Mother Nature in all its beauty.

I'm pretty much "blog blurry" right now since I've written and posted three entries in the last few days. Work has been overwhelming the last couple months. it certainly pays the bills, but also interferes with important stuff like vacationing and blog writing : )

This is a simple but incredible little entry just to thank mother nature for her awe-inspiring images.

We caught this storm on our way through New Mexico.

We kept pulling off the freeway to the side of the road trying to catch the lighting....

and the rainbows...

I know these might look fake. But thankfully they are not.

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I'll close this little entry with a pic that got left out of the balloon festival blog.

Once again, thanks Jodie for capturing this one of Sheila and I.

Thanks for reading!

Up, Up and Away!

Two years ago, when we first started out on the road, we had a "wish list" of things to see and do. At the top of that list was the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.

The topic of the festival came up while visiting some good friends this summer in Deer Park. Brian and Jodie Julagay. I know Brian from the "old days" working at Keytronic in Cheney.

Turns out, the festival was something they wanted to do as well. So plans were made to "hook-up" in October during the two week festival.

The first order of business was of course finding a place to stay. If you had not made reservations months in advance...well...good luck with that : )

And as good luck would have it, Brian of course has a brother living in Albuquerque.

Go figure, right?

Bruce, had five star accommodations ready right in front of his house when we arrived.

The festival itself is a two week event. But all the action happens in the cool morning hours or at sunset as we found out. We were very excited purchasing our "bus" tickets and passes into the park for dark thirty Saturday morning (opening weekend).

Standing in line at the mall parking lot to board a bus. Crispy Creme was there to greet us.

...and that turned out to be the highlight of our first day at the festival! : )

The "mass balloon ascensions" as they are called, need just the right air to take off. Wind speed that morning was a bit too much and the flights were canceled.

The next day, wind was not supposed to cooperate again so we all set out for the town of Santa Fe. Bruce was an awesome tour guide, sharing the local markets, landmarks and eateries.

Remember the movie "Wild Hogs"?

And there was a fantastic arts district.

 

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In the evening's Brian and I picked up our old Keytronic lunch time activity of cribbage.

We had been at the festival since Thursday. Come Sunday, we had still not seen a balloon. Thankfully, that evening they had what is called a balloon glow event. This did not require a launch.

 

 FINALLY our first balloons!

 (I suggest clicking on the images to see them individually)

What an incredible sight, as hundreds of them inflated all around us.

In a matter of minutes, we were consumed by color and light!

 

 

JUST WOW!

 

It was everything we thought it would be. Airabelle, one of the festival favorites was a must see being inflated. This was one HUGE cow : ) The Wells Fargo wagon was another big balloon.

Honestly, I could have left Albuquerque and the festival completely satisfied after that event...without ever seeing a balloon go up in the air. It was literally "larger than life".

Monday morning promised calm air and another opportunity for a mass launch. So once again we set out in the dark, cold hours of the morning for the festival grounds.

We waited for an hour, seeking shelter from the cold in the festival tents. Sheila, even had to purchase a blanket for extra warmth. Eventually we began to see trucks leaving the flight grounds. Over the loud speakers we could hear the calls for pilot meetings to discuss wind conditions. These were all the same things that led up to launch cancellation's the previous Saturday.

This was Brian and Jodie's last shot at a launch before flying back to Spokane, and things were not looking good.

Finally, after a couple of hours we saw a few balloons beginning to inflate in the distance!

 

 

 IT WAS ON!

 

 

 

 Ok, so I was wrong. I could not have left Albequerque without seeing the balloons fly! One of those images that will be burned in my memory forever. Words can't describe...hopefully pictures will help.

The only small regret I had, was not having the opportunity to go up in a balloon. Something I wanted to do, but ultimately needed to make reservations months before the event. I will go back and do that some time in the near future.

Sheila's favorite balloon.

 

Smokey and Darth with his entourage.

PHEW! A lot to take in for one week. Thanks again to Bruce, Jodie and Brian for making our visit comfortable and fun. Bruce especially for letting us use his home and electricity : )

 

 

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It's time to close this blog entry and leave you with some art... (thanks Jodie).

Thanks for reading!

Pecan Paradise

This is just a quick post about Pecans. Yes, the nut.

The park we are staying at this winter in Ingram, Texas was actually recommended by a fellow traveler we met in Deer Park. He suggested The Johnson RV Resort for a quiet, friendly, affordable winter stay. This place is all that and more. : )

There are only about 50 total sites here (currently only a couple dozen campers). We have a back-in site that views the pecan orchard. They have about 300 trees producing several varieties of pecans. (I didn't even know there was more than one variety)

This is a working pecan farm.

Plunk....plunk...plink...plunk...plink. Musical nuts falling to our roof from the trees above.

This is an all-day, everyday event. Campers are encouraged to collect all they can from around their sites and enjoy the tasty treats.

It becomes an obsession really. Finding one...leads to many others, and soon you've filled a bucket. This season should produce several thousand pounds for the farm, a welcome weight compared to the 40 pounds harvested last year.

Thanks for reading!

A GRAND VIEW

We've been asked many times during our travels..."Haven't you seen everything already?"

"Won't you get bored of traveling?"

I've been on this earth for 50 years now. Yep, 50. And getting pretty darn close to 51.

I still had never seen the Grand Canyon. I wonder how many people actually have seen this one in seven, wonder of the world.

As we walked up to the first view point...and peered over the rim. I was in awe of what lay before me. Absolutely incredible. I'm obviously going to post a bunch of pictures here...but really, there is no picture that gives justice to that view. None. If you've never been there. GO!

I have to step back a bit now.

One of the draws to the canyon for me was the Old Grand Canyon Railroad. I still have very fond memories as a kid riding a train. Of course those were the older ones. Wooden benches, lots of noisy clackity-clack. And super scary spaces between the trains as you ventured from one car to the other. Good times.

So, we of course purchased tickets to ride the old rail into the canyon fro our first visit. I must admit the price was steep $150 per person for first class (complete with complimentary snacks, drinks and entertainment) and the view was pretty much the same the entire trip. But it got me back down memory lane and we enjoyed it very much.

Now back to the canyon. 

This picture taken on the southern rim is so incredibly cool looking, it looks fake. Like a painted backdrop you might get in a studio.

Our first day was spent walking along the rim, taking in the views and visitors centers. We even hiked down a half-mile to the first tunnel. This is the usual tourist turn-around point.

We actually couldn't wait to get back and plan for a real hike into the canyon. We talked to hikers, did some research, and decided we would try for the furthest point down to the second rim. 

 Approximately 12.5 miles.

This would be our biggest hike to date (going back as far as the Olympic Rain Forest when Shelby was only 5 years old).

The arrow above shows our destination "Plateau Point" looking out from the top of the southern rim.

We started out at 8am. Which turned out...TO NOT BE EARLY ENOUGH.

Starting down the canyon wall we encountered many exhausted hikers coming up and out! Really? At 8 in the morning! They had already been out to the garden and back! The "garden" was the recommended day hike - that would be the area along the trail that looks like a line of trees. We were going another 3 miles to the point.

The down slopes into the canyon were at times very steep and rocky, but still pretty easy going. I wasn't realizing yet, how difficult this was going to be coming back up : ) There were checkpoints every few miles to rest.


Pictures along the trail to the "garden". The garden is also a camping opportunity for hikers. It was about mid-day now and getting pretty hot.

We took a short water break here as well.
Our next 3 miles would be out in direct sunlight in the heat of the day.

Onward to the point. Our destination for the day.

Looking down at the Colorado River from plateau point was amazing! Very much worth the hike.

 Then of course there was the coming back part : )

The arrow below shows the top rim point looking up from plateau point....

and we were already pretty tired...looking back up was a little intimidating.

We stopped again at the "garden" on the way back up and took a much longer rest. I will admit the last 2 miles which are straight back up the canyon walls were exhausting. Stopping points were every 5-10 minutes now...legs were shot and it was a lot more difficult to breathe with the elevation change. I would say the canyon "kicked my ass" that day : )

All in all an absolute kick! We had a great time!


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We took the scooter back a week later to visit another section of the park (the east rim). About 150 miles round trip from Williams. Here are a few additional pics from that trip.

I think that wraps up the Grand Canyon Tour!

I'll leave you with this image from inside the east rim tower.

Thanks for reading!