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.

Before we left we had a minor modification done to the trailer.  When we refloored our house with laminate flooring we got some extra for the trailer.  The installer (our neighbor) did the trailer for us also.  We no longer have the white carpet (well mostly white) and have a surface that is easier to clean.

Our reservations started on Monday and we had 3 nights there.  One plan was to leave early on Monday from home and get there later in the afternoon/evening for a total of 354 miles!  Roxie worked on Sunday but she had a plan.  Let’s leave Sunday night when she gets home.  I agreed that we could try and we would be able to do another first for us:

Wal-Mart!  This was the first time we have ever stayed overnight at a Wal-Mart.  This was in Palmdale and we got there about 11pm.  I checked with the security guard and he said we would park there no problem but no longer than 2 nights.  Suited us just fine.  All that I did was put down the tongue jack (remembering to park nosedown) to level it out and I unplugged the umbilical cable.  You can easily see why Wal-Mart likes this because we proceeded to spend $80 the next morning at the store.  The nice thing was that this evening trip essentially cut the remaining distance in half making a much more managable drive.

Our friends (Rich, Eleanor and Emma) had arrived a day earlier and were not around when we arrived.  We went through our normal procedures.  When we saw the Luhr’s, they introduced us to some other Airstreamers that met them there also.  Ken & Petey, Adam & Susan were introduced to us all and the Airstream bond was created.  On Tuesday we all got together and took a road/hiking trip.  We were lucky enough to go in style with Ken & Petey.  The first spot was the slot canyon.  This is where the flooding of Anza Borrego has created very narrow and interesting canyons that you can go hike in.  We weren’t concerned about flooding at this time.

The next stop were the wind caves.  Cavern type areas carved out by wind and rain.  This hike was a bit more strenuous than the first.  We had a steep climb to start then some up and down.  However it was well worth the hike.  The formations are very interesting and a lot of fun to scramble around on.  Here is Roxie in a cave:

We also stopped to see Font’s Point which gives you an overview of the badlands area.  You can go to my Flickr set of this trip for other photos that I took.

Wednesday we decided to take the hike to the Palm Canyon oasis.  I remember doing this when I was a child and the others had done it many times previously so we were on our own.  The first part was ranger led and there was a big emphasis on spotting some Bighorn Sheep (the park’s namesake).  Everyone was hoping to see some and started out with high spirits.  The day was a  bit warm, very little breeze and a constant uphill elevation change.  The ranger stayed with the group about half way but there were no sightings of Bighorn.  The ranger turned back but continued on to the oasis.  About 2/3’s of the way to the end (for us) we found a little cave that was in the shade and decided to take a bit of a break.  I thought I would scan the opposite mountains for any movement (I can pick up movement pretty good).  Looking up about 2000′ above us and I saw something.  It was a Bighorn.  So now I get to tell Roxie where it is.  Not an easy task to try to tell someone which rock(s) out of thousands they should look at to see something that was so minuscule.  However she was able to see it.  I tried to tell others as they passed by but they weren’t able to see it.  But I do have proof:

Look for the arrow and this was at maximum zoom on our camera.

We were able to complete our hike but we were pretty beat.  It was very warm at the end.  We had just purchased some water backpacks and were depleted also.  We went back to the trailer and rested a bit.  The next day we took our requisite trip to Julian.  It was about the same as it was before but we always enjoy going there.

You can see Rich Luhr’s account of their Anza Borrego trip at his blog.

Here is a shot of our trailer at Anza Borrego and a shot of my parents trailer many years ago.  Same campground but a different spot.

Now it is time to leave.  Do we go straight home in one day?  My birth grandmother lives in Riverside and we haven’t seen her for 4 years so we will see where we can stay for the evening.  Riverside does not have too many places to camp and a weekend is coming up.  So we try for another first and see if we can take advantage of some courtesy parking.  The WBCCI has a listing for that in the membership roster book but Airforums also has a place to list such.  We looked for someone in Riverside and found Towster!  We had met Vince and Virginia at some other rallies but did not know they lived in Riverside and we contacted them about parking for one evening.  They graciously agreed and even moved their trailer so we had room for ours:

We attempted to repay them for their kindness by taking them out to eat that evening.  It was nice to visit with them and get to know them better.  Sometimes it is hard to talk to people at the rallies since there are so many people.  We were able to visit my grandmother twice while we were there and then we pushed on home on Saturday.

A good trip, not rushed, a couple of firsts for us and new Airstream friends (Ken, Petey, Adam, Susan, Vince and Virginia).

We are westward bound since home is calling.  However the only real paths out of Green Valley are north to Tucson or south to Mexico.  So north we go to do a bit of backtracking (not too much).  We weren’t sure if we wanted to head back toward Phoenix maybe with stop at Picacho Peak State Park.  We didn’t do that.  I remembered a place that I went to as a child and it was pretty much on the way.  Organ Pipe Cactus National Park.

So we go up to Tucson and then head west on AZ86 from there.  The vast majority of the drive until the Why cutoff were in the Tohono O’odham nation.  It was pretty barren with one or two minor population areas.  Along the way we drove past Kitt Peak observatory which is one place I would like to go to, without the trailer.  The drive was enjoyable and we stopped for lunch at Why (yes that is the name of the town).  From there we headed south to the park.

This was one of the locales my father loved coming to.  Of course pretty much anything in the desert was where he liked.  He loved the smell of sagebrush, the dark nights with the stars.  It is good to be able to take my wife to these places that she has never been.  Organ Pipe is right on the Mexico border and there are some trails and roads that are closed to the public due to illegal activities.  We were only there for one night so we did not do much exploring, just resting.

Above is our spot in the campground.  As usual I like to see what other Airstreams are in the campground.  There were about 4 but no one was out so I couldn’t converse with anyone <sigh>.  However when I was sitting there an Airstream motorhome drove through, we waved at each other but that was the extent of the contact.  That evening after a steak dinner we went to the evening ranger program and then came back to the total darkness.

The next AM we went to the visitors center and I got a pin for my hat.  We walked around their cactus garden and I took two of what I feel are my favorite shots of the trip.  Both are cactus shots.

The above is an Ocotillo cactus.  What is odd about this one is there are leaves on it.  Leaves only happen once or twice a year at best.

This one is an Organ Pipe cactus I do believe.  I love the pattern that the spines create.

As I was talking to the rangers at the visitors center I mentioned that it was over 40 years since I had been to the park but I had some photos of my parents trailer in the campground.  I wondered if they might be interested in copies of them for research (I had them on my thumbdrive).  They agreed and I gave them the electronic versions.  Here they are:

and

The first one was probably around 1967 and the second around 1963.

We left Organ Pipe and headed north to join I-8 and head to our next stop for the evening, Yuma.  However on the way we stopped to visit some relatives of my mother’s boyfriend who happened to be in Ajo and had an Airstream motorhome.  We contacted them, found out where they were staying and stopped.  As we met them and I started thinking about it, this was the same motorhome that I saw in the park!  I had no clue until now.  It seems they have a favorite spot but it was unavailable so they did not stay at Organ Pipe that night.  We visited for a bit and then continued one.

We stopped in Gila Bend for lunch and Roxie shopped around to add to her collection of metal fence art.  We trucked on down to Yuma to spend the night.  The next day we headed back to Sam’s Spa in Desert Hot Springs and finished at home the next day.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trips through southern Arizona and look forward to a trip through the northern part soon.

We had to head north on AZ90, west on I10 (ugh, backtracking), south on AZ83 then take the cut off to Sahuarita.  On the way there  we were trying to find out where we were going to stay.  Little did we know that Green Valley is a HUGE retirement area for Snowbirds.  There weren’t may RV parks.  One that was listed was actually in a mobile home park.  There was one slight drawback, it was 55 and older park.  We called and I explained that we were planning on staying only one night but we had not reached their minimum age yet, just 7 more years!  They were willing to let us stay, so this was a double first for us, a mobile home park and a 55 and older park.  We dropped the trailer and immediately took off to see what we came there for.

The Titan Missile Museum.  This is the only remaining missile silo left over from the cold war, all the others were destroyed as part of arms agreements.  It was impressive to see the level of technology (or lack of it) that protected our country during that time.  It shows how paranoid the world was and also how thoroughly all the aspects of the defense were thought out.  Things like when the replacement shift came in, they had 30 seconds to get from one point to another or the site would lock down.  The fact that it required two people to fire the missile, each turning a key that were so far apart that you could not do it with one person.  Certain areas required two people at all times to avoid sabotage.  Wow!  Everything was still looked like it did then, some things were even still functional.  If you ever get near Green Valley, by all means take the tour!!  I even bought some canned emergency ration water from the late ’50s.  I have not, and probably will not open it.  I am not sure how close to water it really is.

Our trip is winding down now since we unfortunately do have to get back home is some semblance of the future.  So we will continue heading west (homeward) but we are still going to have to stop some more.  Part VII coming next (sorry about the lack of photos in this post).

We pulled into the park and went to the visitor’s center to see when the next tour was.  They had two different tours, one where you can walk up and get tickets and the other where you had to have reservations.  We got tickets for the walk up tour (Throne Room) but it was the last tour of the day.  So we decided to see if there was room in the campground for the night and there was.  We only had electricity and water but that was fine:

As you can see the weather was changing.  The stormy cloudy weather was clearing and blue skies being revealed.  Unfortunately this meant it was going to warm up also.  We parked the trailer, waited a bit and went to the tour.

These caverns are amazing.  They were not discovered until the ’70s.  Then they were not publicized in any way.  Eventually the family that found them turned them over to the state of Arizona.  They took many years to get them ready for the public.  Since they were unknown until recently they have not been ransacked like most caverns we have been to.  No broken formations, with the exception of natural acts.  The state made the entire tour handicapped accessible, all ramps.  They have airlocks for entry and exit so there is not a continually open door to allow the moisture to escape to the desert.  The cave is surprisingly warm and moist, something we rarely feel in other caverns.  They don’t allow cameras as this could slow down the tour and flashes can be disruptive to the formations.  Coats must be rolled up tight and tied around your waist to keep the lint problems down.

The formations are pristine.  The historical story about the caverns is intriguing.  The engineering put in for the public’s enjoyment is impressive.  We thoroughly enjoyed the tour.  We wanted to see the other tour also, the Big Room.  We asked the ticket counter about getting tickets since they were sold out for the next day.  They told us we could come down the next AM and wait for any cancellations.  We went back to the trailer for a welcome rest.

The next day we went right down to the ticket booth.  Nothing initially.  We waited about 30 minutes and two tickets opened up!  But they were different times.  Sigh.  We weren’t going to split up like that.  We waited about 30 more minutes and finally two showed for the 11:15 tour.  We took them.  We had about 2 hours now and decided not to spend another night.  We hooked up and parked in the visitors parking lot and took the tour.

The Big Room tour was just as impressive but in a different way.  It was not the same as the previous but that was a good thing.  We felt very fortunate that we were able to just show up and see both tours.  But it was time to go.  Where to next?  See part VI.

We got up the next morning and decided to visit Bisbee.  We knew we wanted to take the Queen Mine tour and had made reservations already so we hit that the first thing.  This is an interesting tour as you sit astride a train, like the ones that were used, and you go about 1500′ into the mine horizontally.  This not like a roller coaster.  However it was a bit stressful on the knees in the position we rode.  We made about 3 stops at various points to see historical portions of the mine.  The picture below shows Roxie checking out the ‘restrooms’ they had down in the mine.  No coming out to use the toilet so they put the toilet where you were, on rails.  Must be fun when there was more than one with a need.

After the tour we heading to downtown Bisbee.  This is town has a lot of history and it’s livelihood is now tourism.  There are a few characters living around here.  See the photo down the page of a vehicle we saw.

We walked around, had lunch, went in stores, watched other people, generally did the tourist thing.  Since today was Valentine’s Day and a Saturday the town was pretty busy.  We went back to the trailer for a short rest in the afternoon.  We tried to find a restaurant but the holiday made that problematic.  I was able to sneak off and get a card and some flowers at the local Safeway before.  We ended up going to a Chinese restaurant south of town.  We agreed that it was not to our liking.  Bisbee is very close to the Mexican border and we drove down near it after dinner.  Unfortunately we did not bring our birth certificates so we could not go across, which was fine with me.

The next day we continued our touristy ways and did a day trip to Tombstone.  It was overcast so it was not very hot.  You can imagine what Tombstone would be like if you try real hard.  The historic streets are still dirt, luckily it did not rain.  The courthouse is a very interesting site to see.  They have a show that reenacts the OK Corral shootout.  We passed on that.  We walked around, got tired, had some lunch.  Here is a hearse from those times:

We also had to stop at the Boothill cemetery.  It was a bit disappointing because everything seemed new.  New rocks on the graves, new signs, etc.  I would think a cemetery from that time would be a bit older.  Here is one such example:

We headed back to Bisbee and I stopped to take a picture of the Lavender Pit open pit copper mine.  The picture does not do it justice.  It is HUGE!  The main road goes right by and around it.  You can see the tracks going down it.  Each of these is easily as wide as a two lane road.  Trying to give you some scale.

Our last morning in Bisbee we had breakfast at Dot’s Diner that they have restored at the Shady Dell.  The ambiance was very fun.  We left Bisbee enroute to our next stop, find out in the next installment.

We called an RV park in Bisbee and they had a spot available for 3 nights so we took it and headed south(east) alas it was on an Interstate.  We didn’t stay on I-90 for too long, we saw Colossal Cave Mountain Park.  We are always up for doing some caving so we went.

The cave is not active so it makes it a bit warmer and drier than the others.  There was a lot of climbing up and down, uneven ground, all in all it had what makes caving fun.  There were many stories, one being where some stage robbers holed up in the cave for quite a while.  The local justice of the peace camped out at the entrance and waited them out.  However they went out another opening.  It was a fun side trip.  The most exciting part was parking the trailer.  The entrance to the cave is at the top of a hill.  The hill is nothing that we have not pulled with trailer but the separate down road had a sharp corner that would have been very difficult to negotiate.  So there was a “widish” spot on the access road where we were supposed to park.  So we did, but it was fun to turn around in that spot, a few back and fills.

So we continued on the journey.  I am the kind of person that does not like to backtrack.  I would much prefer to take one route to the destination and a different one back.  I was about to attempt this.  We headed south on SR83 to Sonoita.  Follow along on the map below.

We went east on SR82 to SR90 and southbound.  We skirted around Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca and continued east on SR90.  There is some really beautiful and desolate areas through those routes.  We joined up with SR80 southbound to Bisbee.  Our destination was the Shady Dell RV park!  More about Bisbee and underground escapades next…

Our destination was the Gilbert Ray campground at the Tucson County Mountain Park.  We were going in without reservations, something I am not really used to.  It turned out to be fine and we found a spot just as it was getting dark.  Around 8pm we had everything setup and disconnected and had dinner.  Yes, the tank was still leaking…

The next morning I crawled under the trailer, as much as I could.  I could still see it dripping and according to our meter, the tank was almost empty.  The water was coming out of a small ‘patch’ by the drain spigot.  I removed the screws on the patch and looked inside.  I could see the main drain plug but I could not tell where the leak was actually coming from.  If I had more time (and was younger) I would have done some more investigation.  In the state of Arizona there are only two Airstream authorized service centers and there is one in Tucson at Oasis RV.  I called them and explained our problem.  They said to bring it in.  I had paid for two nights but we were not sure if we would have use of the trailer but the campground would work with us.

We hooked it all back up and headed to Oasis.  They seemed to think that it was not very serious.  Of course, I was thinking the fresh water tank was cracked and it would be into the 4 figures to get it fixed.  They have many years of experience and had no qualms leaving the trailer.  We gave them my cell number and headed off to the Rock show.  Might as well do something instead of just sitting there.

The Rock show encompassed something like 20+ locales with different things everywhere.  We were able to see some tents from Oasis so we went over there.  It turned out to be by a sports area (where the Arizona Diamondbacks do spring training).  The parking was ample and easy and they had a place for dry camping (for $20).  We started looking at the rocks.  The first area had the small individual sellers that were selling out of their RV’s.  One guy had a enclosed area with blacklights to see all the odd colorings in his rocks.  We moved on to an area where they had more large commercial vendors with crystals that were bigger than me!  There was every type of stone, rock, etc. you would want.  Roxie particularly liked these:

We were there about 2 hours when my cell rang.  It was Oasis telling us that the trailer was done.  It was the drain spigot that broke (something must have hit it) and the repair took 2 hours.  I was very relieved.  We spent about another hour and then went to get our trailer.

We took the trailer back to the campground and set everything back up.  The campground had electricity only so having water was fairly important.  It was not leaking!!  We took a short rest (got on the computers) after all that went on.  We ate at Benihana’s that night to celebrate the relatively inexpensive repair.  We were able to coordinate with Rich and Eleanor so we could visit with them while we were there.  We missed out on courtesy parking at their house since there was already an Airstream there (I wonder what the neighbors think).  It turned out they had an idea for the next night and invited us to dinner at their house, perfect!

The next day, Thursday, we paid for one more night.  We went to Old Tucson, which is in the county park.  It is a movie set that was created in the area to lure Hollywood movies here for a more authentic location.  It was kind of touristy but that is what we were.  It was enjoyable.  We ate at a BBQ place inside, Big Jake’s.  The food was pretty good especially for serving a captive audience.  Old Tucson took us up to about 2pm.  We were going to go to the Sonoran Desert Museum.  We drove though the parking lot and it was almost full, we knew we only had about 2 hours so we passed on it this time.  This will leave us something to do the next time we are in Tucson.  We headed instead, to the Saguaro National Park, Tucson Mountain Division.  There we listened to a very interesting talk about the geology of the area and were able to see LOTS of Saguaro cacti.

We stopped by the trailer to clean up and then headed to see Eleanor, Emma and Rich (their chauffeur).  Eleanor cooked us a very nice meal with some creative chicken cooking.  Rich was in charge of the grill but it wouldn’t stay lit.  We got to see their home away from the Airstream and it was a very nice Arizona home.  I loved the low maintenance back yard.  We finished up dinner and went to a local theatre, the Loft, to see the Academy Award nominees for Animated films.  It was entertaining, albiet some of the films went a bit long.  My favorite, Oktapodi, did not win the Oscar.  We were able to visit a bit after the film and then we said our goodbyes.

We had to decide where to next.  Well we were still staying south so we thought, let’s go see some old trailers in Bisbee.  Stay tuned…

We are lucky enough to get off two holidays in February on consecutive mondays.  This way I only had to take off 8 days of work to have a total of 16 days off.  So the general plan was to go travel around Arizona since we sure did not want to do it in the summer!  We decided to only plan 2-3 days ahead as we went.

The initial plan was to get to Sun City West and spend a couple of nights with my mother.  This is a drive that we can do (over 500 miles) in one day without the trailer but we weren’t about to try that with the trailer.  Our first stop was at Sam’s Family Spa and RV in Desert Hot Springs.  I love to stop off there since it is pretty much a good distance to stop and they have 4 hot water pools.  Very relaxing.

While we were at my mother’s we were trying to figure out where we were going to go.  The weather made the decision for us.  This was the time that all the storms were going through north part of the state, Flagstaff had almost 2 feet of snow.  We now knew we were going south.

On our fourth day of the trip we left my mother’s and started south.  We stopped by Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.  We have a NPS pass so we might as well hit them all.  This is an interesting park as it has the remains of a large house that the native americans used for functions that are still not understood.  I was impressed with the cover that was built over it to help preserve it.

The park was enjoyable, in one aspect.  While pulling into the parking lot, I noticed a trail of water coming out from under the trailer.  We had a repair on our gray water valve before we left and I was wondering if it was that.  It was not, we did not have an liquids in that tank yet.  It turned out to be fresh water that was coming out.  Good, something to worry about!

We were going to go to Picacho Peak State Park and spend a night and perhaps a short hike.  The leak changed the plans.  We were going to go to Tucson to visit the Luhr’s so we pushed that up a day.  The Tucson Rock and Gem show was going on and it might be tough to find a spot so Rich told us about the Tucson Mountain Park.  We headed there.

The trip continues in the next chapter…

The ‘northern’ group had a trip to the Jackson Rancheria RV park planned for the second weekend in October.  That is only about 200 miles from us and we have not explored that area too much so we got reservations and made plans to go.  The ’southern’ group had a trip to Kernville at the Rivernook Campground for the very next weekend.  This one was only 124 miles away so made reservations there also.

Jackson:  We have been in the Gold Country a bit but have not really spent any time there.  This was a good opportunity for some exploration.  We got there fairly late on Thursday and planned to leave Monday.  The spot we were initially assigned did not have enough nights available and we would have had to move for Sunday night.  We were able to switch with another Airstreamer that was leaving on Sunday.  We were able to get around to see Black Chasm Caverns with its amazing collection of helictites.  We always enjoy stopping at any caves/caverns we can.  We also got to look at the Indian Grinding Rock SHP.  It is difficult to imagine living the way the original inhabitants of these areas did.  We topped off that day with a stroll through the town of Jackson.  They were having a old pipe organ festival at that time.

We visited in the evening with the other Airstreamers.  We had the obligatory potluck on Sunday night (friday night a lot of us snuck off to the Casino’s buffet) and the weather was FREEZING!  Luckily ‘doorgunner’ brought his hellish propane fire pit.  Due to the high fire danger, no wood or charcoal fires were allowed.  However propane was fine and the Rancheria fire department came by a few times to check on us but the pit was legal (you can see us on the left of this picture).

That Sunday night at the casino they had a concert.  The performer was Don Felder, one of the founders of the Eagles.  The tickets were inexpensive, $20 each, so we thought we would attend.  The concert was very entertaining, he played mostly Eagles songs, on SRV song, and one original song.  He must have played 6 different types of guitars.  There were only about 200 people in the audience, it was a flat floor with an elevated stage.  Very similar to when we saw Steely Dan at Table Mountain Casino near home.  The only drawback was all the cigarette smoke in the casino.  I am very glad we went.

Kernville:  I had 3 days at work, then we turned around and headed to Kernville.  It didn’t break my heart.  We have friends in both groups and there was one other couple that made it to both as we did.  It is interesting that each group has so many differences but I won’t go into them here.

The Rivernook campground was a stark difference from the Jackson Rancheria RV park.  The Rancheria park was neat as a pin, paved, grass everywhere, new.  The Rivernook had its’ own charm.  It actually felt like a campground, once you got past all the permanent RV’s, you could see tenters, tent trailers, trailers, very few 40′ bus’.  No two sites were alike, some had hookups, some didn’t.  Plus there were many creeks that ran through it along with the Kern river.  Our group took an entire row and some others were dispersed around.

The weather was very different this weekend, as this photo will attest:

We spent part of Saturday walking around Kernville and going through the consignment and antique stores.  It wouldn’t take more than 4 hours since there weren’t too many of them.

All in all it was nice to go somewhere we haven’t before but it was a bit much to do two weekends with work sandwiched in there.

I have been a fan of The Police for many years and have enjoyed Sting’s work but in a different way.  I like the earlier Police sound with a hard edge.  As Sting evolved so did his music and the Police’s which probably precipitated the breakups.  I think Sting is a very good lyrics writer, his music lags behind.  However the next week we went to another concert to see a group that is the other way around.

We went to Paso Robles to go to the Mid-State Fair.  They ALWAYS have good acts performing there.  This time they had Steely Dan, my favorite group.  If they are close, I will go to the concert.  We did take the trailer this time since it was a bit closer and we chose to stay at the Wine Country RV park.  We have had good luck staying there over the years.  However, this one was a bit different.  When I made reservations I was not told we were going to get the ‘fair special’.  It was special alright, special for the RV park.  It was over $60/night due to the fair!  That was not even in a ‘premium’ spot.  The premiums are pull-through.  Ours was a back-in and had a concrete pad.  The lesser spots, which were full, have dirt for the pad.  We had a difficult time getting the truck to fit into the spot also.  When we were leaving we were prepared to turn in front of the clubhouse (to the west of it) and follow a motorhome out.  Some employee emphatically motioned us to go around the clubhouse, even though no one was coming and the motorhome was there also.  Oh well, I think we will reassess our visits to this RV park in the future.  I would rather drive further and stay somewhere else, like Redondo Vista.

Regarding Steely Dan, I feel they are the best that I have heard musically.  I love their intracacies in their music and the fun they have.  Lyrically they could do a bit better and sometime Donald Fagen doesn’t have the pure voice to carry it.  I always thought it would be good to have Boz Scaggs singing lead for them, who, ironically, was at the Mid-State Fair also but we did not see him.

But wait, there is one more concert to discuss in a future entry.