Month: October 2017

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta – Thursday October 5, 2017

Little RV work today.  The 12 volt charger has been working on and off for the last couple of weeks.  We are just fine with the solar panels we have when there is sun, however there was not enough sun today and will not be enough tomorrow to bring the batteries back to fully charged.  With another 6 weeks before we get to the big house I went to Harbor Freight and got a 10 amp battery charger.  This one will go quite well with the two chargers I already have at the big house. I actually carried one of these charger on the last several trips, Oh well. 
See Richard I even got the one with the 50 amp boost. 
I did being the extra connectors I got with the solar panel so I was able to connect the alligator clamps from the charger to clamps that came with solar panel and thus plug into the solar panel connection. 
All set to go, when I started the generator the internal charger started working. I am ready when it decides not to work again.
After the 4:00 daily Escapees happy hour I started the generator and the internal charge did not come on.  When I plugged in the new charging system the internal system started charging.  Sure seems to be a problem with the internal’s systems ability to sense when to come on and charge. I don’t think it is a loose wire because I had the internal charger out while we were at the big house in July-August.  

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta – Wednesday October 4, 2017

Today is our first day in Albuquerque and we will be here until the 16th.
The drive today.
We are at the south RV parking with the Escapees Boomer’s group. I think we will have 50 RV’s here for the event. 
We are in site B48C-1 right on the edge of what is called the BOX.  This is one of the landing sites south of the takeoff field. Last year we saw a bunch of balloons land in this BOX area. 
View out the front window.  
Here I am standing in front of the Motorhome looking toward the launch field. Balloons should rise from behind the building on the right side of this picture. 
Our campsite, pretty level on a hard seal coat road surface.  This area is an old garbage dump.  

Sky City Casino I-40 – Tuesday October 3, 2017

We had planned to spend the night at Bluewater Lake State Park, NM. Jean saw a road sign just before Gallup, NM advertising a casino RV park with full hookups and WIFI for $18.00 a night.  This would make things so much easier to dump and fill with water before getting to Albuquerque. At the Bluewater exit we called the casino to see if they had a site, they did so we moved on the additional 40 miles.

This is our first casino RV park.  It saved me an two hours of unhooking and hooking up the pickup and moving into a site than moving to two places to dump and get water, and we were able to do 50+ iPad updates on the great WIFI.  

Site 22.

Winslow, AZ – Monday October 2, 2017

With a high wind warning up in Winslow, AZ from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. we were up and on the road early.  Up at 5:30 made coffee got the pick hooked up and we were on the road by 6:30 a.m.  I had to take the pickup to the upper area of the campground to find a place where I could hook it up to the motorhome.
Here are some map pictures of the drive.
My guess was the winds were mostly in the 15 to 25 mph out of the west the whole drive, made for a long 200 miles.  We got to the state part at 10:15 and the park ranger said if we wanted to see any of the park we should get at it because it is really going to blow this afternoon.  We had more exciting things planned for the afternoon, laundry.

Tuesday we move to Bluewater Lake State Park in New Mexico for the night, dump and fill with water for our time at the balloon festival.  No internet at Bluewater Lake so posting tomorrow.

Added campsite pictures, in site 47.