Nuestra casa rodante – Our Airstream, travels and such…

roger March 10th, 2010

Yes, it has been a while since I have posted or we have planned to go somewhere.  Both are happening now!

We are going to Paso Robles this weekend with our WBCCI unit, and another one for a joint rally.  It will be held at Wine Country RV.  We are using this as a great excuse to get out with the trailer.  We like Paso since it is pretty close to us and we are familiar with the town (lots to do).  We also have not been out with our WBCCI unit for about 3 years and we can reconnect with some of them.

Just because we have not had the trailer out does not mean it has been quiet in our RV life.  The tow vehicle, our F250, has given us some grief.  You may remember the problems we had with it on our Albuquerque trip and the transmission issue.  About 1 month after the trip the truck started surging at idle and it threw a code.  The code was for an ICP (Injection Control Pressure) valve.  As this was happening, I had the batteries run down to the point where it just had that clicking sound when starting.  Once I got the batteries charged, the truck started running rough and threw another code!

Wow!  Two at once!  The code mentioned something about an injector had low pressure.  I know that injector repairs are EXPENSIVE!  I decided to attack the ICP problem first.  A trip to Ford and about $200 later, that was fixed.  But the truck still was running rough.  I lived with it for a few more weeks.  Now it was time to take it to a local diesel shop.

The first thing they saw was the batteries were very low and were not holding a good charge.  Diesels are very hard on batteries, hence the reason for two in our truck.  They need a minimum voltage to start correctly.  These were having problems with voltage and they recommended I get them replaced.  I still had 1 month left on the full Diehard replacement so I hauled them both to Sears.

Their tests concluded the batteries were fine, naturally.  I tried to convey the information, from the diesel shop, that batteries in diesels are under a different set of requirements and the standard automobile load test is not pertinent.  After a day or two of ‘discussion’ the Sears manager was willing to warranty replace one battery but I had to purchase the other outright.  I can live with that.

I took the batteries back to the diesel shop.  They installed them and started looking for the injector problem.  It was gone, it cleared up after the new batteries were installed.  We deduced that the fuel injection control module (FICM) is very susceptible to low voltage but once the fresh batteries were put in, it relearned its program.  Fantastic!  Plus the shop only charged me two hours for easily four hours of their time.

So was that it?  No!  Next I started hearing a squeal when the A/C compressor would kick in (defroster).  I wasn’t sure if the belt was just slipping (preferable) or was the bearing going out on the compressor (oh no!).  It turned out it was the belt tensioner.  It was fixed in place and not movable, as it should be.  Hurray, another repair!  The tensioner’s are pretty pricey, about $180!!  So we replaced the belt at the same time, it was due at 90K miles.

The truck seems to be running good now (knocking on wood – my head) so we will test it out on this trip.

Our extended warranty expired in August around the same time we paid the truck off.  It seems that the truck knew the warranty expired.  However all of these repairs did not reach what our payment used to be so we are still ahead of things.  I am just curious if the people that determine these warranties are the same ones that make the actuarial tables for life insurance?

I will post about the rally after we are back, maybe even during.

• F250 , Trips , WBCCI , repairs
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roger October 13th, 2009

I have uploaded the photos from the trip, including the balloon fiesta.  They are on my Flickr page here.

• Airforums groups , Airstream , Albuquerque Balloon Festival , F250 , Trips , WBCCI , repairs
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roger October 8th, 2009

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday, it will be explained further down.

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!!!

• Airstream , Albuquerque Balloon Festival , F250 , Trips , repairs
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roger October 6th, 2009

Today the Balloon Fiesta is over for us.  I am sure there will be more coming in for this weekend but it is time to hook up  and head on out.  However, before we left we were treated to another show.  We rolled out of bed at an earlyish time but not too bad.  We saw balloons floating over our trailer like the previous morning.  They were taking off from the field and heading south with the wind.  Many went directly over our trailer.

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.

• Airstream , Albuquerque Balloon Festival , Trips
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roger October 5th, 2009

Ok.  You know the drill.  I have good news and bad news.  Which do you want first?  What news is the good and what is the bad?  There are so many possibilities.  Let’s start with the bad news.

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!

• Airstream , Albuquerque Balloon Festival , F250 , Trips
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roger October 4th, 2009

I really did set the alarm for 6:13 this AM.  At 3AM there was a plane flying low over the trailers.  It made about 4 passes then disappeared leaving us awake.  When the alarm went off I got up and stuck my head outside the trailer to see what was going on.  I saw nothing happening, no Dawn Patrol, just a few vehicles driving around.  So we did not hurry getting up.  The wind was still pretty strong and there was a cloud cover that was low enough that we could not see the tops of the Sandia Mountains to the east.  I thought this cloud cover may have been creating an unworkable ceiling for the balloonists but I could be all wet.  We walked through the field and the wind was gradually pushing the clouds to the north.  A couple of balloons took off and I could see they were drifting to the northwest so we headed over to that part of the field to get them going over us.  It was still cloudy.  The balloons slowly started to fill and launch, there was a palpable feeling in the crowd as it started and everyone started heading to where we were!  I just stayed in one place and started taking MANY shots (for me).  I eventually lost Roxie in the throng but we both had cell phones and decided to find each other later.

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?

• Airstream , Albuquerque Balloon Festival , Trips
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roger October 3rd, 2009

So we set the alarm for 5:29am (Roxie asked why 5:29 also).  Well I didn’t like setting it for 5:30.  The ‘Dawn Patrol’ was to launch at 5:45.  The Dawn Patrol is a group of 12 balloons that inflate and launch right before dawn.  It is fun to see them light up with the burners:

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?

• Airstream , Albuquerque Balloon Festival , Trips
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roger October 2nd, 2009

We left Grants a bit behind the other 18 trailers but we managed to catch up.  It was very nice to have a short day, about 80 miles.  We arrived in Camping World and found a place to park.  There a lot of Airstreams there (should have been 46).  We shopped, milled around, ate lunch, looked at the other trailers, mingled, etc.  Then it came time to move out.  The plan was two groups of 20+.  Both groups about 20 minutes apart.  We were initially told we were in the second group so we took it easy.  Then they started saying they needed more for the first group and whoever wanted to go should.  We fired up the trucks and joined the fun.  We left the parking lot and lined up out on the frontage road.

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.

• Airstream , Albuquerque Balloon Festival , Trips
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