Blog #2

Poor Giants, rain delay did not help them out.

So, I'm sitting in a laundry room in Albuquerque NM, KOA campground.  There is not enough connectivity at our site and it's windy outside - so here I am - it's warm but there is a radio on and it is loud!  Oh well.

So to begin at the beginning.  After our nephew's lovely wedding to lovely Kim last Friday, October 12 - we started down the road.  As planned we made it all the way to a rest stop in Newberry CA - boy were there a lot of trucks there!   It was 3 a.m. and first order of business was a trip to the bathroom - it was really loud with all the trucks running their engines, I assume because they were carrying refrigerated loads.  We were glad we didn't park down there.  It was great to climb into the rig and go to bed - we were asleep in seconds  - so tired.  Well, the dogs of course do not understand the concept of sleeping in so we were up at 6 a.m. - but that's ok - we had a deadline - we wanted to make it to Albuquerque for the last morning of their International Balloon Fiesta - it was the last morning of the fiesta and there was to be a mass ascension...and we had already paid for our tickets.  We did that by stopping at a public library in AZ and purchasing them online - had to print the tickets, thus the need for the library.  We kept moving, taking turns driving and napping.  So glad Paul bought the truck he did - pulled great up and down those AZ mountains - beautiful country everywhere.

Wellllll - we arrived safely in Albuquerque at 12:30 a.m., looking forward to a few more hours of sleep as we had to be up at 4 a.m. to load the buses.  He chose the park n ride lot at an amusement park on the west side of  Albuquerque - to organize the thousands of people who come to the balloon fiesta park n ride sites are set up all over albuquerque.  Boy do I get tired of typing that name!!  When we arrived there wasn't one car in the lot - Paul drove around, picked a site to park and since it was dark, didn't see a limb sticking out  - sadly it raked a long rip in our roof.  For those not familiar with RVs many have rubberized roofs - we were so careful on roads and other lots.  Oh well, maybe 5 hours of sleep just wasn't enough to keep us alert.   We knew we couldn't do anything about it at that time so we went to bed.   At 4 a.m.I was shocked to wake up and see 20 school buses waiting in line - I hadn't heard one of them enter the parking lot.  We quickly dressed in warm clothes, hats, gloves and headed to the bus.

On the bus we met a lovely lady had been traveling America for 4 months --she was from Australia.  She recommended if we ever come to the fiesta again to sign up as ground crews - then you get freebies.
It was so exciting to walk onto the grounds - huge - 4 football fields long?  Set up just for balloons.  Organized in long sections, with permanent small light structures to outline the sections.  The sections were also set off with concrete sidewalks and the field in between was grass.  Apparently this is one of the few festivals where spectators can walk right up to the balloons and pilots - crazy.  Since it was still dark we strolled the 1/2 mile of vendors and bought a delicious breakfast burrito and the most expensive tea ever, $4 a cup!  The crowds just grew and grew and we went out to the field to watch pilots begin to inflate their balloons.  I will post pics on Snapfish as soon as I can so you can see - it was so exciting = full of sounds and sights I've never experienced.  The loud burst of propane into the balloon, the immediate inflation, the basket laying on it's side and finally, lift off!  This was called the Dawn Patrol because it was still dark - the balloons would light up against that dark sky and just thrill you.  The crowds were so excited - to experience this with hundreds of other excited spectators was so fun!

Later of course, more and more pilots arrived and their teams got them organized and ready.  As each section was ready they received a signal to go - so thrilling to see so many balloons go up at once.  I had no idea there would be shaped balloons - Darth Vader, Spider Pig, a carosel, Noah's ark.  Fun!  Pics will tell the story.  Eventually every section was up and the sky was full of hot air balloons - just fabulous to see.  And then suddenly, they were gone and the sky was empty.  Only the grounds remained full, of hundreds and hundreds of people which were all headed back to the same place!   Our park n ride bus...luckily they've done this for a few years and their organization showed - in less than 30 minutes we were back at our rig, headin to Taos.

Taos was a surprise - not sure what I expected - more city I guess.  It's really spread out in a predominantly scrub-brush high desert.  They've maintained the historic look of pueblo styled buildings and maintained the downtown plaza which has existed since the 1800's.  Fun to see - small town atmosphere - reminded me of Sonora - small streets with lots of traffic.

We had come to see the Enchanted Circle - an 85 mile scenic drive - with good fall color.  Most of the aspen had already dropped their leaves but the cottonwoods were aflame with bright yellow.  The scenic drive was amazing in it's geographic diversity - peaks, woods, creeks to treeless plains and snow capped peaks.  At the end of the day we went to the other big sight, the Red River Gorge Bridge - fun to see, amazing gorge running through the flat desert.

We were happy with our RVsite - in a small park that could use some maintenance but run by a legally blind owner so looks great considering that.  Very woodsy - Paul picked it because it had a creek running through it - which would have been great but it was dry! :)  While there we created and improved our dog retrieval system - Paul accidentally allowed Maizy out of the rig twice!!  Once he chased that little varmint around for an hour by himself because I was napping.  Unfortunately she went out to the road and Paul almost had a heart attack when a mustang came speeding around a curve - she finally followed him back to the rig and we cornered her - when she's cornered she submits and we can leash her up.  Otherwise she thinks we're playing and she has a grand ole time running around us in circles.  I was working a lot on off leash training but it hasn't sunk in yet obviously.

More later, gotta go tour Albuquerque and buy a vacuum for the rig!!!  We are sleepin, breathink and sadly, eatin, dog hair!!!