Carlsbad, NM and San Antonio, TX

After the Balloon Fiesta it was time to head home, but there were still places and people to see along the way.  From ABQ we headed to Carlsbad, New Mexico.

 We had heard it was best to take a tour if you could at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The tours fill up fast and we were lucky that we got there just in time to get the last two spots for the 1:30 tour of the King's Palace.  We spent the morning on a self guided tour of the  Big Room choosing to enter through the Natural Entrance instead of taking the elevator directly to the Big Room.  We enjoyed the King's Palace tour much more.  Our guide told the story of how the cavern was found and explored.  They are still finding new tunnels.  It was hard to take pictures in such a large dark place.

From Carlsbad we headed to Texas.  We spent one night in Sonora, TX, which was just a convenient stop along the road.  Then on to San Antonio.  I had never been to San Antonio.  We toured all the Four Historic Missions and the Alamo.  The Alamo was having some restoration work done which interfered with taking exterior pictures.  What they have preserved of the Alamo is small, it is a shame that the rest of the fort was taken in by the city before they decided to preserve it. We enjoyed our walk on part of the River Walk Downtown and the 7.1 miles that we rode on our bikes near the campground.  We ate at two great vegan restaurants.  When passing through that area again we would like to explore more of San Antonio and ride/walk the entire River Walk.

Looking back at the Natural Entrance from inside the Cavern.  I cannot imagine finding this big hole in the ground and deciding to go explore with a lantern.

Mission San Jose

Mission Espada

Mission Concepcion

Mission San Juan

Alamo

San Antonio River Walk

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

On October 1st we drove to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta !  Our entire trip revolved around getting to the Balloon Fiesta, it was the first reservation we made when planning the trip.

If you have never been to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta you need to put it on your bucket list !!!  The Fiesta is the first full week in October and runs from Saturday to the following Sunday.  We were there for 3 days.  It was not enough.  We will go back and next time it will be for the entire 9 days.  You can volunteer to be ground crew for the balloons, we had friends who have done this and loved it.  We wanted to take pictures since our time was short.  Next time we will probably volunteer to be crew.

The field where they have the Fiesta is in a unique valley that has what they call a "box" effect for the air current.  So the balloons can actually take off from the field follow the lower air current to get to the end of the field, go up to the high air current and the "box" will return them to the other end of the field. This is a very simple Jill explanation of what goes on.  What you see is 540 balloons all going up and on a good day riding the box and landing right there in front of you !

You can walk out on the field to go in and around the balloons.  They start early in the morning with a few balloons testing to see if all is well.  It is dark and as they are filling the balloons so it creates a "glow".  When all is determined to be well they let the other balloons start inflating.  There are so many balloons they have to do it in multiple waves.  This is done each day on the weekends.  During the week, they also have competitions.  It is so much fun to watch the reactions of the kids as they see a pretty balloon or one of the character balloons.  The regular balloons are pretty but the character balloons are easily recognizable and easy to spot.

The ABQ Balloon Fiesta is over 40 years old and they run it well.  We stayed across the street from the park in a dry camping space with over 1500 other RV's.  Another great thing about being there is meeting fellow RVers.  We met lots of people but were lucky enough to be parked beside two couples that we became good friends with !!!  We are talking about all RVing to Alaska together the summer of 2017 and also getting together sometime before then too.

Wayne and I each took thousands of pictures at the Fiesta.  Here are a few that we hope will give you an idea of the beauty of this magical time.

This is one of my favorite character balloons.  It is a Pirana !

Phoenix, AZ and Gallup, NM

From Sedona we moved to Phoenix, AZ.  Phoenix is HOT !  We came to town to see cousins I had not seen in at least 40 years...Peter, Paul, Heather, Phillip and Leslie. Patrick has recently moved to SC so we will catch him on the other coast.  We had a nice lunch with My Uncle Tom and Aunt Ruth Belsan.  Then later met for dinner with Tom, Ruth, Leslie and her husband, Phillip, Paul and his wife Sonja, and their son Alex, his wife Michelle and their 4 children.  On Sunday we also had brunch with Peter, his wife, Michelle, and daughter Allison and son Justin, Paul and Sonja, and Heather and her daughter, Bethany.  It was great to meet as adults and get to know them in person instead of just on Facebook.

We enjoyed the pool at the RV park and the A/C at the local malls where we did our walking.  Our big adventure was taking a true 4 wheel drive road near Paul's house.  Paul drove his Jeep, we drove ours and Sonja rode with her co-teacher and friend Michelle who was also new to four wheeling.  We had a fun day.  Our Jeep did things we never expected it to be able to do.   We had thought about getting a more robust Jeep but ours will do for now.

From Phoenix we went to Gallup, New Mexico.  Gallup is a small town.  It's claim to fame is that it is the closest town to where the "Code Talkers" from World War II were from.  They should have been honored long before they were; they were an amazing group of men.  Gallup also has the El Rancho Hotel where many movie stars from the past has stayed while filming westerns in the area.  They has a balcony with autographed pictures of them all.

On our way to Gallup we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Dessert.  Beautiful scenery in the Painted Dessert.  We are still amazed by the Petrified wood.

Along the trail

Our Jeep Caravan...the others were better equipped but we made it

This was the first time Michelle had climbed a rock like this, she was so proud !

Paul going up a crazy trail...we did not do this one

At times Paul had two tires off the ground

Michelle climbing the big hill

Code Talker Memorial Statue, Gallup, NM

Painted Desert

There were pieces of petrified wood scattered everywhere

Beautiful Colors

Big pieces

And small

El Rancho Motel

Code Talker Memorial Statue