Albuquerque Balloon Fest 10-9-2011

It hasn’t been the best week we ever had.  It has been the best Balloon Fest we have ever seen, oh wait, it’s the only Balloon Fest we’ve ever seen.  It has been wet and cold most of the time.  The balloons couldn’t fly on Thursday or Friday due to the weather.  Saturday they said about 500 got up but none of the really large special shapes were flown.  This morning most of the remaining balloons did fly but not all and some had even gone home.  The question would be was it worth it and even with the bad weather I would still have to say, YES.  It is unlike anything you will see any place else in the World.  In fact it is 4 times bigger than the next largest.  We just wish it had been as spectacular as it could have been.  With that said, these pictures don’t come close to showing what it is like to actually be here.  Before I do the pictures I just need to say we are still in Albuquerque at an RV Park West of town on I-40.  We were only able to get tonight with a possibility of tomorrow night.  We will have to check in the morning if we want to stay another night.

Yes that is snow on the mountains East of us about 10 miles.


The cow never got off the ground.

Albuquerque Balloon Fest 10-5-2011

Yes we made it; however due to rain all events on Wednesday were cancelled.  This morning the special shape balloons were scheduled to launch but due to high wind they were grounded.  They did go ahead and inflate them but they had to stay on the ground.  We went down to the Balloon Museum front yard and watched them inflate.  The special shapes are scheduled to launch again tomorrow morning and we are sure hoping that happens.  These are some of the pictures I took this morning with the balloons on the ground.





They were also suppose to have a balloon glow tonight but they tried and there was too much wind.  They did have a really nice fireworks display tonight.  We’ll just have to see about tomorrow.

Heading for the Balloon Fest in Albuquerque

We left out from our pad at Cushing, Oklahoma Sunday the 2nd and drove over to my brother’s house at Perkins, Oklahoma.  At the last minute, actually it was Saturday, he was able to clear his work schedule to go with us.  His wife, Pat, was already scheduled to go with us.  I called the tour leaders and confirmed they could work him in and also confirmed they had had a cancellation for one couple that had been scheduled to go on the trip.  I ask my brother, Bill, if he wanted to take his motor home and he said he had already winterized it.  It was about an hour when his wife called and ask me if I could help her get the motor home ready so they could take it and of course I said yes.  So I called back to the tour company and told them he was going to take the empty spot
We parked in Bill’s driveway Sunday night and then we headed out Monday morning about 7:30am with our two motor homes and Jack and Barbara Miller’s 5th wheel.  We got to Oklahoma City and picked up Gary and Mattie House, Clarence and Virginia Byrom, and Don and Kathie Bryan with their RV’s and we all headed for Amarillo, Texas.
We stayed overnight at the Overnite RV Park in Amarillo and then pulled into Tucumcari, New Mexico yesterday.  We met with everyone in our tour group last night and we are schedule to leave at 7:30am this morning.  There are 13 rigs total in the group.  It should be interesting to move that many rigs down Interstate 40 into Albuquerque.  I figure there will be lots of cars very unhappy with us.
I will try to post during the Balloon Fest and should have lots of pictures.

Back in Cushing

We got back to our RV pad at my son Todd’s house in rural Oklahoma yesterday the 7th.  Luckily it is still cool; however it looks like it will heat up again starting Sunday and could be in the lower 90’s by Tuesday.  Hopefully it won’t last long.  We will be here until early October.  We are scheduled to leave on the 3rd to go to Albuquerque, NM for the Balloon Fiesta.
We just plan on hanging out and seeing family and friends till we leave.  I won’t be blogging until we leave unless something interesting happens.

Branson, Missouri

We left Tea, South Dakota Tuesday morning the 30th and drove to St Joseph, Missouri, however it wasn’t quite that easy.  We headed out going south on I –29 and did fine until we got almost to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  About 15 to 20 miles North of Council Bluffs we got detoured going East on I-680.  We finally pulled over at a truck stop close to Avoca, Iowa and had lunch.  We then went South on US 59 till it ran into I-29 in Missouri.  The reason for the detour was flooding on I-29.  These are some pictures I took at a rest stop in an area that probably was closed at one time but was open when we came through.



The black bags on the road were filled with small gravel and the bags were plastic coated canvas and they were connected to each other.  The small bags at the vending machines were just regular sand bags.  You know I didn’t see a single FEMA truck.
I figured we went at least an extra 60 miles out of our way.  We spent the night at A-OK Campground in St. Joseph, Missouri.  Wasn’t the best campground but it only cost $22.00 for the night.
This morning we left out about 8:40 am and drove to Treasure Lake in Branson, Missouri.  I followed the directions in the Trailer Life Campground CD and it routed me right through downtown Kansas City on I-29.  Never again.  My GPS tried to take me around on the bypasses but I ignored it.  Not the smartest thing I have done but I doubt it was the dumbest either.
We will stay here in Branson for 1 week and then see if the hot weather has broke in Oklahoma.  If not we will stay another week and then we will head back even if it is still hot.

Tea, South Dakota

As you can see by the title we have moved again.  I should catch up in this blog.  Yesterday I left it with us getting to Keystone, SD.  We stayed at Kemp’s Kamp about 1 1/2 miles from town.  Of course we were here to see Mount Rushmore.  We had been by Mount Rushmore once before but we didn’t actually go into the park.  We went up the first night we got here for the lighting ceremony.  Turned out it was a special ceremony with former Senator George McGovern as the speaker.  He never was a favorite of mine but he did give a good talk on how Washington needed to work together to solve our problems.  I don’t remember him as too cooperative when he was in office.  The lighting part of the ceremony was nice.  The first picture is just about sunset and the second after dark and when they turned on the lights.  I had to hold the camera still since a flash wouldn’t do any good at that distance.

The next day, Thursday the 25th, we went back.  Twila and I walked the path around the base of the monument and I took several pictures.

They had a model that they used during the carving of the mountain.  They said the carving kept changing due to faults in the granite.  As you can see in this picture, at one time they intended to have Washington and Lincoln in much more detail below the head.

Some facts on the monument.  Each face is 60 feet tall, each eye is 11 feet wide.  Washington’s nose from the top to the bottom is 21 feet long.  Something I didn’t know was why these Presidents were chosen.  Washington is for the birth of our nation, Jefferson for the expansion (Louisiana Purchase), Roosevelt for development (Panama Canal, National Parks) and Lincoln for Preservation of the Union.

We left Keystone and drove to Mitchell, SD, but first I stopped in Rapid City and had the motor home’s radiator fins washed out.  I had been having trouble with the motor home trying to overheat when I pulled long hills.  I had to keep down shifting to keep it pulling without pouring the fuel to it.  I called a truck repair place in Rapid City and had an appointment set up for tomorrow but the service manager suggested I try washing out the fins first.  I had used my water hose several times without any luck but he said that wouldn’t be enough pressure to properly clean it out.  He was right.  I stopped at a truck wash and they used their large hoses with nozzles like firemen use.  Worked great.  Mitchell is the home of the Corn Palace.  The inside and outside of the building is decorated with corn.  Both the ears and the husk.  They are made into murals depicting different scenes.

The first picture shows how the artist lays out the pattern.  Then they cut the ears in half lengthwise and glue the ears according to the color designated on the pattern.  They grow different colors of corn especially for this event.  The design changes every year.

These were on the outside of the building.

They were having a festival and as you can see they had all kinds of food and a carnival.

We stayed at the Famil-E-Fun Campground Friday and Saturday Nights and then moved to where we are now in Tea, SD at the Red Barn RV Park.  We are here to renew our tags on the motor home and the Jeep.  We will be here tonight and tomorrow night.

Mitchell, South Dakota

Long time No Blog.  Just having too much fun.  Twila and I are now by ourselves.  Jack and Barbara left yesterday morning from Keystone, SD where we had been for 2 days while we saw Mount Rushmore.  I guess the easiest way to do this is to back track to Sand Point, ID and work to here.

August 14 and 15.  We drove up a mountain overlooking Sand Point.  It is a ski resort during the Winter.  It was about 15 miles from town.  This is a picture overlooking the town and the lake next to it.

After we got down we drove to a Museum on aviation and inventions.  It was way out in the country and I think it was about 15 miles from our campground.  They had a lot of interesting items.

When we left Sand Point on the 16th we drove to the Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, MT.  Well Twila and I did.  Jack and Barbara had a blowout on their trailer just before they got into Montana and had to call Good Sam Emergency Service to put on their spare.  This wasn’t a big deal but when they had another one about 40 miles from Garrison it turned into a very big deal.  It turned out the bands around the springs had broken and were cutting the tires.  Jack had to have it towed back to Missoula to get it fixed, but after staying overnight, 4 new tires, and a lot of repair work they caught up with us the next day.  Garrison is close to Deer Lodge, MT which had a lot of interesting things to see.  Guess who forgot their camera?  They have an old prison which started in 1871 and was active until 1979 when everyone was moved to a new prison 4 miles West of town.  Their was also an old car museum that was the best I ever saw.  They had 200 cars.  I took some pictures with my phone but have no idea how to get them from my phone to the computer.

From Garrison we went to Columbus, MT to the Mountain Range RV Park.  They told us we should go over the Bear Tooth Pass on Highway 212 which is a Scenic Byway going to the East side of Yellowstone.  It is a drive I would recommend to anyone unless they don’t like driving on high mountain roads.  It was paved all the way and was quite beautiful.  On the way over we stopped at Red Lodge, MT.  It was a pretty little town and we ate lunch there.

These are some pictures I took going over the pass.

We left Columbus and went to Sundance, Wyoming to the Mountain View RV Park.  This park is close to Devil’s Tower National Monument.  Devil’s Tower is off I-90 about 25 miles and we had never taken the time to see it.  I’m sure glad we did.  It is something else.  Yes, I took lots of pictures.  This one was probably 10 miles away or more.

These were taken up close.

I walked all the way around it.  The trail was about 1.3 miles long.  There were several people climbing it.  Even when I was young and foolish I wouldn’t have even thought about it.

Can you see him in the top picture?  You got to be crazy!!!!

We left Sundance, and yes the Sundance Kid took his name from the town, and we traveled to Keystone, South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore.  I will try to take up there tomorrow.