Category: New Mexico

Balloon Fiesta – Albuquerque, NM – Tuesday October 5, 2021

We flew the balloon today. Bruce took Karen on a 10 mile 2 hour flight to the northwest just south of highway 550 in Bernalillo. Landing was through a small tree and into a berm right next to dirt road.

I got busy and only got this picture of the crew, we had a good time. Life is good when the landing is right next to a road and the trailer can be driven up next to the balloon basket.

Balloon Fiesta – Albuquerque, NM – Tuesday September 28, 2021

You may notice a detour in our route to Albuquerque. We still need propane for the coach so we are going to stop at Amerigas again this morning, they are supposed to open at 8:00. We got there at 9:30 and this time I didn’t turn into the yard before I looked to see the yard gate closed again. We continued south looking for a place to get off the road and do some googling to find propane. Several miles down the road I saw an Amerigas bottle delivery truck pull into an Albertson’s parking lot. I followed him in and parked in the exit road, the little islands they put in some parking lots make it difficult for our 53 feet of coach and tow to maneuver around. The Amerigas driver was really nice and pointed us toward an Ace Hardware a half mile down the road where we got propane. He did call the Amerigas yard and confirm the yard person to fill bottles did not show for work again. To get the coach close enough to fill with propane I did have to unhook the pickup again.

This is the first place we set up camp. It has a great view over the RV Park towards the launch field. I did find out the one person in a white pickup trumps three people in two golf carts. After three of us had camp set up a guy in a white pickup came by and said we could not park where we were and HAD to move.

This is our second and final spot. On a level ridge with significant drop offs on both sides. We were level.

We made the correct decision to move south a day early. I talked to some folks who spent Monday night in Farmington and it rained hard all night. We are all set up and ready for almost two weeks of balloons.

Black Mesa Casino, NM – Monday September 27, 2021

It rained last and their is wash we need to drive through to got out of the park. I walked over to the wash and it had a couple of inches of water in it, we decided it was time to leave. The forecast is thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight.

Today’s drive.

We did get stopped for an accident. A travel trailer, camper on a pickup and a 40 foot tanker truck all had driven 20 feet off the road. When we drove up a helicopter was on the middle of the road and state road guy said the tanker was leaking. We decided to unhook the pickup and turn around. After I got the truck unhooked they opened the road. We drove back up the road to small shopping area turned around again and headed back south towards Bernalillo.

At Bernalillo we were going to get propane. I turned into the Amerigas yard and into a closed sign on the closed fence. I got to get out unhook the pickup and turn around again. After I had the pickup unhooked a nice lady walked all the way out to the gate to say the guy who handles filling bottles at the yard did not show up to work. If we’d come back after 8:00 am on Tuesday they would fill the coach.

Campsite at the casino, by the way the casino is closed.

Marley didn’t think much of the goatheads.