Balloon Fiesta, Day 1 (10-09-13)

The type of RV spot we picked for the Balloon Fiesta is called a VIP spot.  We have no electric hook up, we’re basically parked in a parking lot(we got a prime end spot), but tickets for the Fiesta are included, we are parked right next to Julie and Mike, and we can walk to all the festivities, and actually see most things right from the trailer!

Our first night in Albuquerque, there were no Fiesta events planned.  We called our friend Teresa, who lives here, and made plans to meet her for dinner.  We met her at one restaurant for drinks, then decided we didn’t like the menu so we walked to Tucanos Brazilian Grill, where the five of us had an awesome dinner.

The flying of hot air balloons is very weather dependent, of course.  Many of the balloons are what they call “special shape” balloons, and they don’t fly them if the wind is over 10 mph. The forecast was not good.

Nevertheless, at 5:30 AM, in the predawn cold, we were walking the 5 minute walk to the launch area to see what was happening. With temperatures in the low 30s, we were all bundled in our winter coats. 

Venders were already up and running, selling both souvenirs and breakfast foods.

“Dawn Patrol” is a small group of balloons that are sent up in the predawn hours, and is the first event each day. On that first day, they didn’t fly-not a good sign.

  The determination was made that the special shape balloons could inflate, so that people could enjoy them, but they wouldn’t be released from their tethers. As the sun came up, the balloons were laid out.

This Fiesta is unique in that you can walk the field as they are inflating the balloons, and really get a close up look at how the work is done.

     

We thoroughly enjoyed walking among all the balloons for a couple of hours, until our feet went numb and we decided we needed to head home to warm up.  By noon time, the wind had picked up to 30 mph, gusting to about 50 mph, and brought with it a lot of dust and some rain.  We all just hunkered down for the rest of the day, since all the events were canceled and we were pretty tired.

Santa Fe Part 2 (10-07-13)

There’s nothing that makes time fly faster than a visit with friends or family.  As soon as our good friends Mike and Julie arrived, the second half of our Santa Fe visit began.  Once we came up for air from all the talking, we made some plans for how to spend our time.  Eating, as usual, played a large role in our itinerary!

The Santa Fe area has quite a bit of hiking available, and even though the trail we wanted to hike is on Federal land, and therefore,closed because of the government shutdown, we found a great trail that afforded awesome views of the city of Santa Fe.

With only one more day left in Santa Fe, we headed for the Plaza square. We were all interested in seeing the Loretto Chapel  so we made that our first stop.



The story of the chapel goes like this:  When it was built in 1878, there was no staircase to the choir loft built. The sisters of the chapel called every carpenter they could find, looking for someone who could build them a staircase.  They all said the same thing- you need to build a ladder-any staircase would intrude into the chapel too much. The Sisters made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the final day of prayer, a carpenter showed up, looking for work.  He said he could build a staircase, and sure enough, he did.  He worked on it for months and when he was done, he left without saying anything, and without collecting his payment.

  The staircase makes two 360 turns and has no visible means of support. Many shows have showcased the staircase, including “Unsolved Mysteries”.  Years after it was built, the banister was added, for safety reasons. Of course, it completely changes the look of the staircase, but its still pretty neat looking.

  After touring the chapel for about 15 minutes, we headed to the plaza, where all the shopping and restaurants are. 







We had a particular restaurant in mind for a late lunch, but found out the hard way that most of the restaurants close at 2 pm and re-open for dinner at 5:00.  We finally did find one with decent reviews though, and had lunch at Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen.  New Mexicans like their food spicy, and so do we, so it was a great fit!

As I said, time flies, and the next morning it was time to move the rigs down the road to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta!

Santa Fe, NM Part 1 (10-03-13)

The first thing I noticed about Santa Fe is the elevation.  It sits at about 8,000 feet, working my lungs to the max.  I don’t do too well at high elevations- it takes me a long time to acclimate, so I find myself getting winded way too easily.  It’s also much too cold here!  Low temperature our first night here was 28 degrees. 

After a bit of craziness trying to figure out where we were going to stay, we checked in to an RV park just outside of town, with easy access to the city.  The woman who checked us in was a wealth of information about what to do and see, and  she mentioned that the New Mexico History Museum has free admission every Friday night.  Since it was Friday, we decided to take advantage, and save some money!


The museum was divided into 3 sections- early history, recent history, and temporary exhibits.  All 3 areas had interesting displays so here a couple of tidbits I learned in each area (no picture taking was allowed anywhere in the museum) :

Spanish Conquistadors arrived in the 1500s and, of course, promptly decided that the already existing Native American population needed to be converted to Christianity, and began that process immediately. They had their way until the late 1600s when the pueblo Indians planned an uprising.  Because the many different tribal languages and locations made communication difficult, each tribal leader was given a length of rope with knots in it.  They were instructed to untie one knot each day, and attack when there were no more knots left.  Ingenious!




The temporary exhibit revolved around cowboys, their lives and their work. One of the displays was about branding.  Apparently there is a correct way to “read” a brand, so you’ll know what it says.  You read from the top down, then from the outside in, and from left to right. 








In more recent history, the Santa Fe area was one of the homes for the Manhattan Project- the building of the atomic bomb. People working at the laboratory in Los Alamos all had an address of P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe, NM, and in place of their name, their driver’s license had a number.  They lived here for years, working on the project and it was so secret that all of their outgoing correspondence was censored, and it had to be done in a way that the recipient did not know that it was censored.

The museum was well done, and worth the price of admission!


Saturday morning we were off to the Santa Fe farmer’s market.  The produce was so colorful and looked so good, I searched the web for a Roasted Green Chile Stew recipe and bought all the ingredients to make it from the market.  It turned out pretty good!

We had time for a hike in the afternoon so we headed for Glorieta Ghost Town trail.  It sounded interesting, and started off ok with old rusted out cars along the trail.

After hiking 3 miles, however, we determined that mostly the only thing left in the ghost town is the ghosts. It was a little disappointing, but the Eagle Scout in Paul came out and he did some impromptu trail maintenance along the way, so at least he feels like he accomplished something.







This morning we watched the Patriots lose to the Bengals as we wait for our friends Julie and Mike to arrive.