I forgot to mention lunch Tuesday.  We looked online for a restaurant in Gallup, NM since we were heading through there at lunch time.  We had two choices, Earl’s and Genaro’s.  Earl’s was a bit like a Route 66 cafe so we opted for Genaro’s.  Might as well have one last meal that represented New Mexico.  We found out again how California Mexican food differs from New Mexico Mexican food.  I feel the difference is in the chile’s used.  I have not been a real fan of chile in general but I have liked what I have been tasting here.  One reviewer of Genaro’s raved about the Green Chile Cheese Fries so we thought we would try those.

I wasn’t so thrilled with them but they were OK.  Roxie had a burrito with Green Chile sauce on top.  I had a shredded beef taco. They both were good.  The salsa with the chips was the hottest we have ever had, I believe.  Roxie found out the hard way.  I have learned NOT to dip into the salsa before I get my drink if I have never had the salsa before.  Roxie didn’t wait, she dug right in and took a big dip.  She was VERY glad when her drink came.

The real topper was the sopapilla.  We have had variations of them, even two days previously.  A puffy pastry that you eat with honey.  It did not prepare us for the biggest sopapilla we have ever seen:

This thing was the size of someone HEAD!  It was huge!  It was pretty good but it would have been nicer to have a few smaller ones instead of a big one.  All in all we did like Genaro’s and would seek it out again.

This brings us to Wednesday.  As you may remember we had made it to the KOA at Holbrook.  That morning (Wed) we found out that we had to get home and cut our trip short.  The reason was not due to health reasons but something that we could not take care of on the road.  We decided to get on the road and get to at least Kingman that night.  We were sad that we could not continue on but we did accomplish our main goal, the Balloon Fiesta.  We can get to Arizona with only one night of travel so we can, and will, hit the locations we want to see.

So we got into some rain and cloudy weather in Flagstaff.  On a truck related note, the passenger door switch used to think it was closed all the time.  Now it is thinking that the door is open when it is closed and closed when it is open.  Another thing is there is a check engine light that came on again.  This is the ‘generic’ check engine light.  While refueling I remembered there was an auto parts store nearby.  I was able to rent a OBDII code diagnosis tool.  What it told me was the computer had not relearned some sequence.  I think this may have happened during the transmission service.  I read on the internet that I was supposed to clear the code and let the truck idle at operating temperature for 5 minutes.  I did so and the light is gone.  Yea!

We made it to Kingman but it was about 3pm and we thought that was a bit too early to stop.  We know that the more we travel this day, the less we travel the next.  We pushed on to Needles, but we wanted some more variety so we took Route 66 through Oatman, AZ.   The first part of the road was standard desert road wide, straight, bumpy.  However it did change to a more Route 66′ish road but narrower.  Right when it changed we came across these two in the road.

We had read about their friendly wild burros.  I read that as an oxymoron.

This road is very interesting.  Even moreso when towing a trailer.  Very narrow, curvy, a lot of up then a lot of down.  The truck handled it with aplomb and we eventually came to Oatman.  We were there just before 5pm and things were closing up so it is somewhere we need to come back and see again.  We did see some more of those burros.

These were being fed from a store owner in town.

We made it to Needles and stayed at the Desert View RV Park.  The price was good and they said their WiFi was very good.  Well it was not, we had to sit outside at the end of the trailer by the road to get service.  But it was a bit too cold (yes, we remember it being 100 degrees the week before) to be outside so no WiFi.  I think they need a few more antennas in the park.  I tried my 3G card but it was only Edge and it cut in and out.  Hence no blog last night.

On to Thursday.  Left Needles and traveled the boring I40 W to CA58 W.  Yawn!  Down the Tehachapi’s, the hill that started our truck fun.  No problems.  We made it home about 5pm.

Would we go back to the Balloon Fiesta?  Sure, probably not next year though.

Will we get to Northern Arizona?  We want to, this was the second attempt.

Do we want to east New Mexico cuisine again?  Definitely.

Did we meet many new interesting friends?  We always do.

Will we take another trip?  Come on!!!

This wave of balloons cleared our parking area and we noticed another wave from the north coming in.  They would descend by the field, drop their marker (like the previous morning), then pop back up and continue on.  The vast majority of them continued to the south but a few actually set down behind the motorhomes about 3 rows back from us.  This was pretty impressive to see that maneuvering.  We turned to look at another coming in, lower, lower, lower, boom.  He landed right next to one of the Airstream rows and right behind our traveling buddies, Bob and Phyllis.  The pilot asked the group around the basket to help hold the balloon in place until his chase crew could get there.  Naturally, he got full compliance.  In this picture you can see Bob and Phyllis having a great time (they are the ones looking at the camera and beaming from ear to ear and their trailer is in the background).

Roxie was right there also helping out.

The crew got the bag deflated and down to the ground.  Again they asked for help to get the air out of the bag and there went everyone again.

Everyone involved really enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching them.  There were enough hands already.

We got back on I40 W and backtracked a LOT today.  We made it to Holbrook, AZ and are at the KOA tonight.  We both had nice long hot showers in their restrooms.  We dumped both our tanks and now we are somewhat back to normal.  We will head to Cottonwood and the Dead Horse Ranch State Park tomorrow.

We did NOT set the alarm this AM for once.  We thought we would naturally get up early enough to see anything.  There actually was a Texas Hold’em competition for the balloons this morning.  There huge cards on the field (I did not go verify) and the balloonists would drop a marker to get the best card.  Depending upon the wind direction they would launch from the north or south to fly over the field.  The wind was blowing from the south, as it has for 2 days now so they launched from the south.  This meant they were coming directly over us!  I thought this might be the case but was unsure until we heard a burner ignite over our trailer.  We hustled outside to watch them float over.

Now this guy looks real low but he wasn’t so bad.  Here is another shot of him a bit further down his run.

See, he is gaining altitude!

As all this was going on I would look to the south to see what was coming, then to the north to see what the balloons were doing over the field.  This is the bad news.  We saw a balloon that was severely deflated and still very high.

It is the one on the left (this is a friends photo).  We saw it come down faster than normal and only stopped when it hit the ground.  That is just part of the bad news.  It appears this balloon clipped one of the hospitality tents at the south end of the field.  In clipping this tent, it tilted the basket enough to eject the pilot (or passenger, it is still unclear).  He tumbled about 20 feet to the ground appearing to suffer a broken hip.  Prior to this the pilot was attempting to gain altitude by hitting the burners.  Balloons do not react real fast so it obviously did not help enough.  The combination of extra heat and less weight caused the balloon to shoot into the air very rapidly.  This entire sequence was very frightening to the remaining passenger in the basket and she responded by opening the top of the balloon which caused the rapid descent.  We only say the descent but I am conveying the information from eye witnesses.  That was the bad news.  I am sure there is more on Google by now.

The good news is the truck!  It is fixed!  I visited a transmission shop, Mike’s Transmission which was only about 1 mile from us.  I immediately had a good feeling from Mike himself and he stated he would do a diagnosis on the transmission and give me an estimate and there would be no charge.  I could decide what to do then.  He called back in about 1 1/2 hours and told me what he had found.  The sensor gave two codes.  The first said it had reached 315 degrees!  He said if there was this code only then it would mean overheating but the second code showed it had reached -40 degrees, yes 40 below zero.  This pointed to the sensor.  I could get the part ($80!) replaced for a total of $170.  However, since the pan would be off I could get new fluid and the filter replaced for $250.  That was a no brainer.  Do the extra service.  About 2 hours later the repair was done and a new friend neighbor gave me a ride there.  I talked with Mike a bit and determined that not only was he a very nice and honest guy, he really knew his business.  Also I feel if he did not know how to do a job or felt he couldn’t, he would NOT do it.  Very recommended shop!  So remember, wait until Albuquerque before you have any transmission problems.  (Hey, Mike if you are reading this, you need to get away to the lake, SOON!)

This evening the group had another meal.  This was not a potluck but had bratwurst, hamburgers and/or salmon and other sides provided.  It was the last get-together before the rest of us bug out tomorrow (some already have).  This has been a fun rally. Bob and Phyllis came to the trailer for a bit to visit before they continue on eastward tomorrow.  We had fun with them and I know they will continue to have a good trip and I am sure we will see them again.  You always tend to see other Airstreamers again.

The distance to this rally is the real killer for us but we will do it again some time.  This is the first time that I can remember us dry camping for 4 nights without adding water or dumping gray water.  Roxie has done a great job in conserving.  As far as power, I created my extra battery box similar to this one so we have had 4 batteries for the duration.  However we have been running the generator regularly to charge the laptops (I don’t like my inverter).  It has been a learning experience.  But tomorrow night we WILL have full hookups so we can take nice long (7 gal hot water) showers!

I have heard it said that this fiesta is the most photographed event in the world and I believe it!  Everyone either had an SLR, simple digital or a cellphone and were taking photos.  Luckily most of the shots were in the air so peoples heads were not a problem, especially if you are 6’1″.  I just stood there and turned to take a shot of a liftoff, turned another way to take another.  Roxie and I called each other to find each other and after a bit of trying to understand each others directions we reunited.  I was standing right near a balloon that was ready to take off.  Usually the officials that launch the balloons (called Zebras due to their referee garb) clear out a path in front of the launch.  I stood right next to a van there, knowing full well it wouldn’t be moving so I would not have to either.  The balloon lifted off and I got this shot of them 10′ over my head.

The silence as they floated by was eerie.

The sun was starting to come out from behind the clouds now and I was in the wrong location to shoot since a lot of the shots would have been into that appearing sun.  So I moved again and Roxie went to shoot the Nemo fish balloon.  I shot for about 20 more minutes before we had the difficult task of reuniting but we did it.

Here is another shot I got (of the many) and you can see the cloud bank as it is moving to the north.

We walked the entire vendor booth area and it reminded me of a fair or an Airshow.  We walked past the booth with the chile breakfast burritos they were saying $2!  We paid $5 the morning before.  We could not pass up such a discount and got two for breakfast and sat down for a while.  There were a few people out sleeping on the grass and I thought that was a good idea but we didn’t have a blanket.  We went back to the trailer.

Shortly before lunch we thought we would go to Old Town Albuquerque.  Since it was close to lunch I looked for a restaurant on my iPhone using Yelp! and Urbanspoon.  We thought Mexican food would work so we found Monica’s El Portal Restaurant.  It was just across the street from Old Town but not frequented by many visitors.  There were almost exclusively New Mexico license plates in the parking lot.  I had two tacos and Roxie had a salad with chicken on a piece of Indian Fry Bread.  It was very good.  They gave us sides of red and green chile sauce.  Roxie thought the green was impossible to eat and the red was really hot and she did not eat either.  I, surprisingly, liked the red and used it on my tacos.  They also gave us two Sopapillas. I hadn’t had Sopapillas for a LONG time and I do enjoy them.  We put honey on them and went at it.

After lunch we walked around Old Town, got some souvenirs, looked in some stores and visited a few bathrooms.  Roxie talked to an indian dressed in authentic clothing and she talked to him for a bit.  Maybe she will fill us in on it more.  We left around 3pm so we could avoid any traffic problems coming back to the fiesta grounds to avoid any traffic.  There was an after potluck potluck this evening, we were to bring the leftovers from the previous night.  Roxie made the Broccoli Cheese casserole that she didn’t have to the previous day.  It was windy but fun to talk to old and new friends.

This evening there were fireworks again and this night they were much better and timed good.  We even got to see the ground display.  We are calling it an early evening tonight as I have to check out the local transmission shops to see what can be done to the truck before we start back.

Oh, and the alarm will NOT be set for tomorrow.  Anyone have a guess when we will wakeup?

The picture is a bit blurry but then again so was I!  I am not used to getting up that early, wow!  We watched these 12 take off, head down to the south of the field, ascend, then travel to the north of the field.  This is the wind condition called the Albuquerque Box.  It is one of the things that makes this area so appealing to balloonists.  After the Dawn Patrol it was time for the ‘Mass Ascension”.  You really don’t know what they mean when they say ‘Mass’ unless you are here.  I heard that over 500 balloonists registered for this.  It could have very easily been that many.  Here is a shot of some:

One nice thing about the Fiesta is you can walk around the grounds and around the balloons as they are being laid out, filled with air, heated and then takeoff.  You can walk right up next to the basket and take a shot inside:

The best part was standing right next to the baskets when the burners were lit.  They were nice and warm and I was COLD!  It seemed to get colder right as dawn was breaking.  Having a breakfast burrito with New Mexico chiles did not help that much.  So you would stand there and watch about 20 balloons lifting off in sequence, then look down the field and see another 30 being filled, then look the other way and see another 40 being laid out.  It was very impressive.  It was difficult to keep track of all of it, very sensory overwhelming.  In the sky all the balloons were all over, different locations, altitudes and directions.  Here is a later view of just a part of the sky:

How many do you count?  I got 100-110, different numbers each time.  It shows you part of the immensity of it all.  I will post all the photos to my Flickr account under a Balloon Fiesta set when we get back.  I will also have the above photo in a panorama picture.  All the balloons are not the same shape, the favorite appeared to be this one:

It took a long time to inflate, but when it went up it went to cheers from the crowd.  It was pretty big and it took off very rapidly.  Another favorite were these two:

Now it looks like these two are holding hands and they are.  However is no attachment point between the two balloons.  The pilots maintained this connection from lift off until I wasn’t watching them any more.  I was told these balloonists can also, under the right conditions, rotate them so they can ‘kiss’.  The vast majority of the balloons are very colorful, alas it was pretty cloudy so the sun didn’t bring out the colors as it should but I tried to take any ‘artsy’ shot of a balloon while being inflated.

We headed back to the trailer after all of the balloons were launched (about 9am) got inside to get warmed up and promptly slept for almost 4 hours.  See, told you about the unfamiliarity with waking up early.  We got up, did a quick bit of grocery shopping for the evening potluck and came back.  Yes, there are Airstreams here also.  We are in 3 rows, we are in Row 2

(That’s us with the blue awning)

We had the evening potluck with the usual plethora of food.  It is funny how there is rarely any duplications at these.  We sat around, ate, visiting and wondered when the helium balloons were going to lift off.  They had been filling these balloons all afternoon for a race that they have.  They see who can go the farthest in a certain amount of time.  They were supposed to take off around 6pm but they were still there when Roxie and I went back to the field around 6:30.  They were scheduled to have some balloons be inflated and then light themselves up with their burners.  Kind of like the Dawn Patrol but they would not take off.  The night would then culminate with fireworks.  Well the helium balloons were on hold and the other balloons were canceled due to gusty winds.  Even the fireworks were odd.  There were a couple of large gaps, the first one so long that we almost got back to our trailer before they started setting them off again.  The helium balloons will go off whenever the winds die down even if that is 3am (we won’t see it).

All in all it was a very fun but oddly scheduled day.  The same may happen tomorrow but we won’t get up that early.  Maybe 6:13?

It took about 15 minutes to get to the next overpass so we could get on I40 E.  As we passed the Camping World, we could see the other group leaving.  It was good until we got more into Albuquerque.  Then the local traffic started to infiltrate us.  Plus we had to change lanes a few times.  We transitioned to I25 N and went about 5 miles before we turned off.  Another 2 miles to the compound.  The parking people (a very powerful group) directed the trailers where to go.  We lucked out with our spot.  There is no one else in front of us and we actually can see the grass field from our trailer.  It is about a 1/4 mile walk to the grounds.  Have to get to sleep early tonight since the festivities start at 5:45AM (that is 4:45AM your and our time).

I will have some more photos tomorrow.

Some other Airstreamers were going to have breakfast in Flagstaff then stop for lunch in Winslow.  Now Winslow is only 50 miles away from Flagstaff so we thought that is awfully close to have breakfast and then lunch.  We decided to leave a bit closer to lunch so we would be in Winslow at lunch.  The planned location was the La Posada hotel.  A former railway hotel that fell into disrepair but now is being restored to its full glory.  We pulled up and found 3 Airstreams already there.  The hotel is beautiful.  We headed straight to the dining room and got a table.  Bob went over to the only table that had more that 4 people at it and found those were the Airstreamers.  We talked a bit with them but they were already finished eating and were preparing to leave.  Not a problem.  We went and sat down to check the menu.

The waitress had a suggestion of the tacos made with Filet Mignon.  3 of us chose those.  Roxie chose red corn tortilla taquitos.  None of us were disappointed and the prices were very reasonable.  Roxie also tried their Black Bean/Creamed Corn soup which she loved.  The chance for dessert came, Bob and Phyllis ordered a bread pudding with many types of nuts and fruits in it (terrible description).  We had creme brule.  Both of them were very good but the bread pudding was the best.

There is another thing Winslow is famous for.  Do you know it?  The Eagles made this town very popular with their song “Take it Easy”.  There is a reference to ‘standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona” (sing it if you know it).  Well we had to go to THE corner.  We had to take some pictures.  I had to play the song for Roxie afterward on the iPod.  It was a weekday so it wasn’t busy at all.  We did the photo exchanges (all these will be on Flickr when I return).  Here is one of the corner that the city has setup.

When we looked at the clock we realized that we had spent 2 1/2 hours in Winslow.  Wow!  We still had 180 miles to go.  Time to get on the road.  We left Arizona, eventually and entered New Mexico.  We got to the Grants KOA around 7pm (their time).  We were the last two RV’s in the campground as they were full!  I am glad I made that reservation 5 months ago.  There are approximately 20 Airstreams here and we are heading to Camping World to join up with the rest and all go en masse.  Should be fun!

Oh and about my sticker?  Not even the first dot has shown up (190 degrees).  I am not sure if that is good or bad now…

We hooked everything up and headed on to a relatively short day (200 miles).  We crossed over into Arizona and immediately became the slowest vehicles on the road.  The speed limit in AZ is 75mph regardless of vehicle type.  Well I still stay at 60-65 but even the big rigs were zooming right by us.  Except on the hills where we could pass the loaded ones.

We made a fuel stop in Kingman, AZ and noticed that the old Route 66 took off there.  We had been on this stretch before about 7 years ago on our Grand Canyon trip but don’t remember too much about it.  We thought we might as well do this stretch while we were there.  Great decision.  There was more traffic on this stretch but it was more scenic and more populous.  We were kind of looking for a quaint, Route 66′ish place to eat.  We thought at least one of the towns on the stretch between Kingman and Seligman would have something.  Phyllis produced a printout of a place in Seligman that looked very appealing.  Continuing to enjoy the scenery and nostalgia (even the Burma Shave signs) we headed to Seligman.  We found just the place:

Delgadillo’s Snow Cap drive in.  It was a very fun place and the Delgadillo’s are a very famous part of Seligman.  There were various other shops to purchase touristy stuff, which we obligingly did.  It was odd that for a period of time we were the only primary English speaking people there.  A tour bus dropped of a group of Europeans (I think German) and they milled around.  Later there was a Japanese group.  It was fun to listen to all the languages.

We parted ways with Seligman after almost 2 hours of leisure (sadly missing from our previous day) and stayed on the ‘mother road’ as far as we could.  We were eventually funneled back to I40.  We came across a sign on the freeway before Williams that stated slow trucks next 18 miles.  Usually slow trucks mean a grade but I could not think of an 18 mile grade that I have ever been on.  Well it was a grade and it was almost 18 miles long.  The transmission continued its’ light show but the truck performed just fine.  We made it to the Flagstaff KOA at any astonishingly early time of 4:15pm.  I called a transmission shop and discussed the problem.  I also conversed with my boss, who likes to rebuild vehicles also and every concurred that there was something probably bad with the sensor.  I am going to the transmission shop in the AM to get a type of temperature gauge for the outside of the pan.

We setup the trailers and decided to try another discovery from Phyllis, the spot this time: Miz Zip’s.  Very good food.  Chicken Fried steak with mashed potatoes was highly rated by the girls.  The guys liked the Roast Beef dinner.  We ALL loved the Peach pie with ice cream, even me and I don’t care too much for fruit pies.  We made a few more house keeping stops and came back to the trailers.  So what is the cold part regarded in the title?  The temperature tonight is supposed to be 32.  What a difference a day makes.

Back to the pull and it happened again about 3 minutes later.  Pull over again.  This time we looked for leaks, we pulled the transmission dipstick.  The fluid was nice light red, no metal particulates, and it did NOT smell burnt.  I called the Ford dealership in Bakersfield but they were not much help, didn’t want to do a over the phone diagnosis.  The truck still ran great, seemed to be performing normally.  There were a few weird feels but that could have been my reactionary driving now that I thought something was wrong.  We still had 10 miles to get to the town of Tehachapi.  So off we went.  The meter pegged itself again for about 2 minutes but then it dropped back to normal operating range for 10 seconds, then back to pegged.  Very odd behavior.  It did this all the way up the hill.  We stopped for lunch and to see if cooling off helped it or perhaps the computer might get reset.

Off again.  The trans temp started at cold and gradually warmed up, like it should.  Then it hit the operating temp and shot up to HIGH with all the various indicators doing their dance.  I knew it was all downhill to Mojave (the next Ford dealer) so we pretty much coasted down the hill.  The gauge bouncing between normal and high all the while.  We were feeling pretty good that the transmission temperature sensor was malfunctioning.  It all pointed to that.  We pulled into the Ford dealer and the service coordinator listened to what I had to say but said she was short two technicians and could not look at it today.  I guess there are no special privileges for people traveling, I will have to remember that when we retire.  She was able to pass the symptoms onto a technician when he came in and he stated that a bad sensor could be a probability.  But they would not commit to anything.

Confident with the sensor being the culprit we moved on down CA58 E, next stop Barstow.  I was going to stop at this Ford dealer but I called first and told them my lament.   He said he would need a full day of troubleshooting and he could start it first thing tomorrow.  Nah.  The confidence is building.  We only stopped their for some fuel and got on I40 E for Needles.  Along the way the truck did fine, but I didn’t.  I was constantly hashing and rehashing this in my head.  Roxie would ask me if I wanted a snack and I would always decline.  I definitely do not eat when I am nervous.

At Ludlow we turned southeast for a bit to travel on old route 66.  Phyllis really likes the old road.  I know I must have traveled on it from time to time.  We went for over 30 miles, at 60mph (freeway speed) before we saw anyone else.  It was amazing.  The mountains were stunning.  It was HOT!  I think it got to 104 in one stretch.  After about 70 miles on the mother road we rejoined I40 E.  It was only 7 miles longer going the alternate route but much more fulfilling.

We have made it to Needles now.  We ate dinner around 7:30.  We are parked on the bank of the Colorado river at Moabi Regional Park with full hookups.  Bob and Phyllis love it, remember this is only their 3rd night in their trailer and it is pretty nice here.  Just 90+ and 30mph winds.  It is supposed to be 30 degrees tomorrow night in Flagstaff.  What a change.  We will see what tomorrow brings.  Roxie is sound asleep and I am going be that way very soon.  A long day.