Farmington, New Mexico and I-40 Across Arizona

Hello friends, welcome back to the story. Our last chapter concluded on Sunday, October 9th, with our arrival in Farmington, New Mexico, for the FMCA Rocky Mountain Area Rally. We drove from the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque to Farmington on Sunday afternoon.

Monday, October 10th was a free day. Although we arrived on Sunday, we were part of early parking, meaning we got our spot, but the actual rally doesn’t start until Wednesday. I went out in the morning to the bank and then to get the car washed. After all the rain and stuff from the last couple weeks it was pretty filthy. We then picked up some friends of ours, Bev and Jerry King, and drove into Farmington for lunch. Bev and Jerry have a home in Indio, but we actually know them from FMCA rallies. Bev is the Secretary for the Military Veteran’s Chapter, of which I am a charter member. We went for lunch to a Blake’s Lotaburger drive in. Since we have been running all over New Mexico for most of the summer, we have noticed that there are Blake’s drive ins in every town, usually more than one. We had never been to one and I have wanted to try them. Since this is our last stop in New Mexico, I figured it was now or never, so we went. The food was OK - nothing special, so now I can say I tried it, but won’t be in a big hurry to go back. After lunch we went to Walmart because the King’s needed some supplies for a Vet’s Chapter social they are hosting later in the week. They don’t have a tow car because it got wrecked a couple weeks ago and is still in the shop. After we took the King’s back to their coach we went back into town to do some laundry and more shopping.

After we got home we relaxed at the coach until cocktail hour when we got together with Peggy and Vernon for happy hour. We decided to break out some steaks for dinner, along with some veggies and sweet potatoes, at Peggy and Vernon’s coach. It was a great dinner and afterwards we chatted until about 8:00 when we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, October 11th, we left with Peggy and Vernon to do some geocaching. After five finds we went to lunch at one of the My Big Fat Greek Restaurant’s locations here in Farmington. Jackie spotted it yesterday while we were driving around and she loves Greek food. We have eaten at the same restaurant in Tucson several times and the food is always good. This one is a new location and has only been open less than a month. Jackie had a Gyro and I had a steak and cheese pita that was very tasty. Peggy had a huge sampler platter that was way too big for one sitting. She took a big part of it home in a box. After lunch did more geocaching, finally ending up with ten new finds and no DNFs. After caching we went back to the coach and had happy hour with the Bullocks. We skipped dinner because we had eaten such a big lunch.

Wednesday we hung around the coach until after lunch when we went down to the events center for a seminar on destination ideas. The seminar was well attended and was basically a round table discussion of great places people have visited with their RVs. About half were places we have been, and we got some good ideas from the other half of the suggestions. After that seminar we spent a little time walking around the vendors. Didn’t buy anything and didn’t spend too much time because there were only about 16 or 17 vendors, not a great turnout.

We then went to the first timers seminar where they told us a little about the history of the Rocky Mountain Area and the rallies. We are first timers at this particular rally, but, of course, we have been to many other rallies, so we didn’t learn much new. We then went to the Chapter Fair, where I helped out with the booth for the Military Veteran’s Chapter. The chapter fair at a rally is an hour long forum where different chapters of FMCA can set up a booth to recruit new members. We got about a half dozen new members for the chapter.

After the chapter fair we headed back to the coach where we had happy hour with Peggy and Vernon. Peggy then cooked us a lasagna dish that her daughter, who is a gourmet chef, had made up and froze for her. It was sinfully delicious. We stayed for a little while after dinner and then went back to our coach for the night.

Thursday, October 13th, the weather just keeps getting better and better. We went down to the activities area about 10:00 for a seminar on geocaching. A friend of ours, Gary Underhill, who, with his wife LuVerne, are very active cachers, was teaching the seminar. We didn’t learn too much new, but enjoyed the session and met several other cachers. After the caching seminar we went back to the coach for lunch before returning for another seminar at 1:00. Jackie and I split up this time with Jackie going to a course on co-pilot training, and me going to a session on the benefits that come with an FMCA membership.

At 2:30 we sat out on the patio area and watched the pet parade. They had about 50 entries, all of which two were dogs. There were two cats that they brought out first. They were leashed trained cats, but being out in the open with lots of people and dogs nearby made them VERY nervous. Jackie and I joked that if we tried that with Smokey he would eat us alive right there. Peggy and Vernon’s dog Belle was in the competition, dressed in a nice orange dress. Unfortunately, she didn’t win any of the prizes, but she was cute. After the pet session we went back to the coach to pick up snacks and headed over to Bev and Jerry King’s coach for the Military Veteran’s Chapter social, which they held at their RV site. There were over 50 people that showed up for the social and we had a good time. We finally got back to the coach about 5:30 to relax for a little while before changing into our Halloween costumes for the party at 7:00. We didn’t really have costumes, we both bought orange Halloween tee shirts at Walmart and goofy wigs. I had a big Afro wig and Jackie got a witch wig with long black hair. We dressed up and went down with Peggy and Vernon to the party, which really wasn’t much. They had a DJ playing music, but he was playing really old country music, 40's stuff, which is not my cup of tea. They had a pumpkin carving contest, but only six people participated. They then had a costume contest, which went better. There were a couple of dozen people who had really elaborate costumes that were fun to look at. Once the contest was over at 8:30 most everyone left, including us. We went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Friday, October 14th we were up early and out of the coach for breakfast at 8:00. The rally provides breakfast for everyone on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, however, we are not normally breakfast eaters and don’t get up early enough for a buffet that ends at 9:00. However, today we did because we are going on a Jeep run with a bunch of people from the rally. Originally, I signed up and planned to take our Jeep, however, on further consideration I decided that we had a little too much of a “Gentleman’s Jeep” to risk a trail ride. We decided to ride along with Peggy and Vernon, who have a “real” Jeep Wrangler. We all met up in the parking lot and there were about 25 Jeeps on the run. We caravanned from the fairgrounds to the area where the trail was, on the northwest side of town. Once we got to the trail start the leaders set up the order of driving so that those who didn’t have a lot of experience were in between some people who were more experienced. Once we started the up hill part of the run I was quite happy that I decided not to bring our Jeep. It might have made it without damage, but there were some really rocky areas and even a couple of rock shelves to climb. Our Jeep has soft suspension and is not trail rated, so I think I will stick to dirt roads and keep off the Jeep trails. That actual run was only a couple of miles long, but it took an hour and a half for everyone to get through it. Some of the more radical Jeeps even took some of the more difficult shortcuts, which was pretty impressive to watch.

After the Jeep run the four of us did some more geocaching up in the north part of Farmington. We got four before deciding to head for home. After we got home we relaxed for a little while and then went up to the Farmington Elks Lodge for some cocktails. We had told several other friends at the rally who we know to be Elks, that we were going up there at 5:00. Besides Jackie and I there were Peggy and Vernon, and two couples who had been at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta with us, including David and Kay Piper, the wagonmasters for the Balloon rally.

After the Elks we went out to eat with Peggy and Vernon. We had thought about eating at the Elks because they had a Friday night dinner. However, we had heard from several different people that the food at the Elks was not so good. We ended up at a steak house in downtown Farmington called Dillon’s. The service was great and my steak was wonderful. Jackie first ordered a Veal Oscar dish, but sent it back because it was very salty. She ended up with veal picata, which she said was excellent. The portions were huge and I ended up taking half my New York home with me, which is rare for me. Jackie took a big portion of her’s home for lunch also. After dinner we went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, October 15th, the last day of the rally. I got up early and went over to the events area about 9:00 because I had signed up for bean bag baseball, one of the games they play at rallies. I was on the military veteran’s team. Since I was early enough, I stopped in and had a free breakfast. Jackie was still home in her jammies and missed breakfast. I only got to play one game of baseball because we got beat in the first round and were out of the competition. I spent a few minutes looking at the classic cars that had come in for the morning’s car show. My favorite was a 1964 Studebaker Silver Hawk coupe. I always wanted a Studebaker when I was a kid. After I got back to the coach Jackie and I went out geocaching with Peggy for a couple of hours. Vernon didn’t want to go and stayed home with the dog. We managed to get ten new caches in the course of a couple hours, along with one DNF.

We had our happy hour at 5:00 at the coach and then the four of us went back over to the events center for dinner. They only had one dinner at this rally, an optional event, but we all bought tickets for it. They had a choice of pork or chicken and both were OK for buffet food. We didn’t stay for the entertainment, which was a barbershop quartet from Farmington. After dinner we went back to the coaches and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, October 16th, a travel day again. Peggy and Vernon pulled out early, about 7:30 because they are going to Moab, Utah, which is over 200 miles on some pretty mountainous roads. They will be heading home to northern California in a week or so Peggy can have her second knee replacement. We will see them again in Indio in December. We took our time getting ready and pulled out of the fairgrounds about 10:00. We stopped for fuel in Farmington and then headed southwest to Gallup, New Mexico, about 135 miles. We pulled into Gallup to the USA RV park at just about 1:00 p.m. and got set up. For the first time in nearly two weeks we have full hookups with sewer and everything. Yea! We will be here for three days before continuing west, working our way to Pahrump, Nevada. Jackie was not handling the increase in altitude to 6,500 well, so we just stayed in the rest of the day.

Monday, October 17th, Jackie was still not feeling well, so we just stayed around the coach all day. Tuesday was more of the same. We have pretty much cached this area dry anyway, so we aren’t missing much.

Wednesday, October 19th, we packed up and left Gallup heading West on I-40, 190 miles to Flagstaff, Arizona. Once we crossed the Arizona border we “time traveled” back an hour into what amounts to Pacific time. We got into Flagstaff about 1:00 or so and went into the Black Bart RV park, the same one we stay at anytime we come through Flagstaff. We are only going to be here one day, so we did the minimal amount of hookup. The gal in the office told us it was going to freeze tonight, so I didn’t even hook up the hose. We will just run off what is left in the fresh water tank. After we got set up we went to Sam’s Club and Walmart for supplies. Neither Needles, California nor Pahrump, Nevada have a Sam’s or Costco, so we needed to get some liquor and other bulk items. After shopping we went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night.

Thursday, October 20th, we left Flagstaff about 9:00 and were again westbound on I-40, this time going 211 miles to Needles, California. We stopped just prior to going into California to buy fuel. The fuel in Arizona was $3.78 per gallon. 30 miles later, when we got off the freeway in Needles we saw a station selling it for $4.79 per gallon. Holy Moly! Granted, it was probably one of those stations that jacks the price up because they are right off the freeway, but give me a break. Even the California truck stops I checked on line were at $4.19.

We went into the Needles Elks Lodge about 1:00 and got settled into a space. They have six full hookup sites, but no one else was there. They charge $15 a night for 50 amp, water and sewer. Indio Elks only has 30 amp and no sewer at the sites and they charge $25 a night. We will be here for five days, hoping that Jackie will get re-acclimated to the lower altitude. Needles is only a little over 600 feet in elevation. Yea!

Friday, October 21st, we got up and had a leisurely morning, enjoying the mild weather and the thick air. Our plan was to do our laundry today, so we looked for local laundromats on the internet. Nothing found in Needles. Jackie finally called the City of Needles and learned from a woman there that there were no stand alone laundromats in Needles. There was one in a motel in downtown Needles and one in the Marina RV park, both of which were open to the public. We decided to just wait until we got to Pahrump early next week to do laundry.

We then decided to go out after lunch and do some geocaching. One of the caches we found was outside the Needles Chamber of Commerce so after finding the cache we went in and talked to the gal in the office. She confirmed that the only laundromat in Needles went out of business about a year ago. We ended up getting ten finds for the afternoon. Many of the caches were remote, desert caches, so it took us a while to get from cache to cache. A couple required some doubling back to find the right gravel road. We also got one DNF. After caching we headed back home for the rest of the night.

Saturday, October 22nd, my brother David’s birthday. He lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Happy Birthday Dave. We left the coach before lunch and drove forty miles south along the Colorado River to Lake Havasu, Arizona. We had heard yesterday at the Needles Chamber of Commerce that there was a big car show going on this weekend in Lake Havasu. We got down into town and stopped for lunch at a Red Robin. After lunch we went out onto the island, which you get to by driving across the old London Bridge. We found the car show being held at one of the resorts, out on the golf course. It was, by far, the largest car show I have ever seen. It was called Relics and Rods Run to the Sun, and there were more than 700 classic cars and street rods on display. They also had a lot of booths, many with car-related items for sale. We spent about two hours walking around the cars, taking pictures and admiring the vehicles. One of the highlights for me was a car that looked identical to my very first car, a 1954 Chevy convertible, red with a white top and red and white interior. Really brought back memories. I bought the car in 1965, after I graduated from high school, for $285. Probably worth twenty grand now.

We could have spent more time looking at cars, but it was very hot, mid 90's, and we needed to get out of the sun. We went back to the car, cooled off with the A/C, and then did some caching in the Lake Havasu area. We ended up finding ten new caches, with one DNF. One of the caches we found was our 3,000th geocache find! A big milestone for us. A little over three years and we hit 3,000. Yea! After caching we drove back up to Needles and relaxed the rest of the night.

Sunday, October 23rd, we stayed at home for the day. I got a couple of chores completed, including cleaning the radiator on the coach. Our motorhome has a rear radiator, and I have read quite a few articles that say one must clean the radiator from time to time because gunk builds up on the inside of the radiator which restricts the air flow. I have not experienced any real overheating issues, but thought I needed to do it anyway. I bought some Simple Green degreaser and sprayed the radiator good. After letting it sit for a while I hosed it out good and then started the engine to blow the water and soap out. The engine on the coach is in the back and the fan pushes air towards the radiator rather than pulling it in like it does on a car. It was funny watching huge soap bubbles coming out of the back of the coach until the soap was gone. I also cleaned off my batteries and did some other chores before settling in for a relaxing day in the coach.

Monday, October 24th, we left after lunch to do some final day geocaching in the Needles area. Actually, we did all of our caching just east across the Colorado River in Arizona, but still less than 20 miles from Needles. We managed to find ten new caches, with one DNF for our records. Several of the caches were on the Mojave River Indian Reservation, and we only got ten in three hours because the caches were pretty far apart.

After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while before going into the Elks Lodge for cocktails and tacos. Although we are staying in their RV park, this is the first time we have been in the lodge on this trip. We were here a year or so ago for one night and we visited the lodge at that time and got our lodge pin. The calendar said it was Monday Night Football, but all the TV’s had the World Series on. They had tacos for $1.00, so we had dinner for $5.00, along with a couple of cocktails. The lodge bought the first round, so we only had to pay for one. After we finished our drinks and tacos we went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, October 25th, time to pack up and head north for “home” in Pahrump. We had about 165 miles to go, but the trip takes us right through Las Vegas. As we were packing up Jackie noticed that the control panel for the inverter system was showing erratic readings. The inverter is the device that converts the 12 volt DC power from the coach’s batteries into 120 volt AC for the electric outlets when you are not connected to shore power. I unplugged the control panel and then reconnected it, which usually solves the problem of a crazy display, but this time it didn’t work. The inverter itself seemed to be working fine. It doesn’t require the remote to function, the remote only makes it easier to monitor the inverter from inside the coach. I guess the control panel has gone south and I will need to replace it.

As a result of the time spent trying to determine the problem with the inverter system, we got a late start, not getting out of Needles until about 10:30. The trip was uneventful and we made it through Las Vegas traffic with no problems, arriving in Pahrump about 1:30. We settled into what used to be a Western Horizons membership park, Charleston Peak Resort. Unfortunately, the company lost the park to foreclosure earlier this year and it is now owned by the bank. The operators have said they will honor Western Horizons members through the end of 2012, but after that I guess we will have to find other accommodations when we come to Pahrump. This is a bit of a bummer because this was our favorite Western Horizons park. Unfortunately, the entire WHR system is in trouble, so I think this membership will be out of business in a few years.

I spent much of the rest of the afternoon getting set up for our two week stay here in Pahrump. This also seemed like a good time to close this chapter of our tale and get it published. I will probably do another episode when we finish our two week stay here. Until the next time, keep the faith, wear a smile and enjoy every moment of life. See Ya!

Back to Albuquerque for Balloon Fiesta

Hello again readers, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on September 28th with our arrival in Trinidad, Colorado after a 150 mile drive south from Monument, Colorado. We arrived in Trinidad about 1:30 and got set up pretty quickly. We are only going to be here for three days, so we didn’t set up anything outside the coach except for utilities. I had noticed that the plastic tubing that provides water to the ice maker inside the refrigerator had sprung a pinhole leak, so I decided that this would be a good time to tackle that job. The heat from the workings in the back of the refrigerator tend to cause the plastic tubing to harden and develop pinhole leaks after about 18 months. This would be the fourth time I have replace the tubing since we bought the coach.

I already had the tubing, but lacked the parts for the ends, so I headed into Trinidad to the hardware store. I thought I had bought the right parts and put everything together pretty quick. It is really a very basic, simple plumbing job. However, as soon as I turned the water supply back on the connection in the back of the refrigerator came loose, spraying water all over the back of the fridge. Shut the water off and found that the connection was very loose. I guess I bought the wrong size connector. I took apart the connector on the old line and reused the pieces, so far so good. About an hour later Jackie came back into the bedroom where I was watching TV in a panic telling me there was water spraying around under the refrigerator. Yikes! Ran outside and shut off the water, but by that time we had quite a little flood around the bottom of the fridge. The connection down there came loose too. Cleaned up the immediate mess, set a fan down to dry that area and let it be for a while. I’ll finish the fix tomorrow after I go back to the hardware store for the right parts. My only concern is to get the water dried up before it has a chance to rot the wood or create mold. It’s always something with a motorhome. After my repair gone wrong adventure, we just stayed in the coach for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, September 29th, we woke to a much cooler and windier day. A fast moving cold front was moving through, stirring up the breezes. Shortly after I got up this morning I yawned, stretched and had a lower back spasm. Now my back hurts like hell. Old age is not for sissies. Took some aspirin, put on a hot patch and just rested for the remainder of the day. I did finish the fix on the ice maker and it appears to be holding this time. We decided that we would just wait until tomorrow before we explore Trinidad and see if my back is better.

Friday morning I woke up and my back was a little better, at least I could get around some. After lunch we set out to do some caching in Trinidad. It is not exactly a hot bed of cachers, there were only a couple of caches right in town, and only a dozen within a 12 mile radius. We ended up getting eight new finds for the afternoon. One of them was at Trinidad Lake State Park, which is just outside of town. Since we were there we checked out the campground at the lake. They have a very nice campground with four full hookup sites and about 50 other sites that all have 50 amp electric. The sites are paved and most are big enough for a coach like ours. Many are right on the lake shore. Problem is, they priced themselves out of the market as far as I am concerned. The full hookup sites are $27 a night, and the electric sites are $20 a night. However, they also make you buy a day use pass every day, which is an additional $7 a day. The sites are nice, but not that nice. We also did three “sprit quest” caches, which are caches near cemeteries. One was the Engleville cemetery which was several miles southeast of town. The area was a ghost town with several ruins around. Another was on a dirt trail above Trinidad Lake that we could not have gotten had we not been in a four wheel drive high clearance car.

After caching we spent some time walking around in the old downtown area. The old town area is very picturesque, with a lot of old turn of the century buildings. On the main streets. Trinidad sprung up in the mid 1800's as a way stop along the Sante Fe Trail. One of the most interesting historical tidbits about the town is much more recent, however. At one time Trinidad was dubbed the "Sex Change Capital of the World", because a local doctor had an international reputation for performing sex reassignment surgery. In the 1960s, Dr. Stanley Biber, a military surgeon returning from Korea, decided to move to Trinidad because he had heard that the town needed a surgeon. In 1969 a local social worker asked him if he would perform the sex change surgery for her, which he learned by consulting diagrams and talking to a New York surgeon. Biber attained a reputation as a good surgeon at a time when very few doctors performed sex reassignment operations. At his peak, Biber was performing roughly four sex change operations a day, and the term "taking a trip to Trinidad" became a euphemism for some seeking the procedures he offered. His surgical practice was taken over in 2003 by Marci Bowers, who has since moved from Trinidad. Biber was featured as a character in an episode of the animated TV show South Park where elementary school teacher Mr. Garrison undergoes a sex change operation.

About 5:00 we went to the Trinidad Elks Lodge, which is in an old three story building just off of the main street in downtown. The Lodge is number 181, which makes it one of the older lodges still in operation. This was a very friendly lodge and the bartender, Dee, made us feel very welcome. It was she who first brought up the story of Dr. Biber and his sex change practice when talking about the history of Trinidad. She also introduced us to several members of the Lodge who came in for cocktails and snacks. The lodge bought the first drink for us and we had a second because we were having such a great time visiting with the locals. One of the trustees took me on a tour of the lodge. They have a dedicated lodge room on the top floor, which was common in the older buildings. They have a large hall and kitchen on the bottom floor. The clubroom is in the middle. The lodge building was built in 1925, after the Lodge’s old building on main street burned down. The lodge was chartered in 1891.

After our cocktails, and getting a lodge pin for our banner, we left the lodge and headed home. Since it was kind of late we stopped at a Mexican restaurant just down the street from our RV park called Tequilas. It is a fairly new place and was recommended by some of the people in the lodge. The food was excellent and the service was good too. We got there about 7:00 and it was very busy. They have an extensive menu with all the favorites, as well as some interesting dishes I have never seen on a Mexican menu. Jackie had a Mexican stir fry which combined typical Asian stir fry veggies with Spanish rice. It was a huge portion and Jackie took half of it home. She said it was exceptional. I had a red chili burrito and taco that was also very good. After dinner we headed home for the rest of the night.

Saturday, October 1st, we packed up the coach and left Trinidad about 9:30 for a 135 mile trip south on I-25, headed for Las Vegas. Las Vegas, New Mexico, that is. We arrived at the KOA just south of town about noon and got settled in. We have a nice site with a great view of the rolling hills. As soon as we got settled in we drove into town to do our laundry. Its been over two weeks and the dirty clothes were threatening to overwhelm the bedroom. We also made a stop at the local Walmart for provisions. After that we just spent the rest of the evening in the coach.
Sunday, October 2nd my back continues to improve and the weather here in northern New Mexico promises to be great today. After lunch we decide to go out and do some caching. Like Trinidad, Las Vegas, New Mexico does not have a lot of caches. I managed to find about a dozen to look for within a twelve mile radius of town. We actually end up getting six new finds, with no DNFs. We didn’t bother to go after some of the more distant caches. One of the caches took us up into the foothills of the mountains to the northwest of Las Vegas. These mountains represent the lower edge of the Rocky Mountains and were named Sangre de Cristo by the Spanish who first came to this area. This means Blood of Christ. The name is said to come from the red color of the range at some sunrises and sunsets, especially when the mountains are covered with snow,

We learned that there are a number of natural hot springs about seven miles north of town around which a number of resorts were built back in the late 1800's. As we were coming up the road we saw this beautiful old brick building on the side of the hill that looked to us like some sort of old resort. As it turns out this was the former Montezuma Resort Hotel which was built in 1886 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad as a luxury hotel for guests wanting to partake of the nearby hot springs. It was a 90,000 square foot, 400 room resort built in the Queen Anne style with a huge turret at one end to be used for viewing. The building was later known as the Montezuma Castle. Montezuma is the name of the small, local community in which the hot springs lie.

Today the castle is used as part of the campus of the Armand Hammer United World College. The existence of this college system was another thing we learned today. The United World College-USA is one of thirteen United World Colleges located all around the world. The one in Montezuma, the only in the U.S., was founded in 1982 by industrialist and philanthropist Armand Hammer. The college is a two-year, independent, coeducational boarding school with about 200 students representing 80-90 countries at any time. The vast majority of these students receive full scholarships, being selected by the 124 National Committees that represent the United World Colleges around the globe.

The school's mission is to teach international understanding by bringing together young men and women of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds, in an environment in which they must work together for success. In addition to offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, the school has a strong program in the arts and a significant service program, including mountain search and rescue. Typically, students are between 16 and 19 years old. Graduates are typically accepted at the most competitive colleges and universities around the world. In late 2007, the Wall Street Journal identified United World College - USA as one of the world's top 50 schools for its success in preparing students to enter top American universities.

We always say that geocaching has greatly enhanced our ability to learn new things as we travel around the country. Accept for geocaching, we would probably have never seen either the old hotel or the college. After our caching adventures we made a quick stop at Walmart and then headed back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Monday, October 3rd, we spent the day working around the coach, mostly cleaning and getting things ready for our five days of dry camping at the Balloon Fiesta. I had to check the batteries, fill the fresh water tank and empty the waste tanks. Late in the afternoon the skies darkened and we started getting rain showers. Not real heavy, but enough to clean the dust off the coach and the car. About 4:00 we got in the car and headed to the Las Vegas Elks Lodge for a visit. When we got to the lodge we found it locked. The Elks travel book that I had in the coach said that the lodge was open four to midnight every day except Sunday. However, that book was a 2003 edition so Jackie looked at the 2007 version we have in the car and it said the bar opened at 5:00. We decided to wait and check since we were in town anyway, so we drove to a nearby Beall’s store and did a little shopping. I ended up getting a couple of tee shirts and Jackie got a pair of earrings. About 5:15 we went back to the lodge and it was open. Yippee. We went in and were warmly greeted by the bartender, as well as some of the other people in the bar. We met about a dozen members as the people started coming in. Everyone who came in came over and said hi. We met three Past Exalted Rulers and they were all women. They even rang the bell and introduced us to everyone in the lodge.

Of course, being New Mexico, the lodge had slot machines in their casino room, so we went in to play. Didn’t have any luck, between the two of us we lost $40. Our contribution to the lodge. We had a couple of drinks and got a lodge pin for our banner. This was a very friendly lodge. We learned a little about the demographics of northern New Mexico because nearly everyone in the lodge was Hispanic. We had a great chat with one of the Trustee’s of the lodge who was born and raised in Las Vegas. He said the only time he has been out of town was when he was in the Navy. He told us a lot about the history of the area.

We would have liked to stay a little longer at the lodge because the people were so nice, but we had made reservations for dinner at the RV park. When we checked into the park they told us that they do dinner out back of the office every night. They have mostly hamburgers and sandwiches, but they even had some small steaks on the menu. Since you have to pre-order dinner and pay for it when you buy your “ticket”, we were committed to eating there. We both had the green chili cheeseburgers and they were wonderful. Unfortunately, it was cold and raining, so we didn’t eat in the ramada where they make the food, even though it was covered. We took the meal back to the coach and ate there.

Tuesday, October 4th, was another travel day. Today is the day we go into the Balloon Fiesta grounds for our rally. Most of the group will not be in until Wednesday, but we volunteered to help with the rally, as we did last year, so we get to go in a day early. The Balloon Fiesta is a ten day event, but it is split into two “sessions” of five days each. The schedule of events is very similar for each of the sessions, so this way they can cycle two sets of people through the various campsites around the festival grounds. The rally we are going to is sponsored by the Monaco International Chapter of FMCA, which is the same group we went with last year.

We were told by the wagon masters to arrive about 3:30 in the afternoon and from Las Vegas we were only about 100 miles away, so we didn’t get in too big a hurry packing up. We still ended up leaving the camp site about 10:30. We had to stop at the park to fill the propane tank and then at a truck stop to fill with fuel. I always like to go into a dry camp situation with a full, or nearly full, fuel tank so I can run the generator as much as we need to without worrying about fuel. When we left Las Vegas the skies were just partly cloudy. However, as we drove south on I-25 towards Albuquerque the skies started to darken and by the time we got to Sante Fe, about 50 miles north of Albuquerque the rain started. We had agreed to meet with Peggy and Vernon Bullock, some good friends of ours who are also going to the rally as volunteers, at the Sandia Casino, which is only a couple miles from the fiesta grounds. We arrived at the casino about 1:15, just a few minutes after the Bullocks. We parked in the parking lot and greeted Peggy and Vernon, who we have not seen since March when we were in Yuma. Regular readers may remember that we traveled with the Bullocks for about three months and watched their new puppy Belle grow up. We had wondered whether she would remember us after six months, but as soon as I walked up to her she went nuts and it was pretty clear she knew who I was. Cool.

It was raining on and off while we sat in the casino parking lot waiting until our designated time to go into the rally. We noticed that the casino parking lot was jammed with RVs of every description, despite signs around that said overnight parking was not allowed. Many of the RVs looked like they were in for a long stay. In between rain events we disconnected our cars and got ready to go in to park. About 3:00 we left and went into the grounds. Although it was raining, the rally masters came out and got us parked. Like last year, we got parked in the front row overlooking the balloon field. I think we are in the exact same spot we were last year. The Bullocks got parked right next door.

After getting settled in and leveled, the Bullocks came over to our coach for cocktails and we spent a couple hours catch up. About 5:30 the wagon masters told us that they were going out to dinner, but we had all had late lunches, so we declined and just continued our visit. It was really nice to see Peggy and Vernon again. We enjoy traveling with them. We will only be with them here at this rally and then at the Farmington rally we are attending right after the Fiesta. We will then see them again in Indio in January at the Indio FMCA rally. Peggy and Vernon left about 7:00 or so and we watched TV until we went to bed.

Wednesday, October 5th, we woke to a cool but mostly clear morning. It appeared that the rain was going to stay away today. That is a good thing because today is the day that the rest of the rally attendees are going to arrive and I am part of the parking crew. It would not be pleasant to be out in the rain all day. The first coaches came in about 9:30 and we had a steady stream until mid afternoon. The Monaco group has about 45 coaches attending and we got them all parked without incident. My back, which had been hurting since it spasmed a few days back, was pretty good today. I had put on a back support belt that I had and that helped a lot.

About 4:30 we had our first rally happy hour and everyone came with their lawn chairs to the common area. The rally masters had planned a great meal with hot dogs, chili, nachos and lots of snacks. They also had a margarita machine going which was kind of neat. We chatted with a number of the attendees, including several that we remembered from last year at this same event. Most people hung around until about 6:30 when the sun went down, but then it got cold and we cleaned up the tables and went into our coaches. We went over for cocktails with the Bullocks in their coach until about 8:00 when we went home for the night. We turned in early because at the Balloon Fiesta things get started early, about 6:00 a.m., which is REALLY early for us.

Thursday, October 6th, I awoke about twenty minutes before six and got out of bed to see what was going on with the balloons this morning. We learned last year that the local NBC TV station has a guy that goes down on the balloon field every morning of the Fiesta about four AM and gives up to date information on the Fiesta and the weather. This morning he was telling folks that the wind was too high for the balloons to fly, but that later in the morning they might inflate and just stay tethered so the people who came to the event could at least see something. When I got out of bed the “dawn patrol” balloons were inflated and just setting on the field. The dawn patrol is two to four balloons who go up about 6:00, before daylight, to check the wind conditions. I noticed the flags on the fence in front of the motorhome were flapping pretty good, so I didn’t think there would be any flying. After a half hour or so the dawn patrol balloons deflated without flying, so I knew there would be no flights today.

Around 7:00 or so, when the regular flying normally starts, the field starting filling with balloons inflating. However, none were going to go up, they were just staying tethered. Today was special shapes day, which are all the balloons that are not the normal pear shaped hot air balloons that most people are familiar with. There are all kinds of shapes, including various animals, vehicles, bottles, etc. This morning there was a giant cow, a rocket, a fire truck, and dozens of others that at least inflated so people could see them. It is disappointing that there was no flying on our first full day of the Fiesta, but we can’t control the weather.

About 11:00 we left the balloon grounds for our first group lunch. As with last year, the group went to the Tanoan Country Club for lunch. The club is in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, east of the balloon grounds and is a very exclusive, gated community. The lunch was great, London broil, mashed potatoes and veggies. We spent about 90 minutes at lunch and sat with the Bullocks and another couple from California who knew a number of people that we knew from FMCA. We had a great lunch and afterwards we and the Bullocks decided to do a little geocaching before heading back to the Fiesta grounds. We only had about an hour or so, but we were able to get five new caches, along with one DNF. We then headed back to the coach so Jackie could start her pot of queso dip for the happy hour. That is her “work” assignment for the rally, making queso every night.

At 4:30 we had happy hour along with snacks. Only about half the group showed up because it was overcast, windy and pretty cool. We stayed out for about an hour before going back into the coach and the warmth for the rest of the night.

There was supposed to be a balloon glow tonight, that is when the balloons inflate after dark but stayed tethered down. It is a pretty neat light show when it happens. unfortunately, the wind was blowing pretty hard, too hard for them to inflate the balloons, even tethered. However, at about 7:30 they did have the regularly scheduled fireworks show. We remembered from last year that they have a very nice fireworks performance each night and tonight was no exception. They had a bout fifteen or twenty minutes worth of fireworks, which we were able to see quite nicely from the comfort of the inside of our warm coach. After fireworks we watched a little TV and then headed off to bed.

Friday, October 7th, I woke up about 6:00 or so but was pretty sure that there would be no balloons yet again. It had rained most of the night and it was still raining when I woke up. The dawn patrol didn’t fly at daybreak and at 7:00 the guy on TV said that the morning flights had been cancelled again. This was real disappointing, especially since last year we had perfect weather each day we were here. We felt bad for Peggy and Vernon, and other people who were here for the first time. At 11:00 we went out for our second group lunch, this time at a Mexican restaurant called La Pinta, which was not too far from the Fiesta grounds. This was the same place we came last year. The food was a buffet and was OK, nothing spectacular, but OK. We had a good time sitting with Peggy and Vernon and Gary and Ramona Wilson. Gary and Ramona are our good friends and were the one’s we came with last year to the balloon fiesta. They also liked it so much that they came back this year. After lunch we and Peggy and Vernon went out again for some afternoon caching. We had kind of a rough spell with three DNFs, but we also managed to get five new finds in about 90 minutes.

We got back to the coaches just in time for the rain to start in earnest. It got very cold and the rain was really coming down. They ended up cancelling the happy hour because of the rain. They also cancelled the evening balloon glow again. The Navy Seal jump team did do a skydiving jump onto the field and then did a low level, high speed flyby in their C-130 four engine transport. That was kind of neat. Peggy and Vernon came over for cocktails and we talked until about 8:00 when they left. The four of us did sit in the coach and watch the evening’s fireworks show, which was not cancelled despite the fact that it was raining pretty hard. After they left we watched a little TV and went to bed, hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Saturday, October 8th, we FINALLY woke up to a clear morning. Blue skies, not a cloud to be seen, and very light winds. It was cold, 38 degrees at 7:00, but the TV commentator said that it appeared that they were going to be able to fly and do the mass ascension that was scheduled for today. They delayed the flying from 7:00 to about 8:00, but they did finally inflate the balloons and FLY! We got dressed and went down on the balloon field, which is only a short walk from our coach. As we walked around we watched them inflate balloons, get them ready to fly, and finally take off. Last year all of the morning flights had the balloons taking off south, right over where our coaches were parked. This morning the wind was blowing to the east, so it was a good thing that we went down on the field or we wouldn’t have had the close look at the balloons that we normally do. They ended up flying a couple hundred balloons this morning, which was pretty cool. Because the winds were a little higher than ideal, most of the bigger special shape balloons only inflated and stayed tethered. They didn’t fly because they are more sensitive to wind speed than the smaller, ordinary balloons. After most of the balloons had taken off we spent some time walking around the various vendors that set up tents on the field. We also stopped for a morning drink at the Dos XX Cantina tent. We ended up spending about two hours or so on the field before heading back to the coach.

When we got back to the coach we talked to Peggy and Vernon and decided to go out to lunch at a local restaurant. There was no organized lunch for the group today. Peggy picked out a place from the internet and we left to go find it. It was supposed to be on Central Avenue, near downtown, however, we couldn’t find the place. Peggy finally called them and found that they had gone out of business. We ended up going to another place that we just happened to see, a Mexican place called El Sarape. It turned out to be an excellent choice. The food was very good. The place doesn’t look like much, it is on Central just west of San Mateo. I would recommend the place highly. While we were trying to find a place to eat we saw the Albuquerque version of the “Occupy” protest movement marching up and down Central ave. There were only about forty or fifty people and it looked like almost as many police to try to keep them from blocking traffic during their march. They all looked like typical hippy type war protestors, banging drums and chanting sayings from the sixties. After lunch the four of us did some more geocaching before heading back to the Fiesta grounds. This time we had no DNFs and managed eight new finds. Yea!

The 4:30 happy hour was well attended again due to the nice weather. Everyone stayed out until the sun went down around 6:00 and it started to cool off quite a bit. We went back to the coach and waited for the balloon glow scheduled for 7:00. From our front row vantage point we could watch them inflate balloons, although we could only see a small portion of the field from our parking spot. Once it got fairly dark they started the “glow”, which is accomplished by the announcer on the public address system doing a countdown from five and on the word “glow” all the balloon pilots pull the cord for the burner, lighting up the envelope of the balloon. It is fun to watch, even though the balloons never leave the ground.

About 7:45 most of the balloons had deflated and we waited for the evening’s fireworks show. It went off about eight and was as spectacular as the three we had seen previously. It was very much the same show and lasted about twenty minutes. It is amazing that they have the kind of money it takes to put on these great fireworks shows eight nights. There are four nights of fireworks for each of the two sessions for the Festival. After the fireworks show we watched TV for a little while and hit the bed.

Sunday, October 9th was another great morning for flying. We got up about 6:30 a.m., just before the mass ascension was scheduled to start. The balloons started inflating and unlike yesterday when they were delayed, the flights started right on time at 7:00. I would estimate that there were about 400 balloons that took off and flew within an hour or so - the sky was literally full of balloons in every direction. In addition the “Albuquerque Box” was working this morning. The box is a phenomenon were the surface winds are blowing to the south, which means when the balloons first take off from the field they fly right over our motorhome. Once they get a mile or so south they add hot air and go up a couple hundred feet where they catch a breeze that is blowing back north or northwest and they fly back over the coaches and the field where they take off. Most of the balloons end up west of the field, where they land and their chase vehicles catch up with them. Watching all the balloons is a wonderful experience and the two days of flying that we got more than fixed the funk that most people were feeling when the first couple of days of our outing had the nasty weather. We got what we came to see.

Once the balloons stopped taking off and we had enough pictures of the balloons in the air, it was time to pack up the coach for travel. Today was the end of the Fiesta and it was time to move on to our next destination, the Rocky Mountain Area Rally, an FMCA event being held in Farmington, New Mexico, about 170 miles northwest of Albuquerque. We were a little afraid we would be held up because the parking area was very tight and it would be difficult to back our coach out with all the other coaches in the way. However, by the time we got the coach packed up and ready for travel, several coaches behind us had left, which left us an opening to back up, hook up the car, and head out of the Fiesta grounds. We were on the road by about 11:00 a.m. and headed for Farmington. Peggy and Vernon are also going to the FMCA rally and were right behind us when we left.

We didn’t have any problems on the trip until about the halfway point when I saw heavy black smoke pouring into the sky a few miles ahead of us. I mentioned to Jackie that it looked like a car or other vehicle was on fire. Sure enough, we got to a bend in the road, near where the smoke was coming from, and traffic was stopped. We didn’t go up to look at what was happening, but some people from cars stopped near us did and they came back and told us that a fifth wheel trailer had caught fire and was burning on the side of the road. The owners had been able to disconnect their truck from the trailer before it got too far along, so they saved the truck. The police and fire were holding traffic until they got the fire out because of fear that the propane tank might explode. We were there nearly an hour before they finally let us go by.

We got into the rally about 3:30 and the parking crew did their usual great job of parking us. They led us to the dump station first so we could dump our holding tanks. We were dry camping at the Fiesta, and would also not have sewer here at Farmington, so we needed to empty our tanks. We got parked right next to Peggy and Vernon again, and got set up. At least here we have water and electric service, so we don’t have to run the generator to charge batteries, and running out of water is not an issue.

We will be here at the Farmington rally until next Sunday, so this seems like a good spot to stop writing and publish this chapter of the blog. I will put the next episode up in a week or two. Until the next time, stay happy and healthy and enjoy every moment of this wonderful life. See ya!