The Curse of Technology

I have spent too much time trying to iron out bugs on the Ipad blog software. I've decided not to beat my head against the wall anymore.

So....no blog.

We'll be sending selected photos (can't disappoint grandson Jonas!) instead, but no scintillating commentary.

(We are having a great time!)

Shaky Start, part deux

At each mosque, the take- off -the shoes ritual was repeated. A gentleman nevertheless vacuumed as the infidels entered, sucking up any unwanted detritus.

Janice in mosque-wear. No burqah!

Roadtrips Goes sailing...and ....

Woo hoo!!

Early in the morning on Tuesday, May 21, after being chauffered to the airport by good friend Jon Georgie, Jeff and Janice will begin a cross-country, cross-ocean flight to Istanbul. From there, a 7 day cruise aboard the Windstar line's Wind Spirit will take them through the Greek Isles, disembarking in Athens, Greece.

From Athens, a flight to Venice, Italy, thence by rail to Florence, Sorrento and Rome. Cultural enrichment. A fun itinerary for sure. This will be our celebration of our 40 years of marriage. Stay tuned, it could be an interesting trip.

Visit often. We will post according to wi-fi availability.

End of the Road??

Plenty of space as we arrived at Valley of Fire on Wednesday under threatening skies. Only 2 other  rigs in the park, so we were able to get our favorite spot on the edge of the campground. We declared an official two days of rest with only minor sojourns within the park.  We have seen all of it and done all the hikes in past visits, so rmoves the “we gotta do something” from the daily planner.

View from the 'front door'

 We enjoyed good rains pounding on the roof and even a passing thunderstorm yesterday.  The red rock formations here are every bit as beautiful as those in some of the more familiar National parks, and there are no endless lines of busses pulling in. We did run into one geezer tour bus at the visitor’s center, though. Most headed directly to the potty.

Flash flood followed by large drops the next day produced
an interesting pattern in a gully.

 Julie and friend Tim arrive tonight.  Contrary to park rules, we snagged a campsite for them, as the park is starting to fill for the weekend. Julie has a bike and run race here in the park tomorrow.  Looking forward to a campfire this evening, as the clouds and rain have moved on.

Looking back on this trip, we have now seen all the major sites in the west, watching the price of gas fluctuate from $1.75 to the now $3.50+ range (we do remember the $4.40 spike a couple years ago.).  Has us wondering about our future in the RV business.  Do we downsize to a Class B, or bail altogether?  This will be a winter of decision, methinks.

Will leave here Sunday a.m. with an ETA in Roseville sometime Monday, after an overnighter in Bakersfield. I have already given Janice instructions NOT to let me drive all the way home in one day, regardless of the compelling “smell’ of the barn.

Spaceship sighted!!!!! Occasionally RVers get a bit extreme levelling their rigs. The photos below show one ready for launch.  I call 'em 'spaceships.'

Rather than putting the front wheels a foot off
the ground I would have moved to another site.

Balloon Fiesta 2011

Balloon Fiesta 2011

Balloonomania kicked off unofficially Thursday night when Julie flew in…on a plane, of course  The next morning we rendezvoused with Copper Canyon pals Bob and Marian King, and Jerry and Nancy Gayvert. We caravanned in from exit 143, rekindling memories of following each other through Mexico 5 years ago.

The Copper Canyon "6"

 We arrived at the Balloon Fiesta RV park, a dirt and gravel lot about a quarter mile from the balloon field. Shuttle bus service made it pretty handy.

As previously noted, Janice and I had done recon on Thursday, visiting the park where we met ‘Betty’ walking her dog.  She was an RVer and a veteran of many Balloon Fiestas. She encouraged us to sign up to be a balloon chase crew, which all of us eventually did. (Betty and her husband were the main recruiters in the big tent.) As chase crew we got free passes to the Fiesta, plus, Betty added, sometimes you might just get a ride, which otherwise would cost about $350. 

The pictures speak for themselves.  Balloons lighting up in the pre-dawn darkness and then hundreds taking to the air. Beautiful and amazing. This should be on everybody’s bucket list.

Evening glow

Dawn Patrol

The field is grass, about a mile long and a quarter mile wide.  It is separated into grids covering the entire field, spacing the balloons all over.  The public wanders among the balloons as they prepare for launch, little kids collecting trading cards from the pilots. This is a real public-friendly operation.  Balloonists are provided hotel accommodations, a $200 gas card, unlimited free propane and three meals a day. Albuquerque knows how to entice the balloonists, knowing what draws the money into the city.

All shapes and sizes

 We arrived at the field about 5:30 am on Sunday to crew. Our pilot and ‘first mate’, Mike and Becky Marx met us at station U-4 on the field as hundreds of balloons were being unloaded and then set-up for a 7:00 a.m. take-off.  Julie, Janice and I did pretty well for rookies. Mike and Becky, from Prosper, Texas, were simply wonderful people, very skilled in the balloon business.  The highlight for the weekend came when Mike turned towards Julie and said, “Get in, let’s go for a ride.”  Her face lit up like the morning sunshine.  In a matter of seconds she was airborne.   We hopped in the chase vehicle and followed the flight to its ultimate landing, several miles away in a vacant lot in a residential neighborhood.

Julie takes off

Julie celebrates 'first ride' with Mike and Becky

 We also worked for Mike and Becky on Sunday evening during the ‘glow’. Balloons aren’t launched during the evening but they are lit up en masses and provide quite the light show. Strong winds Sunday night curtailed the light show.

By Monday morning, we were whupped, having arisen at 5:00 the past two mornings.. Sleeping in to 7:00, as we readied to hit the road, we watched the morning launch sail over the RV park.  A couple balloons even landed in the park.

Darth Vader lands in RV Park

Sandwiched during our Albuquerque weekend was a dinner Friday night (for 7) at El Pinto, a mega Mexican restaurant serving hundreds. Good food!. Also a visit to Old Town, a typical tourist mecca. Another treat was seeing former Mexico wagonmaster Larry (and wagonmistress Evelyn) Stark.  He was leading a Rally at the Balloon Fiesta and was parked about 10 rows behind us at the park. FYI 2500 rigs came to watch balloons this year.

We decided to take it easy on Monday, driving only about 140 miles to Gallup.  Hopes to visit nearby Canyon de Chelly were shelved as rain and clouds moved in. Leaving this morning, we covered about 300 miles to Kingman, AZ, crossing the entire state despite strong winds and a thunderstorm finale as we approached Kingman.  Tomorrow, we are heading to Valley of Fire State Park northwest of Las Vegas.  Hopefully there will be a space for us. 

Arriving in Balloon-town

Old Santa Fe Plaza

Spent the better part of yesterday in Santa Fe.  The Old Town area is charming with lots of shops bulging full of inventory.  A couple shops have gone under, while others are hanging on by the fingernails hoping for a good holiday season.

Old Santa Fe Street Scene

We didn’t contribute $$$ to the salvation of the place, but did enjoy a nice lunch at Tia Sophia’s that left us waddling after we finished. Visited the Georgia O’Keeffe art museum.  She spent most of her productive years in this area. Unfortunately, the video projector broke just before we arrived, so we missed the full biography. They ‘rain-checked’ us for the next time in Santa Fe, which could be the twelfth of never, to use a Johnny ‘Mattress’ term.  And that description of Johnny Mathis was passed on to me by my ‘best man’ and former law school roommate, now a Superior Court Judge. He claimed that  Johnny Mathis’ tunes had a special effect, and I don’t think he was talking about narcolepsy. I digress.

Old Santa Fe  

Was tempted again to buy a hat, but the one that was going for $32 the other day at the Indian flea market was being sold in Old Santa Fe for $47.50.  Apologies to the Indian flea market.

"Chief, I'm ready to bury the hatchet over this 'hat' thing."

Storm clouds gathered during the day and rain began to spatter as we left the NM State Capitol building.  Nice art exhibit there.  Apparently their legislators were not in session, as security was lax, with the security personnel in crossword puzzle mode.   No metal detectors, but then it is likely that most of the looneys have left NM for California.

"Jeff, why do you make me do these pictures?"

 Leaving town, we stopped at Trader Joes to replenish dwindling provisions, noting that NM is a ‘three-buck Chuck’ state. Such is the price to pay for fine imported wine from the golden state.

Today found us headed down Hwy 25, cruising downhill at 70-75 to Albuquerque where we landed at the American RV Park on I-40.  Very nice park except for the rumble of semis flying by on the highway.  The park is packed (222 sites) in anticipation of the Balloon Fiesta, our home-to-be starting Friday.

We checked out the Fiesta grounds on an afternoon recon mission.  Met Betty, a RV full-timer and balloon fan who encouraged us to sign up to crew for a balloon.  Sounds like fun, even for geezers.. Crewing means unpacking the balloon and basket, assisting its inflation and then chasing it when it goes up, and then re-packing it when it comes down.

In the “I can’t believe I did that” category:  When we arrived today, the park advised that the water would be off for about a half-hour while they made some repairs. We set up and then commenced a few hours of housework.  At one point water began flowing off the roof and down the awning.  A steady stream.  I clambered up on the roof and noted that water was gushing out the toilet vent pipe. (Fortunately the water was ‘clear’ as I had dumped the tank this morning.)  The culprit was the toilet tank back-flush line.  When I hooked up, I apparently had accidentally hit the valve and knocked it to an ‘open’ position.  Normally with the park’s water on, I would have noticed this immediately.

  

Instead it filled the ‘black’ tank with forty gallons of water and then headed up the vent pipe. We were fortunate that we had stayed ‘home’ cleaning rather than going out right away.  We were more fortunate that neither one of us used the toilet while the water was going up and out the vent pipe. A ‘flush’ would have opened the potty valve and ’Old Faithful’ would have gushed upwards. It would have been like a fire hose bidet. The perils of the road.  

New Mexico

Our plans for a Taos destination changed suddenly as we looked at ‘things to do in Taos.' Didn’t look like a good place for a 2-3 day layover, so we headed for Santa Fe instead. We were advised to backtrack through Durango and then take the major interstate (I-550) to Santa Fe. Otherwise we would be risking the perils of a mountainous two-lane road.

Having survived the perils of driving Baja, such warnings fall on deaf ears, so we headed out the back way.  What a beautiful drive through woods and meadows. Yes, it was hill and dale. Little traffic at all, save for some cattle transporters that were parked at roadside and backed up to corrals.  Steers that were grazing all summer in the mountains were ready for the next step, whether that be finishing off as US Prime in a feed lot, or going direct to the Big Mac grinder.

We drove past herds of mountain cows. They lollygagged under shade trees or stirred up dust clouds while butting horns (apparently forgetting their earlier neutering). I puzzled over how they would get these critters to the waiting trucks.  Not a cowboy in sight.When that dinner bell rings, it could be their last.

"Hey guys, if you hear the dinner bell, ignore it."

Arriving unblemished at the Santa Fe Skies RV Park south of Santa Fe, we set up camp and headed back up the highway to visit an Indian flea market that had been touted in one of the travel blogs I follow. As we pulled into the parking lot, signs warned ‘Absolutely No Cameras Permitted.’  This was apparently based on tribal beliefs. I holstered my Canon and left it in the car.  This flea market had been running since Friday afternoon and a cadre of desperate peddlers remained as we neared the 4:00 pm shutdown.  I was mildly tempted to buy a new hat to shield my barren pate from the scalding southwest sun, but the $35 price tag was too much. Even the hawkers cajoling would not move me: “They are made in St. Louis.” (Never heard of that Chinese town.)  That was it for the day. We cruised through downtown Santa Fe doing recon and then returned to the rig for BBQ’d steak and potatoes.

This morning we headed for a day trip to Taos, checking first with the RV park owner as to the attractions that shouldn’t be missed.  The drive up there took longer than expected due to roads that were poorly marked.  On one wrong turn,  we cruised through the dilapidated town of Truches. Folks in the street gazed in amazement and a dog sleeping in the street scurried out of the way.

A most potent memory of the drive was a sudden attack of flatulence by Annika, dozing in the back of the CRV.  I assumed it was Annika, accepting Janice’s immediate denial and knowing that I would never do that.  These were of ‘road-kill’ quality, requiring an immediate “windows down” drill.  Annika was so overcome by her own hyper-flatulating that she hung her head out the window for several miles.

" No more burritos for me.......I'm sooo sorry!"

Arriving in Taos, we headed for the Taos Pueblo, rated #1 on places to see in Taos. We parked the car and approached the tribal ‘registration desk’ to pay our admission. Ten dollars apiece  (plus tax! ---tax to whom?) for admission.  There are no pictures of our visit though.  They wanted $6.00 (plus tax) to bring a camera on site.  Mine was quickly returned to the car.  Let me see if I understand this Indian lore: You can’t take pictures at the flea market because of tribal beliefs, but all sins are forgiven for $6.00 (plus tax!). This must be hangover from the concept of penance taught to them by Catholic missionaries (before the local slaughter of the Padres in 1680). 

"Six bucks to use a stinkin' camera? Ridiculous!" 

Of interest, this site is the longest continually occupied site in North America.  Dust, adobe buildings and Indians hawking their goods.  “Take my picture for a dollar.”Gullible tourists wandering about with their green-tagged cameras shooting pictures that would soon be forgotten.   We did buy a couple genuine Indian cinnamon cookies, though I don’t think Indians in these parts actually had cinnamon in the olden days.

Next stop on the must-see list was the Royal Gorge Bridge.  At 500 feet above the Rio Grande, it ranks in the top 3 or 4. The fenced Indian lands prevented a good photo of the bridge, but standing in the middle with that ‘I might just throw up feeling’ looking down into the canyon, I snapped a quick photo.

Rio Grande- Royal Gorge-Taos

Finally we hit the downtown. The Kit Carson Museum was a hit with Janice, who is probably suffering museum withdrawal since the end of her writing ventures. Kit Carson was a ‘home-boy’ of many of her Oregon heroes, so she loved the brief oral presentation and the video.

Kit Carson Museum
Kit slept here...for 25 years.

With Annika in the car cooking like Indian fry-bread, we made a quick tour through the shopping area, window shopping with newly- purchased  ice cream cones (paid for by the pueblo camera savings).  I am grateful that Janice is not addicted to souvenir shopping. Yes, we did get an official Taos magnet done by a local artist.  Number 216 in the collection---all displayed proudly in our home on the road.

Taos tourist strip

Finishing the day at 5:30 back at the rig, we enjoyed a couple of games of Scrabble.  Janice is doing well this month.