Looking For "Paul"

Roswell, home of all things UFO, was a big disappointment. I feel that the town is really missing the boat on cashing in on its fame. While there is a UFO Museum, it was pretty tacky, disorganized, and the crap in the gift shop was expensive junk. I mean really ... can't we do better than keychains??
Glad it only cost 5 bucks ... and that was more than it was worth.

So while we were actively looking for the alien 'Paul', or some spin off of him, we are fairly certain that he would have gotten bored and blown this town a long time ago.

So here are my token UFO pictures

And the closest I came to seeing a UFO was the weird shaped grain elevator .... but I did find a sign on an abandon building that was just right.

The only UFO I could find

This really says it all

t.

International Balloon Fiesta

We saw that the International Balloon Fiesta was coming into Albuquerque a week or so ago and we were pretty ambivalent about attending. We checked a few campgrounds and heard that everything was completely booked, and there were high prices for anything else that was left. We decided we would move through the area without the hassle of dealing with 100,000 people showing up for this event and continue on our slow way south. We looked for overnight parking spots on line with our camping app and found a casino north of town. They are usually good for free overnight parking if we are just moving through an area. Turns out this one was spectacular. And a lot of other folks knew about it too.

 There must have been 300 rigs parked in the several different lots of this huge resort/hotel/casino/golf course complex. Most of them were monster rigs ($$$$$) that dwarfed our tiny little van.

We found a great spot on the end and settled in for a night. Our plan to move on in the morning quickly changed as we found out that we were right above the launch area for the balloons and that they would be coming right over us. So we got up early and watched as over 300 hot air balloons were launched just after dawn and floated in the sky around us. Not only were we underneath them, but it turns out they landed several of them in the field behind us, on the golf course, and one even went down in front of the hotel entrance. 

Steve had the opportunity to get close to one that landed and get a photo of the basket and set up. We looked at taking a ride, at least for Steve. It cost $345. for 1 hour by appointment in one of the commercial balloons, not a part of the fiesta. I personally would not go up even if it was free, but at $345, it was not worth it to Steve.

But the fancy hotel was just great to us. They considered us 'guests' even though we were really freeloaders in the parking lot and they allowed us to get their special shuttle service to the evening lighting up of the balloons event. No parking ($10), no getting lost at night, no dealing with the traffic nightmare of closed roads and police directing you onto detours, a GPS disaster. (Poor Loretta already struggles with us). All for $10/each round trip. So were were able to wander the launch grounds as the balloons were being inflated and set up for a lighting 'burn'. Fascinating to be able to walk around so close to them and talk with the pilots and crew and see firsthand how this works. So many great designs and colors and then of course the food booths and live music and a great fireworks show at the
end. So glad we went. Another one of those
opportunities that you don't see coming but need to grab.
Got a little cold last night so we are continuing south. Steve spotted a campground on the map called Valley of Fire and we are intrigued.

Bandelier

Back to another of our favorite places for a few days. This National Park is a great place to get up close to the ancient dwellings of an old pueblo. The weather continues to be nice except for distant thunderstorms in the late afternoon. They no longer allow vehicles on the steep and winding road down into the access trails and visitor center so we take the shuttle bus that starts in town a few miles away and stops by our campground. Wonderful. Wish more parks would do this. It runs every 15 minutes and you can get on and off wherever you like. No parking, no hassles, more peaceful.

We hike to Alcove House, a place that we missed on our last visit and their are 3 ladders up the cliffs to reach it. First one is 20 rungs and we both head up. Next one is 40 rungs and I wait below. Last one is 30 rungs and Steve continues on for beautiful views and a buried ceremonial Kiva. Hard to imagine families living here and the daily chores of hauling up water and supplies and trying to keep young children safe. I am thankful for the modern guard rails on these ancient trails. But the recreations show that they had incredible systems and pens for wild turkeys and fences for kids, and food growing below on the creek side so  it must have been a good life.

It is so beautiful here on this fall day, the Shasta daisies are still in bloom everywhere and we are enjoying the warmth and sights.
We encounter a way too bold coyote on the trail. He got within 3 feet of us, which I thought was a little too close, then Steve accidentally dropped his hiking pole as he fumbled with the camera and the coyote spooked and moved a few feet off the trail to go around us. Glad that this was the only wildlife encounter we had.  Because of all the fires here in the surrounding forest the last few years there has been a significant bear problem. Boy scouts being mauled in their tent a few years ago, and just a few weeks ago a bear ripped into a tent at night and scratched a young girl. Glad we are no longer tent campers!

By accident we are here for their October Fiesta, a celebration of the local culture. So after our hike we visit the booths of local crafts, smell the aromas of greasy looking fry bread,  tacos, and something called a 'reservation dog' ... fry bed wrapped around a cheap hot dog. Hmmm...no thanks.

But we did get to watch the Zuni Dancers perform. Later that evening their was a mini-performance from the Santa Fe Opera under the stars in the amphitheater next to our campground and a spectacular sunset. Good luck all around!

Into New Mexico

Cimmaron Canyon

High Passes of New Mexico

The weather has remained beautiful, in the 80's, with cold nights in the passes (8000+ft) and warm nights down around 6000ft. We are still in shorts and sandals morning til night. We spent a few days wandering in in the northern New Mexico high country, including Cimmaron Canyon, wandered the street of Taos, and then a night at Rio Brava campground on the Rio Grande south of Taos. This was a favorite campground of ours in the past and we planned on staying a while, but this year they are working on the road so dump trucks are grinding by every 1/2 hour and our homeless lady next door says she is allergic to everything and if we start a charcoal fire or cook anything or breath wrong she has to take a walk to get away from us. I guess she is famous, or infamous, in this area. She rotates stays here and in the other campgrounds even though she has a daughter nearby. She appears to have some mental health issues but is not a real threat and the campground hosts all know her and keep an eye on her. And yes, she does sleep in that VW beetle, but does not really 'camp'. No cooking or ice chest or real supplies other than a row of empty cans lined up on a railing that she has some sort of ritual with. Time for us to go.

Our Neighbor

Red Rocks, Rocks!

 We landed in Bear Creek Lake Campground just a few miles from Morrison, CO in anticipation of the Furthur concert on the solstice weekend. Our campground is surrounded by open space, 2 lakes, and paved bike paths that join up with greater Denver's well known bike routes. Red Rocks Amphitheater is a premium venue and a spectacular place. We spent a morning there watching the crew set up for the concert and scoping out the best entrance for us slightly mobility impaired, bad knees, old folks. Found the one with a steep and long ramp rather than the one with the 150+ stairs for our starting place. Turns out both had their disadvantages.
Our campground filled on Wednesday in advance of the Friday night concert and it has been a low key but very fun party going on. Really nice folks, all here to listen to the masters play and very friendly and ready to have a good time. Nice that everyone folds up about midnight so we are all getting our sleep but meeting some great folks.
We got in "line" for the concert about noon, even though the gates open at 6. Our tickets were general admission so we are stoked to get good seats close to the front. The line is another party where we bring our camp chairs and portable cooler and sit in the sun and meet other folks from all over. Beer and food are shared with strangers and new friends are easily made. We are amazed at the number of out of area attendees. From Florida, New York, Chicago, Nebraska, Alaska, California and everywhere else you can think of. Lots of older hippies, young street people hippies, some sketchy looking freeloaders, but most are in their 40-60's and have real jobs but for the weekend have put on their finest tie-dye or old vintage Dead shirt in honor of the event. People bring grills, food, and shade tents and portable music systems and t shirts and art and jewelry to sell out of the back of their vehicles. Everyone is happy and having a good time.
The parking lot party is not be missed.
Gates open and a quick footrace to the ramp and then up the ramp. It is steep and it is 1000ft elevation higher than the already 'mile high' Denver. We are at 6500'. Sue slows down and moves to the handrail. All the flatlanders are sucking for oxygen and looking like they are going into cardiac arrest, the front crowd thins ..... even the locals are huffing and puffing. The crowd thins again. Our new friend that is 'local' living at high elevation and a mountain biker/la crosse player & coach, he slows too. Steve becomes our 'runner'. The old hands at this had clued us in on how to do this while we were waiting. Sue brings the pack with long sleeve shirts, water, snacks, camera, etc...and Steve moves with the running forward crowd, and through the 'no bags' security check line that moves fast. He is in the company of the mostly male competitors and young teens that the parents are sending as the runners for their group. We wish for a teenager with us to go forward with speed, but Steve is remarkable and gets in quickly and get seats in the 14th row. Yea! he calls me and tells me row and seat numbers and I stop on the way in for the CD pre-sale bracelet. Hooray for cell phones. We are set.
A great concert with legends in music and and one of the finest bands around. The sounds in the rock bowl are incredible and it is the best place I have ever been in for music. (Even the Colorado symphony loves to play here). Back to our campground about midnight and the music plays around campfires for another hour and then everyone is out. Perfect.
Saturday is a repeat of Friday with new folks to meet and get to know and another race for the seats. We are even better this time as Steve gets row 16, a little farther back but more in the center, just a few seats from the soundboard/VIP seats. With nearly 70 rows in the place we are happy to be down this close. Sound is phenomenal. The band is hot and everyone is on their feet and dancing for the whole show. Another round of campfires and music and on to Sunday. We had purposely not gotten tickets to the Sunday show as we thought we would be burned out and we were right,  both our knees are tired and sore from all the stairs, ramps, and dancing. We go out for supplies in the afternoon and accidentally drive past the arriving dignitaries/secret service/hoopla for Romney ... turn out he is speaking about 4 miles from our campground. We both note the irony of these two opposite events happening a few miles apart. We stay in the now empty campground Sunday night and I am desperate to not miss the last concert so I spend a couple hours searching the internet and finally find a live stream of the concert from a taper on the inside, stream it off the internet via our cell phone, the sound is scratchy so I use the cell phone as a hot spot and connect it to our ipod, and then send the signal as a FM broadcast to our surround sound coach stereo and we get to rock out to a pretty good quality concert in the comfort of our home ... we did not miss the final show after all. This was a first for me to try to get this all together and it took a while to figure out but I am sure it is no big deal for a 15 year old. (Need that teen again.) After the show our campground fills with happy concert goers and the party really rocks now on its final night until 2am. We are not unhappy with this as it is still warm and we have our windows open as we finally drift off to the sounds of happy people and good music.
Monday morning the campground empties as most folks are hitting the road early to make it to Seattle and on to the next concert on Tuesday. We think that sounds exhausting and are glad to not be trying to do this. Many of the ticket holders took 2 weeks off from their jobs and are going to all the concerts ending up in Santa Barbara in 2 weeks. They are some serious fans.
So today we rest and resupply and get out the maps.

On the Road Again .....

For now we have headed east where we immediately ran into smoke from all the fires. Snoqualmie Pass to nearly Spokane was pretty thick. Then coming down the pass into Missoula we hit it again and it was ugly and unhealthy. We made very few stops as the air was so bad, but by the time we got to Bozeman it was just hazy and not nearly as thick. We had a great meal with Steve's Aunt Dottie and cousins Brian, Tanner, and Sean. Fun to see them all in a little quieter setting than the annual family meeting at The Hills. After a quiet night we left for Yellowstone. We were unable to get into the campground we were hoping for in the Lamar Valley because of its popularity, so we spent a quiet afternoon and night at the Madison Campground, took a few spins on our bikes, and rested in the sun. We are heading for Denver area by solstice so we moved on to the Tetons where we spent a night in the northern part. The next day we headed south and got into the worst smoke yet. Maybe 1/2 mile visibility, and it made our throats sore and plugged our heads for 24 hours. No more mountain views and all we could think about was getting out of it. We headed east over the divide. We spent a night in Riverton WY where I spent a few hours working on our new web site then on to a peaceful night on the Platt River.

A New Start

After nearly 5 months of hard work and good luck we are finally back to heading out again. It has been an eventful time and what seemed like a crazy idea and a fantasy last January has actually come to pass. As we sat in our cozy rig sipping our morning coffee in a wildlife preserve near Madera Canyon in Arizona last winter we got the idea of how to travel longer and further. So we came home, rested up for a couple of weeks, and put what seemed like a far fetched plan into action. There were a lot of adversities and set backs, but things fell together for us and we managed to finish the remodeling of our 'back room/mud room, finish all the details on our house that we had been ignoring, such as exterior shingling on the back bedroom wall, baseboards, wiring that didn't get covered.etc, and sort, pack, and store over 30 years accumulation of "stuff" that were spread out over several acres, (phew), found tenants for our house for at least a year, had several great going away parties and goodbyes and are on the road for a long adventure this time. We have found our way through the logistics of mail, bills, communications, etc and while we will miss our friends and family we are really excited to be having this adventure. 

That is now us. We have got our new business up and running and are excited to be starting this chapter in our lives. So you will have to put up with a little advertising every once in a while. We plan to become dealers and installers for AM Solar out of Oregon and be one of their mobile installer for their products. Steve has completed the training program with them (in the middle of the craziness of moving our stuff) and with our already extensive background in installing and living with solar for the last 25 years, we think it is a good fit for us. And Steve has already successfully installed a system for his first customer. Yay! We hope to be able to supplement our incredibly meager retirement income and continue to travel as we do it. Sounds like a fantasy for now, but we hope to make it be a reality. While there is not a lot of demand for solar on RV's for locals in the rainy northwest, the sunny winter travelers are jumping on this technology. So since sunny warm winters is what we are looking for, this just might be the way for us. We will return to the northwest in spring/summer, or before if needed, but for now we are happy to be back on the road.