New Mexico adventures

Time to move on. We decided that New Mexico deserved some more exploring and perhaps we could ride the steam train at Chama. Off we go.

Well we made plans. That's not what we do but we decided that because the train ride looked pretty full to the end of their season in a month or so that we better buy tickets in advance. Not wanting to be stuck without a place to camp we made reservations in the campground too.

We left Amarillo and crossed into New Mexico, heading for Las Vegas (Yes there's a Las Vegas in New Mexico as well as the one in Nevada). Outside of Tucumari there is a LONG steep climb up to the plateau. The Rexhall was going 30 mph screaming flat out in 1^st gear in places. No problem, we're driven roads like this before.

At the top I glanced down and the temperature needle was in the red. Hurriedly we pulled over and I took a look under the hood. Couldn't see much. Obvious signs of overheating like light smoke of course, and the coolant header tank was empty. We let it cool for ½ hr then I filled it up again. There were no signs of leaks so maybe we got away with it.

We pulled into the Las Vegas Elks Lodge and when we got out there was coolant dripping from under the engine. When I investigated it was coming from on top of the engine, not the radiator or that area.

We started calling around. Nobody in Las Vegas could look at it. Santa Fe was 60 miles away and the Ford Dealer recommended an independent company Hal Burns. We took a chance, filled the engine up with coolant again and drove to Santa Fe. The engine overheated again 1 mile from the mechanic. We let it cool and filled it up and made the mechanic's place.

Sunset at the Santa Fe Elks Lodge

They couldn't look at it immediately so they said we could stay the night in their compound and they had an electric hookup for us.

The diagnosis was a cracked cylinder head.

While the problem was being resolved we decided to drive in the car another 60 miles to Albuquerque. We did some exploring and shopping, sampled some local brew pubs and restaurants including the best Indian Restaurant I've been to in 35 years in the States. Namaste. Great food and very friendly people.

We realized that the balloon fiesta was on here the next week. Not knowing when our problem might get resolved we asked for reservations at the hotel into the next week. We could always cancel them without it costing us anything. The price jumped from $70 a night to $180 once the Fiesta started!!

And then the no plan kids struck lucky again. The RV problem got resolved (see the bottom of the page!) and we saw on Facebook that the “Boomers” RV club had a cancellation for a spot at the Fiesta, camping right at the Balloon Park itself!! How lucky could we be?

The next thing we knew we were at the park, right on the front row. And guess what? The site for the Happy Hour was right in front of our rig!! Amazing.

Lining up to get into the RV area. reservations only.

Next morning we were up at 4am and heading out to crew for a balloon pilot who was on his own. 5 of us piled into his van and we went to find a launch point that would hopefully position him to drop a marker on a target on the flying field.

A cold morning, as the launch crew gather. "Our pilot" Brian closest on the right

It was FUN! The pilot (also Brian!) was with a couple of other teams and they found a good launch point. It was the lawn of a beautiful house with an big apple orchard. The owner kindly let about 6 balloons fly from the lawn right in front of her front window, and told us to help ourselves to as many apples as we wanted too as there was a bumper crop this year.

Beautiful Adobe home where we launched right off her front lawn!

We all helped pull the balloon envelope, basket, burner etc out of the van then helped as it was inflated. Brian invited one of the helpers to fly with him and off they went.

Barbara holds open the mouth of the balloon while they fire up the huge burners.

We followed in the van and Brian made our job of finding and retrieving him easy by landing in a parking lot across the street from the Balloon Park. We helped deflate the envelope and pack everything back in the van.

Another crew prepping for launch

An excellent day and more proof that the less you plan the better the experience.

"Dawn Patrol" every morning at 7am at the flying field

The following day we crewed again but the wind was stronger and the majority of pilots wisely decided to stay on the ground. We ran around the field with our phones and cameras taking pictures of the ones that did fly.

With our new friends Tim and Linda outside the NASA exhibit

Called "Zebras" they control launches at the flying field for safety purposes.

Every evening we had a happy hour and people related their adventures crewing and sometimes flying. Lots of fun. We had a “CARE” auction and raised some money for that worthy cause.

That evening I started sneezing and coughing and a nasty cold hit me. We had to cancel our plans to crew for the next few days and hung around in the rig. Luckily our front window faced across the street towards the flying field so we sat with the heater on and watched the fantastic “Shapes” fly.

Mass launch of "Shapes" as well as regular balloons

Amazing creations

Corcadova the Christ Statue from Rio De Janeiro

Darth Veda and Yoda

A happy Goldfish swims by the from window of our rig

I got over the cold almost as suddenly as it hit me and by Saturday we were catching up on laundry and doing the dump/fill routine at the local Flying J truck stop. Those places are great for RV'ers as they have dedicated RV islands and for a price you can dump the holding tanks and refill your fresh water tank. Better yet is if you are a Good Sam member your card gets you a discount on the price of dumping and also on gas or diesel.

We made new friends at the rally and have plans to meet up again next summer with some of them. Right now it's time to think about moving on again to get closer to Casa Grande. Won't be long before we're back in Sundance for the winter!

OK we were keeping it a secret so we could surprise a few people, but the resolution to the RV problem was buying a new (to us) RV!! More later!!