MURDER OUTSIDE MY BEDROOM WINDOW!!

Nice title for a mystery book, right??  Unfortunately, it actually happened at my home yesterday just before noon!!  I know .... CRAZY, right???  Well let me tell you, love can make you crazy I guess, and it doesn't matter who you are!!

Here's what happened.  I was up early as usual, wrote the blog and was getting ready to go to the store.  When I went outside to the garage (opposite side of the house), I figured I would try to fix the broken garage door.  Sure enough, I was able to get it working again.  Seems when the door opened, it dropped a bunch of trash in front of the "eye".  Once I cleaned up the tracks, and the sensors, then used a shovel to push the door up high enough to latch, I pushed the button and it worked fine.  YAY!!  So off to the store I went about 10:30.  I remember seeing a white pickup parked in front of the house next door, but that's not unusual.

On my way home at 11:45, a police car went screaming by and stopped in front of a church located about a mile from my house, where a black gentleman was being arrested.  That's when the SHERIFF'S car went by even faster, with lights and siren going.  As I followed him, he turned down MY street.  There were Sheriff, Highway Patrol and Fire Department vehicles everywhere with guns drawn.  As I slowly walked up the street, neighbors said to get back ... someone had been murdered in the driveway between my house and my neighbor to the East.  HOLY COW!!!  I was thinking it was either my neighbor or his kids, but I saw Nick standing ... so it wasn't HIM who got shot ... and I was filled in on what HE knew ... which wasn't much!!

Raquel, my "other" neighbor, heard three gunshots and looked out the window to see a large black man walking down the driveway very casually, carrying a duffel bag.  She called Nick, who went to check out his garage since he's always leaving the door open.  He found a man laying face down in his driveway.  When the Deputy's arrived, they turned the guy over ... and NO ONE knew who this was!!  A perfect stranger, dead between our houses!!  The ambulance came, as well as the helicopter, so it turns out he wasn't quite dead, but with two gunshots in the face, they didn't expect him to survive.  HOLY COW!!!

We were all trying to guess what happened as the police barricaded both our driveways and the roads.  It was then they told us they caught the suspect ... the black man I had seen them arrest.  That was fast!!!  Then it became a waiting game.  Neither Nick or his family was allowed near his house, so I got out the lawn chairs from my rig and my neighbors and I took a seat for the rest of the day.  We were all interviewed and no one could figure out what happened.  We were thinking we were all in danger of thieves, gangs, drive-by hits ... who knows what!!  

At long last, most of the story came out.  A man by the nickname of "V" had purchased a registered show goat from my neighbor Nick, but since he had no place to keep it, he left it at their house.   He had called that morning asking if he could come feed it, to which Nick said sure.  Nick works nights, sleeps days, and said to just go in the back.  Apparently V was a wannabe cowboy and even belonged to the barrel racing association (no idea whose horse he rode) ... and V had a "romantic relationship" with another gentleman!!  V's boyfriend broke up with him recently so V made child porn accusations and they were going to court over a property settlement.  When the boyfriend (a former church pastor) told V he was going back to his wife and 5 kids, V hid his car around the corner and got him to drive to my neighbor's house (hence the white truck in the driveway) to see the goat.  We don't know if there was an argument or if it was premeditated, but V shot the man three times, then just walked around the corner back to his car.

As we sat in the driveway, the Sheriff brought V (in handcuffs) back to the residence.  Not knowing, Nick yelled and asked why he was with the Sheriff (which was pretty obvious to the rest of us).  Nick insisted V couldn't have had anything to do with this since he was such a "sweet" guy, but as they walked him to the scene of the crime, V started sobbing and outright bawling.  As he was taken away, he yelled to us to tell Kim (Nicks wife) that "I'm sorry this had to happen here" as he was driven off to jail.  I guess love can make you do stupid things.  Again I say ... HOLY COW!!!  Here's two perfect strangers to our neighborhood, one trying to murder the other just 30 feet outside my bedroom window.  What are the odds of that??  

At this point we still don't know if the guy is going to survive.  He was shot with a .380 ... bigger than a .22 and smaller than a 9mm.   After waiting until almost 5:00 pm for a search warrant (in order for the evidence to be legal) the detectives finally began to take pictures and collect the shell casings.  In the meantime, two television stations set up shop on the street, including big vans and tall antennas!!  They wanted to interview us, but we all declined ... except Nick ... who did his interview as the cameras rolled, immediately in front of MY house!!!  Hey ... point that thing NEXT DOOR!!!  At 6:00 I watched my beautiful house on TV!!

As the detectives finally rolled up all the crime scene tape and started to drive off, we waved them down and asked when the family could return to their home.  Oh ... anytime ... now is okay.  Really???  What about the blood, Nick asks.  Oh that's your problem!!  You can clean it up!!  Yikes!! So we all offered bottles of bleach ... the problem is all that blood and bleach is now entrenched in my lawn, since that's the way the water flows!!  I'm sure I'll have lots of dead grass as a result.  What a crazy story ... I'll let you know if the guy survives.  The good news is that all of us neighbors are now VERY well acquainted.  Up to this point, they hardly even waved at me ... let alone SPOKE!!!  And I guarantee we'll all be watching each other's houses from now on!!  Hey ... this might make a good murder mystery book!!!

Twenty Five Trips To The Rig And Back!!

There is one ugly truth about motor homing, whether part time or almost full time ... eventually you have to unload all that STUFF ... not only what you purchased (the fun part), but what you use in every day life ... like the refrigerator.  I have a huge lightweight horse feed bucket (really it's for ice and beer) that helps, but I still made over 25 trips up and down the steps, and I'm not even close to being done!!  Leaving everything in the rig and just having doubles, isn't an option.  Those pesky "use by" dates result in lots of trash.  Unfortunately yesterday, I should have tossed MORE stuff out!!

First up was to haul my VERY heavy piece of marble to the island counter top.  Perfect for chocolate and pie dough ... even better for pictures!!  Then it was time to recreate that amazing chicken soup we had in Albuquerque.  My chicken was probably past date too ... a little freezer burned around the edges ... but I didn't want to waste it.  I chopped it up and in the dutch oven it went.  With onions, a can of chills and lots of spices, I was ready for the chicken broth.  YES I checked the date.  Trouble was, it had been in my fridge a tad too long.  As I poured it in the pot, big chunks of gunky mold came out ... all over my chicken!!!!  I almost threw up!!  Well ... there went my chicken soup idea.  I don't think I'll eat chicken soup again!!  I would dump it in the garbage but my gardeners were nice enough to fill my trash can with grass ... which will cause me a big fine!!  I can't get the grass out until the two big guys come back to lift the can ... so the chicken soup went the way of many of my meals ... buried in the horse corral!!

To renew my senses and get rid of that choking feeling, I decided to make Pioneer Woman's brownies.  At least THIS turned out better!!  The recipe is a little weird, but the results were amazing.

That's cake mix (one trip to the rig) evaporated milk (second trip), butter, peanut butter cups and rollos (third trip) with a few macadamia nuts (fourth trip) thrown in for good luck.  It was DELICIOUS ... and my dinner!!  I had a little leftover "frozen" cool whip, but ice cream would have made it EXTRA good!!

Most of the fridge is empty and all the dog blankets are washed, but I haven't been able to get to the under-bed storage yet.  On one trip I grabbed this guy ... my mascot since I haven't been able to find a stuffed buzzard!  I found this beauty in Albuquerque at the Open Spaces gift shop.  Remember all that geocaching??  What makes this guy so unique is that he's a hand puppet whose head turns AND you can make his eyes blink.  I know ... I'm a sucker for unique stuffed animals!!!

That's when the REAL disaster hit!!  Since most of my outside lights were burned out ... even though I bought the ones that last for two years to replace the old ones when I left ... I went to the garage to get one of my ladders.  YIKES!!  Was there an earthquake I didn't hear about???  Seriously ... the entire wall of cabinets in my garage tore away from the wall.  To my astonishment, they were sitting on a five inch lip of concrete around the edge with TWO ... count them ... ONLY TWO screws holding them to the wall ... or at least at one time they were attached to the wall.  

The only thing that saved them was the old aquarium stand that happened to catch the lip of the door and keep the door bottoms from smashing on the concrete.  These aren't the cheapest cabinets, but they're close, so that would have been disaster.  At the far end, the sheetrock has been damaged pretty badly.  The problem is that I can't get the doors open to remove the boxes inside ... and I can't push them back up because of the weight.  I guess I'll have to call Superman for this one!!!

Oh ... and then the garage door opened ... but wouldn't close the door.  I know you can pull the little rope and release the latch ... and I can't leave the door open.  So I climbed up on a chair (my first mistake ... you know where this is going, right), grabbed the little handle and VERY carefully pulled it to release the door, hanging on for dear life as the weight of the door took it down the tracks.  CRACK!!!!  The stupid little handle broke, I fell off the chair and the door hit the ground with a BANG!!!!  Gee whizz (not really what I said) ... I hope I didn't ruin the door, as I limped back to the house, my recently broken toe screaming at me.  Today I call the repair man for that!!

All this excitement wore us out!!  Today I'll make up a list of things that need fixing and get on the phone.  At least I have an entire pan of brownies to console myself with, as I AGAIN make a trip to the rig looking for the leftover ice cream!!

The Good News and The Bad News!!

The good news is that I made it home after 5 hours of horrible California traffic.  Thank goodness most of the construction has been completed, not that it made any difference.  Whose idea was it to repair the roads and not the part that goes under the overpasses??  How kooky is that??  After driving 8,953 miles to Bar Harbor Maine and back, I have to say that California roads are the very worst of any state!!  With maybe a couple miles of exceptions, our highways are atrocious!!  Yes we have lots of traffic, but doesn't that mean more taxes to get the roads fixed??  Okay, I've said my peace!!  Getting home was a double edged sword however, because the BAD is that I spent 4 hours vacuuming half the house, just enough so I could relax ... sort of.

The first to be unloaded was this magnificent piece.  I know, I'm crazy, but this headdress is the bees knees as far as I'm concerned!!  I'm Cowboy and Indian all the way I guess!!  It's made by Mr. Krause ... a nice German name!!  He's full blood Cherokee and many moons ago was adopted as a baby by a nice German family.  When he got a little older, they insisted he go back to his tribe and learn their customs ... which he did.  Since then he has been making these spectacular Cherokee beaded headdresses, among other things!!

One more BAD ... I instantly noticed how much "stuff", or rather "junk" is everywhere.  When you live minimally in an RV for an extended period of time, you sure notice all the stuff that needs throwing out in your house!!  Unfortunately, I inherited my mom's propensity to keep everything.  Here's a little hall tree I found in Albuquerque to catch my keys and purse as I walk in the door.  No more throwing everything on the island in a big pile!!

I unplugged all the drains and unwrapped the bathrooms ... nary a problem one!!  YAY!!  Of course the house smells musty, but nothing like it did last time when I was only gone 4 months.  With my new Scentsy going full blast and all the windows wide open, it should dissipate soon.

The dogs when bananas when I let them loose in the back yard.  It took Cooper one second to realize he could run loose ... and boy did he take off like a shot.  On his first run-by, he sideswiped Jessie and the horse race was on!!  They DO love my back yard much better than being cooped up in the rig.  I think I need to find a few empty dog parks so they can run more!!  This piece of beautifully carved bannister is from a house in Gettysburg ... it doesn't have a permanent home yet!!

Hahaha I just wanted to see if you were awake by throwing in a kitty picture!!  The puppies and I are still on Central Time ... or is it Mountain Time ... anyway, we've been up at 4:00 am for the last week.  Guess that number is going to stick around for awhile.  This is the Chance kitty, Snoopy.  Yes she's on the counter, isn't that where ALL kitties live??  Patty was making some ice cream and cake flower pots for granddaughter Laila's birthday!!  Snoopy thought they were a hit!!

Since my house-sitters always feel vulnerable with an entire wall of windows in my family room, when I saw this solid oak (I think) tri-fold screen, I thought it would be perfect.  VERY heavy, it took me some time to get it unloaded and in the house!!

So for now I'm home ... good for the puppies, bad for me with all I have to do.  The mobile "Buzzard's Roost" needs an oil and filter change, the slides adjusted, the jacks cleaned ... and on and on.  I don't have much time to get repairs done, as I will be off again soon to help create the floats for the Rose Parade ... then the rally in Indio where ice cream will be the words of the day ... Yuma ... Quartzsite ... and a quick tour of Arizona before returning to get ready for the Continued Great Adventure next summer!!  Whew!!!  Maybe I'll rest a day or so!!

Do You Want To Hear Some Football???

I pulled out of Williams yesterday morning under cold 48 degree cloudy skies.  I double checked the weather report, and even though there were some rain patterns on radar, the predictions said NO!!  Hahaha  Never listen to the weatherman!!

When I got just out of town, I began to smell something like propane.  Very STRONG propane.  I even saw a couple of rigs on the side of the road, checking their gas.  Once I opened the driver's window, I discovered it was coming from outside.  It was so strong I started to get queasy!!  I don't know what the problem was, but pretty soon it disappeared, so I kept going, pretty sure that it wasn't from my rig.  Maybe that's the weird haze in this picture!

I had nice clean air for awhile, but once again heading down into this valley, the smell returned, stronger than ever!!  Again I opened the window, and it was enough to knock me on the floor.  Whatever it was, was VERY strong ... maybe the cloud cover was keeping "it" close to the ground.  I was trying to enjoy the scenery, but the smell had me more than a little distracted!!

Finally it cleared up, as did my nose, and didn't return.  The landscape changed colors from blue to gold and back to shades of blue and purple.  I love it when the mountains look like paper cutouts.  I wish there had been a rest area so I could capture it with my other camera.  Instead, I kept driving and driving and ....

Although I had planned on a stop in Needles, a quick drive-by of the park changed my mind.  Maybe I'm just a little TOO safety conscious.  It had great ratings on RV Park Reviews, but every rig there was over 20 years old, most listing to starboard, not to mention it being 5 miles outside of town.  I kept driving ... and driving!!    That part between Kingman Arizona and Boron California is L O N G with nothing much to look at.  I guess when I'm going the other direction, I'm more excited, so don't notice it so much.  Here's my landmark for Lake Havasu City .... I know I'm close (or past it in this case) when I see these weird structures.  No idea what they are.

Then the Colorado River ... I imagine it's pretty, but I've never stopped.  I just kept driving!!

After almost seven hours, I was getting pretty tired, and was happy to see these little mountains around Barstow where I wanted to stop for fuel.  Unfortunately, my usual station here is Flying J, you know, the one with the crappy bio-diesel??  I'm sorry, but it stinks.  Regular diesel I can deal with, but this stuff assaults your nose!!  It was only $3.88 a gallon (I expected $4), but it kills my fuel mileage by more than 2 miles per gallon.  I'm cutting up my Pilot-Flying J card and getting Loves!!  Honestly I'd rather be sure my engine runs good and won't be damaged by using biodiesel, since no one can tell me whether it will hurt my specific engine or not!!  I'm sure the prices will creep back up to regular diesel in no time!!

I pulled in to the Arabian RV Park in Boron, and didn't even complain when he gave me a site with two big trees at odd angles that I had to maneuver through.  Too bad about those broken patio tiles!!  My rear slide is about one inch from one tree and the electrical connection is literally on the ground ... but it's okay, I'm tired.  By 8:00 I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I turned off the TV.  It was then I heard the LOUDSPEAKER from the school football game next door.  It was so LOUD I thought the guy was in the rig next door.  I even went outside to check, but it was just the reverberation from the close buildings.  They sure had it turned up LOUD ... as they read off every business that donated and called out the game ... not once stopping for a breath!!  I don't know who won because I finally went to bed with a pillow over my head to muffle the noise.  

I'm pretty drug out this morning, as those who have driven long hours know, but it's only a 5 hour drive to home, where I will work my fingers to the bone unloading and cleaning the rig, cleaning my house of 6 months dust, then washing 6 months of dirt and crud off the rig and jeep.  Hmmm maybe I should just KEEP GOING AND DON'T STOP!!!  Like the guy on the loudspeaker said many times last night!!

One More Day In Williams Arizona!!

I just LOVE this part of the country.  The Grand Canyon was one of my favorite places, including this little town at the entrance to the park.  The RV park is outstanding and the weather couldn't be better.  Time to get out for a little shopping!!  I figure this picture will get SOMEONE'S attention.  Who's ever heard of these??  Bootights??  Seriously ... who wears their socks above the tops of their boots ... with a skirt no less??  Well not me, but they looked kind of interesting, with thin socks at the bottom and lace the rest of the way up, so I HAD to try them.  The strings are called stampede strings ... to hold your hat on when the herd stampedes and you're going at breakneck speed on your horse!!

I hit my favorite restaurant,  Route 66 Cafe, for some BBQ pulled pork and sweet potato fries, along with the best ever cole slaw with chunks of apples and walnuts.  Half now, half for dinner!!

I forgot to mention the other day when in Richardson's Trading Post, a young Indian boy came in selling rice krispie treats (mom brought him).  Who could turn THAT down!!!  On the Q-T, Larry said he lets them sell their treats in the store because he knows they have a clean kitchen and work hard.  Good for Larry ... and good for the little boy!!!  They were delicious!!  Key word here is "were".

The colorful balloon place mats, I purchased at the Care Auction the Boomers had last week.  The Cowgirl Shirt I found in downtown Williams.  GREAT store, in case you need anything Western.

I found this nice Mexican rug ... even though they try to "hint" it's Indian ... it's much better quality than most I've seen here, along with another rope.  This one might become a bowl, if I can find some leftover barbed wire.

Unfortunately, the best purchase of the day, the Great Ogre Kachina, is packed, bubbled and taped up for the trip home.  It's WAY cool, but I'll have to wait to photograph it for the blog.  I also wanted to note that the Native Indian store had several Hoop Dancer Kachinas ... pretty hard to find.

Williams presented another spectacular show last night.  The sunsets here are just amazing.  I'm usually outside waiting for them to happen, and it's fun to see people racing up with their cameras!!

Once they see what's happening, they literally run to the fence, cameras in hand, talking VERY fast in  some foreign language with their family following behind!!  It's pretty nice of Mother Nature to put on a show for them!!

Much as I had planned to spend the summer of 2015 in Oregon and Washington, I may just have to come back to Arizona and New Mexico instead.  You KNOW I love the Cowboy and Indian history in these areas!!  Oh ... and FYI ... there is a new quilt store in Williams ... Quilt 66.  Great material and a very nice proprietor!!  In the meantime, I'm so happy I was able to expand my horizons on the Great Adventure throughout the U.S. ... the most important part being all the nice people I met along the way!!  Hmmmm I wonder what I could get for my house in today's market???

A Sad Farewell!!!

I can't believe almost 6 months have passed since we started this Great Adventure!!  It was finally time to say goodby to the Westerfields and head back home on my own.  I'm sure going to miss these two faces, but Barbara said it was time to send me off on my own.  The good news is they only live 60 miles away from my house, so I can drop in any time and we'll still have Golden Spike train rallys!!  I will surely miss the geocaching adventures where we trekked across the desert on many occasions.  Lots of memories from this trip!!  Don't worry, Quartzsite is around the corner!!

I hated leaving Gallup, but knew if I stayed one more day, I would purchase more pawn than I needed, so I hit the road towards Flagstaff.  The sky was beautiful with no wind ... perfect day for a trip!!  Amazingly, I finally had the "perfect" fueling stop!!  I always seem to have trouble at truck stops ... I forget the pump number, credit card won't work, can't get the tank full, cashiers don't know what credit cards they take ... but THIS time at LOVES, it went absolutely perfect!!!  It's a sign!!!

The sandstone buttes were just as beautiful going home as they were going East.  I see the only problem I'm going to have is just when I get home, I'll have the itch to travel again!!  No one told me this would be so addicting!!

This gentlemen was kicking it down the dirt road next to the highway.  I don't know what he was going to get, but he was driving so fast the trailer was coming off the ground!!  It's sights like this you don't see in my neighborhood!!

Up to 6,000 feet, I climbed up to Flagstaff.  Knowing they don't really care for motorhomes, I had no intention of stopping, other than at a rest stop for the puppies and lunch for me.  Were I in my truck, I probably would have stopped at several of the Indian Pawn shops on the road, each one with the "best prices"!!  Just before this, the wind came up and jostled me for about 50 miles!!

West of Flagstaff I saw this huge fire.  Yikes ... it's right where I'm going to be in 10 miles!!  I held my breath, hoping I would be going far enough past so I wasn't in it's path!!

I pulled in to the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park in Williams Arizona, where I stayed with the Golden Spikes a couple years ago.  For $34 with Passport America, I have a 50 amp full hookup paved site with plenty of puppy room.  The lady at the desk said the fire was a controlled burn, so I didn't have to worry about getting up in the middle of the night to flee!!  The 4:55 am train was right on time, passing a couple of hundred yards to the South of me, but that's okay ... I was already up.  I think I'm still on Central Time.  Kind of hard to get used to the sun not coming up until 7:00 am and going down at 5:00 pm!!!  I saw on Facebook there were lots of beautiful sunsets around the country and Williams was no exception.  

I'm sure there will be plenty more adventures, but like my Alaska trip, it's pretty hard to say goodbye to the Great Adventure.  Instead, I'm going to look at it as the beginning of my Even More Awesome Adventures to come!!

I remember some GREAT shops here in Williams that seem to be calling my name ... and I'm pretty sure they will cost me less than Gallup!!!  Stay tuned for more adventures ........

Heading On Down The Road ... For REAL Tacos!!

Just before we left yesterday morning, we had one more cache to pick up before getting our Albuquerque Open Space coin ... a gorgeous one at that!  The last cache had three stages.  You find the first part, then count certain letters to give you the coordinates of the next stage.  Plunk those into your GPS device and it takes you there.   We were a little off on the last one, but found the box anyway.  Barbara then put on her Corvette Racing Team hat and we hotfooted it to the Visitor Center to pick up our prize.

Most of the nine caches were along the Rio Grande River and almost all required at least a half mile walk.  We certainly got our exercise on this one!!

Along the way we caught site of two beauties ... one of the reasons these open spaces are here ... roadrunners!!  They tried to keep the bushes between us and them, but as Barbara walked one way and I the other, I caught this one on my iPhone camera.  She blends in pretty good!!

By now it's 10:15 and we have to be out of the parking lot by 11:00, so we took a shortcut that I'm sure had us on two wheels around the corners, and made it back just in time!!  Actually, we had time to spare ... hooked up and headed West.  This overpass looks like someone left their trash on the railings, but up close it's beautiful designs.  You don't see THAT in California!!

We are again following Route 66 West, as evidenced by the old bridge.  Sure looks like it's only wide enough for one car, but then I guess there wasn't much traffic back then!!

All the green we saw on the way out has turned yellow and brown, but the mesas are just as spectacular.  I learned  ... somewhere ... that this was a sea bottom, hence the Sandia Mountains, which have provided lots of fossils.  Oh of course ... it was on one of the geocache hike signs!!

Our first stop was Gallup New Mexico.  When we came through here (last year was it??)  or maybe it was only 5 months ago ... I purchased a coral bracelet, which lost a stone.  Luckily it fell in my lap.  I had purchased it at Richardson's Trading Post ... the best place EVER for turquoise jewelry, or anything native related for that matter ... and wanted to see if they could repair it.  Talk about service ... she took the bracelet, walked it to the jewelry store where they have repairs done, and brought it back, all in about 30 minutes!!  Tom had a bracelet he wanted to exchange for a watch band, and Barbara found an amazing pair of coral earrings.  Talk about dealing!!  Larry, the owner, is the nicest guy ever ... and he made them a deal they couldn't refuse.  

In the meantime, the lady that worked on my repair, took me to the back room to look at headdresses. I had seen a couple previously and was just curious what they cost.  OH MY!!!  You should have seen that back room!!!  Or rather FOUR rooms ... full of trade goods and of course the most magnificent Cherokee Headress imaginable!!  I doubt they would turn down ANY deal ... because I made them an offer and he took it immediately!!  Unfortunately, it had to be boxed up to keep it from being damaged, so you'll have to wait until I get home to see it, but I promise, it's fabulous!!!

THEN, while waiting for Tom to try on watchbands, I was sneaking peeks at the same case.  He tried on one, but it was too small ... a ladies band they said.  Boy did my ears perk up!!  As Tom and Barbara left the showcase of old pawn, I sidled up to the nice lady and asked to try it on.  It fit perfectly!!!  I almost had a heart attack when I looked on the back at the price!!  She pulled out some papers where she had numbers written and pointed at one ... 1/3 of the high price.  Okay, that's a possibility!!  Then we walked back to see Larry's wife, and she said since I had already purchased the coral bracelet last time and the headdress THIS time, she would give me an extra special deal.  I'm sure they still made a chunk on it, but I got it for a reasonable price for me!!  Isn't it gorgeous??  Now I just have to dig through my old watches and come up with one that fits.

With all our trading, we were starving!!  Barbara found a Tamale Factory on Yelp with a huge number of stars.  It was way off Main Street, a tiny space with us as the only customers at 4:30 ... but the food was amazing!!  We haven't had good Mexican food for a long time and these carnitas tacos hit the spot.  Barbara had a stuffed (with chicken) sopapilla that she loved ... and Tom scarfed down steak tacos!!  Check it out the next time you come through Gallup.

So today I'm planning on heading home.  The Great Adventure is coming to a close, which is sad, but boy do I have a lot of fantastic stories and memories.  I'm already planning the next big adventure!!

Last Day Of The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta .....

At least it was the last day for us to crew.  Bright and shiny, we arrived at the launch field, yawning and wondering why we were subjecting ourselves to this ... but the beautiful balloons soon put those thoughts on the back burner!!

In case you were wondering, there are many, many, many porta-potties for your convenience, located all around the field.  The cardinal rule when you are crewing, is ALWAYS stop on the way out of the field, because it may be HOURS before you return.  This was one of those days!!

Although we were supposed to go with the second wave of pilots launching into the clouds, the Zebra (on-field official) said we should launch first.  In no time at all we were ready to send Pilot Richard and his two University of New Mexico sophomores (they worked at the hotel where he was staying) off into the questionable weather.  

As you can see, it was terribly overcast.  Clouds don't keep pilots from flying, but lightning and rain does!!  

With practically no wind at all, we watched them rise up into the air and remain practically motionless!!  Yikes ... what happened to the wind??  The tower said South winds ... but there seem to be no winds at all!!

As we left the field on the chase, we saw this Panasonic Battery balloon!!  Pretty cool!!!

As Jeff talked to Richard on the radio, we headed West to the little town of Corrales where we launched the day before.  Richard did a splash 'n dash for the kids, but when he came out of the river, the winds started taking him North ... along with all the other balloons that launched this morning.  That's NOT good ... because North lies the Indian Reservation where you are NOT allowed to land.  If you do, you have to call the Reservation Police and request a special escort.  Uh oh ... we quickly turned around and headed back to the field, then North, following hundreds of balloons to the RED "No Land" territory on the map.  The problem was, every other lookie-loo and chase crew were trying to do the same thing.  Almost two hours on a five mile stretch of road!!   By our tracking devices and the radio, we knew Richard had landed the furthest North, maybe one balloon ahead of him.

The problem was, we couldn't GET there!!  To keep from getting in trouble with the Reservation Police, many had landed right on the road, or between the train tracks and the road, as you can see here.  That created a HUGE traffic congestion, even stopping the train!!!  But at least they weren't going to be involved with the Pueblo Police!!

At long last, we arrived at a gate where Richard said the property owner would drop him off.  We were so long in getting there, he had deflated the balloon in a hay field and the storm had passed by.  The Native owner wasn't happy, and had to chase many other balloons besides ours.  The result was that literally hundreds of balloons landed on the Pueblo property ... something that has NEVER happened before.  Amazingly, at the pilot briefing the next morning, there were NO complaints from the Reservation!!  It seems the Natives here are still unhappy about us white folks taking their land ... can't blame them I guess ... but the pilots all handled their situations with diplomacy!!

The actual last day of the Fiesta, the weather was even worse ... high winds and rain showers, so even though we were on the field at 5:30 am, Richard chose not to do a static display (fill the envelope with air but keep it tethered to the field) ... which meant we were done, except for the Crew Party at noon, which was a blast!!  Did I mention we brought all the leftover desserts to my rig for a Boomer Dessert Feast??  Here's a picture of our Hostess Michelle on the right, taken with Gail's camera.

Still at the RV park, Barbara, Tom and I went on a geocaching marathon yesterday, to get 9 of 10 Open Space caches in order to receive a gold coin!!  I think we walked 5 miles, and I know we drove 40, circling all around Albuquerque, even up into the mountains.  Who knew there were so many neat quiet spaces in such a big city!!  At one of the first, we found this beaver lodge at the edge of the pond!!

This beautiful walk into the mountains with an unsurpassed view of Albuquerque, ended up at this blind where you can look through the windows at the pond below.

They have lined the pond so there will be water here year round from a small spring, providing sustenance to deer, mountain lions, frogs and whatever else lurks here.  This is the view out one of the little windows.  The trail to the top is wheelchair accessible too.

Here's a couple of the things I purchased at the Fiesta ... you KNOW I have to have mementos!!  Just like Disneyland, they have hundreds of pins here, along with Pin Trading time during the week.  

And who could turn down this beautiful jacket??  It's actually much bluer in real life.  The Boomers took up a collection and got Judy Rinehimer one just like it in black as a thank you for all her hard work setting this up.

And so our Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta time comes to a close.  This is one of the highlights of this trip, and I hope everyone signs up next year to experience the same, but sign up EARLY, as the spots go quickly ... taken up by everyone who has been here before!!!

Today we pick up our Open Space coin before heading to Gallup New Mexico!!