another super fireworks show. All three of the fireworks shows they have put on have been great.
Sunday, October 10th was to be our departure day. Even though it was the last day, and the day everyone was supposed to leave, they still had a morning ascension scheduled and it went off as scheduled. Our wagon master had told us that if the Sunday ascension went up it would set a record for the Fiesta in that it would bethe first time in 39 years that there was no cancellation of morning flying for the entire week of the Fiesta. In the past there has always been at least one morning when weather conditions caused cancellation of the flying. We set a record! Yea us!
After the morning’s flight we started getting the coach ready to travel. The wagon master had told us not to plan on leaving much before 11:00 a.m. or so because the traffic would be too bad. However, by 10:00 we were ready to leave and there was no traffic on the roads going out of the Fiesta grounds. With this, we said goodbye to our friends Gary and Ramona, and our new friends from the rally, and headed out to I-25 for the 160 mile drive South to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. We had called ahead to ensure
that we had a spot, thinking that there would be a lot of people from the Fiesta crowding the RV parks. We found that there was plenty of room at the park and we were parked way up on a hill with a great view of Truth or Consequences. We learned that the town got it’s name from the radio (and later television) show of the same name back in the 50's. The show’s host, Ralph Edwards, announced that they would broadcast the show from the first town that renamed itself after the show. Hot Springs, New Mexico did that and afterwards Edward’s visited the town with the show at least once a year for the entire time the show was on the air. We didn’t do any exploring of the town because we just wanted to relax, but we decided we needed to come back and visit again in the future. I thought that I would have to spend the night troubleshooting an electrical problem. We lost 120 volt power to our outlets while on the road and I thought that the GFI receptacle in the bathroom had gone bad. I started to pull the GFI out of the wall after we got settled and found that a wire had come loose from the back. When I reattached it all was well. Yea!
Monday was also a travel day. We left Truth or Consequences about 10:00 a.m. and headed for Deming, New Mexico, about 80 miles Southeast. On the way we stopped in the little town of Hatch, New Mexico, which is famous for it’s chilies. We shopped at a couple of the little stores and Jackie wanted to get one of the hanging chili bunches, but the store that had the best looking one’s was being visited by a bus load of tourists so we finally just left. We arrived in Deming about noon and settled into the Little Vineyard RV park, the same place we stayed in March when we passed through Deming on our way to Albuquerque for the FMCA Convention. After lunch we did a Walmart run and then went out and did some geocaching for the first time in a week. We found five caches in a fairly short time before heading home for cocktail hour. We were going to walk around downtown and explore some shops, but there wasn’t much to Deming’s downtown. About 6:00 p.m. we headed to Irma’s Mexican restaurant for dinner. We had eaten at Irma’s with Peggy and Vernon Bullock back in March and loved it. The food was just a good this time and we left very satisfied. After dinner we relaxed at the coach for the night.
Tuesday, October 12th we left Deming about 9:30 and headed East on I-10 for St. David, Arizona. St. David is a very small town just South of Benson, Arizona. Our trip was about 170 miles, but we gained an hour back when we crossed into Arizona from New Mexico. Until the end of the month when daylight savings time ends, Arizona is on Pacific time. Arizona doesn’t participate in daylight savings time. We arrived at the Western Horizons RV Resort in St. David about 12:00 and got settled into our site fairly quickly. We were surprised to find that it was still HOT, about 98 degrees. I decided to wait until the next morning to do all the outside work like the window screens and patio stuff. We are going to be here at this park for two weeks. Yea, no more traveling for two weeks.
Our arrival here in St. David also marks the conclusion of this episode of our travel blog. We will be back in a couple weeks with the story of our stay here in Southeast Arizona. Until then, be happy and healthy and enjoy everything the world has to offer.
