Sept 28th. We finally left IL the last weekend of Sept. We had signed up for the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque New Mexico which started the beginning of Oct. Our group was scheduled for Oct 8th - 12th. This allowed us to take our time traveling & make a couple stops along the way.
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| Sue & Karen |
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| Wayne, Sue & Collins |
We finally made it to visit long time (40+ years) friends, Sue & Wayne Doornbosch. They had moved to Lake of the Ozarks, MO several years ago. It was so nice to finally see the home they’d remodeled, which is located right on the lake. The weather was beautiful & they were nice enough to take us on their boat out on the lake.
We spent the day seeing the sights & catching up on each other’s lives. It’s always good to see old friends.
We had good traveling weather & made it to Albuquerque in plenty of time. As members of the Monaco International club, we signed up for their sponsored event at the Festival, which included VIP RV Field parking & various social activities. Some 80 Monaco’s showed up & literally got front row seats: about 100 yards from the launch field.
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| Watching the balloons launch |
The host RV was right in front of the balloon field & we were in the 4th row back. With prevailing winds blowing towards us the first morning, launched Balloons barely cleared the tops of our rigs, giving us both incredible views & occasional concerns.
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| Going right over our RVs |
To
appreciate just how low the Balloons were, our group was asked to not fly any
flags for fear the poles would interfere with the Balloons’ baskets.
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| Launching the Dawn Patrol |
Karen opted to get up before the crack of dawn & go onto the field to observe the “dawn patrol”- the balloons that take off just before sunrise, giving the rest of the balloonists information on wind & weather conditions; I enjoy my sleep too much & took a pass.
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| Collins & Snuggles settle in to watch the balloons |
By 7:30 AM each day the launches were in full swing. After viewing the first 300 lift offs, I couldn’t help but think of our Alaska trip & the hundreds of waterfalls, glaciers & wild animals we viewed alongside the road. Initially they were incredulous, then interesting, & then indifferent. Having some 500 to 600 Balloons launch right in front of you takes well over an hour, even with numerous simultaneous lift offs. At some point one becomes jaded. It’s only the unique Balloon designs that continued to intrigue me.
On the other hand, I – Karen, was like a kid & loved every one of them. It was “awesome”, seeing the hundreds of balloons, all shapes & colors.
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| On the ground, watching them fill with air |
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| Hello Kitty! Going right over the RVs |
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| We could watch them going up from our RV spot |
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| This one had to land in the field |
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take a ride, because they were all booked thru Sunday & it was over $400 a person. During the days some 100,000 people surround the field to watch different Balloon events, as well as tour the gaggle of shops selling everything imaginable. The locals even close the schools for two days to accommodate the kids, parents & traffic. Afternoons included club sponsored lunches at a country club & Mexican Restaurant while every evening included happy hour with club members, & then a half hour of fireworks put on by the Festival folks. The trip was beyond expectations & the benefits of being with the Monaco club only enhanced our enjoyment.
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| Sunset at Balloon Park, Just before a storm |
As we left Albuquerque we traveled about 60 miles north to Santa Fe for 2 weeks. That was mostly an r & r time with a little sightseeing in between.
One day, we took a trip north to Taos. It’s kind of an artsy town & home to the Taos Pueblo, which is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the US. It is over 1000 years old.
In spite of
the fact that there is no electricity nor running water allowed within the
sacred village, the homes are naturally climate controlled. The adobe walls are almost 2' thick. Ownership may only pass from one family
member to another, or a family relative.
They continue to control their environment, including native language,
traditions & ceremonies, to ensure they are not assimilated, nor forgotten. Neither writing about these locations, nor
pictures, properly express the feeling you get while actually viewing these
locations.
The people there still live in adobe buildings & have no running water or electricity.
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| People still live here |
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| Graveyard |
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| Remains of original church |
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| Cooking is done in these ovens |
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| They get their daily water from this creek |
They speak a language called Tiwa, which is unrecorded & unwritten. And the homes are passed down from generation to generation. It was a very interesting place to visit. It is on the World Heritage List by UNESCO.
We also took a look at the Rio Grand Gorge Bridge, which is the 7th highest in the United States & spans the Rio Grand River which runs thru a chasm about 800’ deep.
It’s like a small version of the Grand Canyon.
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| Palace of the Governors, now a museum |
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| Old Guy in Town Square |
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| Guy Playing Harp in Town Square |
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| Downtown Santa Fe |
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| I had to try their Green Chili. Hottest Chili I've ever tasted |
while on the east was the church that later became the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
The city and the surrounding areas have a high concentration of artists.
Canyon Road, east of the Plaza, has the highest concentration of art galleries in the city, and is a major destination for international collectors, tourists and locals. The Canyon Road galleries showcase a wide array of contemporary, Southwestern, indigenous American, and experimental art, in addition to Russian, Taos Masters, and Native American pieces. The bronze pieces we saw as we drove along the road were as varied as you could imagine. There was gallery after gallery, each with many interesting (& expensive) things to see.
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| Scissors, paper, rock |
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| The alter of the Loretto Chapel
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We also saw the Loretto Chapel which contains the Miraculous Staircase. It is a beautiful circular stairway, made only with pegs & no nail. Many think it was actually built by St. Joseph himself. Click on the blue lettering for more detailed information.
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| Miraculous Staircase |
One other side trip we took from Santa Fe was to the Bandolier National Park. It is one of the National Park Services' oldest sites. Ancestral Pueblo dwellings are scattered across a landscape of broad mesas & steep walled canyons. There were a few alcoves, which the Pueblo's called home, where we were allowed to climb. They were really just holes in the canyon wall. Really close living quarters!! And we thought RV living was compact!
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| Karen takes a peak inside. |
We also made a stop at the Los Alamos Bradbury Science Museum. It is located on the grounds of the Los Alamos Laboratory. They had a couple films about the building of the atomic bomb & The Manhattan Project. It was so hush, hush, the people living there had #'s instead of names on their driver's license. The museum was very interesting & showed a lot of projects the Labs work on today.
We took a look at the map & realized we weren't that far from a spot called "The Four Corners". That's the good thing about living in an RV, you can change your route along the way. So off we went to Farmington, NM, where we stayed for a few nights & took a day trip in the car.
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| Entry to 4 Corners Monument |
We had already visited the four continental corners of the states over the last several years, so we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to visit the four interior corners, made up where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah & Colorado touch each other.
By taking a “twister” position, Karen was able to physically be in the four States at the same time.
It seems strange being able to "touch" 4 states at once.
After leaving there, we decided to take a different route back to where we were staying.
We saw some unusual rock formations.
We kind of took the long way home & ended up at Mesa Verde National Park. This was the home to several ancestral Pueblo sites made by Anasazi, known to many of us by their cliff dwellings built into mountain side communities.
We stood in awe as we rounded a corner & saw the first of them. It is absolutely amazing what these people were accomplishing while Europe was still in its primitive state.
It's hard to believe these people were able to build such amazing villages so long ago. It’s estimated that by the time Columbus landed in the Caribbean, there were over 10 million natives in the Americas (many times more than all of Europe) with very advanced cities, governments & living standards. Unfortunately, it was the then “foreigners” that introduced various diseases for which the natives had no resistance.
Moving on to
the Petrified Forest & Painted Desert, part of the same National Park,
makes you wish you had paid more attention in Geology class.
The Petrified Forest traces its roots
(intentional pun) back 250M years. The
events required for those old trees to become solid rock are interesting: the
end result is exquisite.
The minerals
that were absorbed into the tree’s fibers & then solidified now create all
the colors of a rainbow, as well as quartz crystals locked within the rock.
Likewise,
those same minerals & elements, laid down over hundreds of millions of
years (try to get your head around that number), created a landscape of
beautiful colorful contrasts.
It’s as if
an artist was given a black & white painting of a mountainside & told
to add colors. The ribbons of shades,
some many feet thick while others much smaller, leave you with a feeling of
awe.
After leaving the National Park, we were off to Tucson, AZ, our winter destination. We arrived here about the end of Oct & spent 3 weeks at the Air Force RV park. We were going to go on to Yuma, AZ, but decided to stay in Tucson instead. We ended up moving to another RV park which has been very nice. It has good sized spaces & fruit trees on every spot. We have free access to grapefruit, oranges & lemon. We met another couple we've been hanging out with.
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| Doug & Linda carve the turkey |
My mother had come to Phoenix to visit one of my sister's, Linda, who lives here. She invited us to join them for Thanksgiving, which was really nice. We had a chance to see my mom & sister & her husband, Doug.
It was a nice day.
We decided to stay overnight & went to my father's gravesite the next day.
We haven't done a lot of sightseeing since we arrived here. However, one day we did go to an operating copper mine.
It was interesting to see the site, it's called open pit mining.
We were also able to go inside a building to see how they process the copper & separate it from the dirt, etc.
Another day we went to a place called Sabino Canyon, which is a natural desert oasis with pools of water form in the rocky outcroppings that wind up among hillsides resplendent with palo verde trees, cholla and prickly pear cactus and graceful groves of ocotillo. They take you thru the canyon on a tram that was about a 45 min narrated ride. It was pretty interesting.
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| Turtle Rock |
We also enjoyed seeing all the saguaro cactus. That is an interesting cactus. They live 150-200 years & don't sprout "arms" until they're at least 70 years old. They can weigh up to 8 tons because they're mostly water & they don't bloom until they're at least 35. They're the largest cactus in the world.
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| Don, Deb, Collins & Karen |
We've owned our RV for 5 years & it's a 2006 model. It's in very good condition but we decided to do a little remodeling. We removed 1 of the 2 couches & bought recliner chairs.
They're so comfortable & all the reclining is by power. Collins & I have both been caught napping. Our next plan is to buy a new TV & put it on a rising stand behind the couch across from the chairs. That will be a little more complicated since it entails moving wires to connect all the components. That project will wait a little while.
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| Parked in Tucson |
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| Our RV Park |
The Park we've stayed in is very nice. It has fruit trees on almost every spot. : grapefruit, orange & lemon. We've enjoyed a nice supply of fresh citrus fruit.
As I had mentioned in a previous post, we decided not to go back to IL for Christmas since we'd spent 4 months there this summer. It was very quiet for us, but they had a potluck here Christmas Eve which was very nice & we had our new friends Deb & Don over for drinks & snacks Christmas Day.
We're going to Quartzsite, Az Jan 15th to spend a month. It is supposed to be an interesting place. They have an RV show & a rock & mineral show there during that time. Thousands of RVers go there for the winter, with most of them camping in the desert. That isn't for us, we'll be staying in an RV park. Pictures of that in our next post.
1 comment:
Thanks for the wonderful blog and pictures. I have the balloon fest on my bucket list what a great view.
It's great following your travels.
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