October 11, 2006 It's 6am Wednesday morning and we are now in Winslow Arizona, staying at Meteor Crater R.V. Park. Why are we here and not in Albuquerque, I guess I should go back to the last blog where I left off, it was Sunday afternoon and the Raider's and 49er's game was on.
About 5:30pm everyone started going to the balloon park, Dave said the balloons were out so we needed to go. We went over to where all the pilots gather to hear from the officials if everything is a go or not. The officials said it was a go at 6:45 pm for a balloon glow and fireworks show. Dave and I went back to the coach, no need in standing around for the next hour, we had seen everything the vendors have and didn't need to spend anymore money. Although, we did go to the Johnson worlds largest BBQ grill and get a sausage for later on to eat. While back at the coach Dave had called Eldon, he is Bill's head crew chief for the balloon that Dave has been helping with, and asked if they were going to show up, Eldon said "no". At least now we knew not to go looking for them, and Dave could watch the show instead of helping with it. We went back at 6:30 and the wind was really blowing, then about 7 the officials said "No balloon Glow" to windy but asked the balloon people that were there if they would do a "candle light glow" which is they just light the burners on the balloons all at the same time. That was pretty neat to watch, balloons would have been better but oh well, that's how our luck has been running. Dave got pictures and will post later to the website. At 8pm the fireworks show started and it was really good.
Sunday night the rain really came down, it was a good down pour. Monday morning the grounds were soaked and we needed to pack up and get going by 9am. Of course once again, the grounds were to wet so there was no dawn patrol lift off, another event cancelled and later on we heard everything was cancelled for the day. We said "bye" to the Ozark gang and I believe everyone was gone by 8am, we left about 8:30 and headed over to the "Sandia Casino" where we planned on dry camping for the night. Lots of RV's, 5th wheels and trailers camping out there in the parking lot. The casino said they didn't care as long as you cleaned up after yourself, they even offered to come pick you up when you wanted to come down to the casino, you see everyone was parked way in the back and if you were to lazy to walk to it. Once we got set-up we left Valley in the coach and took off to do laundry and find a petsmart because Valley needed her "heart/worm pills. We found the Petsmart but the vet part is closed on Holidays, forgot it was Columbus Day, so would need to come back tomorrow. We then went to Staples, Home Depot then on to the laundry mat. Once the laundry started Dave took off to go get a hair cut, I had my book with me so I just sat and read. Dave came back because the hair place was packed, again forgot it was a holiday. Lots of people at the laundry mat, besides the people that lived in the area there were quite a few from out of town for the balloon festival. When the laundry was done, Dave had seen a vet hospital, so we went by there to see if they would fill Valley's prescription for the pills she needed, that way we wouldn't have to go back to Petsmart. They called our vet, back in Simi, then they filled the prescription for us. When we got back to the coach Valley got her pill and Dave also put her "tick and flea" liquid stuff on her back. Valley and I went walking around with my new spring shoes and Dave had some work to do. While Valley and I were walking you could start feeling sprinkles so we headed back to the coach. Within a half hour after we got back it started pouring, and pouring, and pouring. I looked up on the computer for the weather and it said it was suppose to rain until 2am in the morning. For dinner Dave and I drove to the casino, yes drove, it wouldn't quit raining, Dave dropped me off in front then went to their underground parking. We went to 1 slot machine and lost our money right away so we went to dinner. After dinner we went straight back to the coach, wasn't in the mood to lose anymore money, but damn it, we forgot to get a $1.00 chip for Danny, Kim's boyfriend, he is collecting them down, oh well. Dave had gone to bed and when I was going to go the rain had let up a little so Valley could go outside, as soon as she came back in it started pouring again. When I got in bed all of a sudden the rain stopped and the wind hit, honest to god I thought it was a tornado, I kept looking out the window expecting us to be lifted up into the sky, of course if we had been in a trailer park we might have, you know that always happens to trailer trash. When we got up Tuesday morning the sky was clear and the balloons were out, it figures, the dawn patrol got going and we got to watch it on the local news. We had to be at American RV at 8:30 for our air conditioning repair, so as we were leaving the sky was full of Hot Air Balloons, luckily the freeway was moving slowly so we could watch the balloons. Didn't get any pictures because I was driving the car and Dave was driving the coach, we didn't have that far to drive so we didn't bother hooking up.
When we got to American RV they had lost our appointment, figures, they said they could look it at about noon. At 10 one of the reps came by listened to what the problem was then called Holiday Rambler. I took off for Walmart and did some shopping. Dave called me and said as soon as I got back we could leave, they did something with the themostat and hopefully that fixed the problem. So when I got back Dave said lets just leave, get headed for Arizona, which was fine with me, Albuquerque hadn't been good for us, with the trailer parks and weather. On Friday the 13th, remember we had gotten tickets to see "Last comic standing" Josh Blue, I ended up giving the tickets to a mailman that was delivering mail to the RV park next to American RV.
So that's our story, and that's how we ended up at Meteor Crater RV Park, we figure we will go see the crater then head for Cottonwood, AZ to check up on our rental properties. This way maybe we can write off some of our travels because we are checking our rentals.
That's it for now.