Oct 2 (1 night, Frederick, Colorado USA)
The wind continued blowing this morning and blew hard all day on our way south into Colorado. We had an appointment at Transwest for an oil change and air filter change. The ONE hour job turned into SIX hours and eventually we ended up spending the night at the facility. First, they did not have our oil, fuel and air filters in stock so they needed to drive to Denver for the materials. Second, they didn't pick up our air filter on their first trip to Denver. Third, there was a complete lack of communication and coordination among the purchasing guy, the materials guy, and the mechanic. They didn't know our air filter was not picked up until we went to ask them. Fourth, on their second trip, they got stuck on heavy traffic during the rush hour in downtown Denver, so the driver came back after five p.m. Fifth, the technician took off my air filter canister wrong and the job took twice as long as it should. We ended up spending almost $600 instead of the $350 dollars I expected. I cannot recommend this particular Transwest facility for any work. We parked in their lot for the evening and did a load of laundry at their customer lounge and left promptly in the morning.

Oct 3 ( 1 night, Ft. Lupton, Colorado USA)
This morning I called Roger, the guy that “fixed” my Aqua Hot and told him that it had failed again. He agreed to call the factory and grease the skids for me. I was able to get in for an appointment in the afternoon. The factory is only 20 miles up the road from the Transwest facility, so we headed out to Ft. Lupton. We found the factory and parked in their lot and had lunch. Don, the head service guy, came out and told us to pull up in front of the big door on the end and they would take a look at my unit right after lunch. The big door rolled up at 1:00pm and Richard started to diagnose my problem. The Aqua Hot did fail for him one time, but he was unable to pin point the problem component after 4 hours of testing. They asked us to spend the night and we agreed. They installed a new control box in my unit and took my control box and put it in the freezer to “stress” it. In the morning Richard was still unable to make my box fail or get my Aqua Hot to fail again, so we left without a solution and my wallet still full. I guess we will live with the problem for now. There is one guy in Arizona that I may try but, if the factory could not fix it, I doubt anyone else will have much luck.

Oct 4 (1 night, Colorado Springs, Colorado USA)
We drove to Colorado Springs today and settled in at an RV park not far off the Interstate. We called up Margaret and Joe and arranged to meet them around 5:00 that evening. They arrived and we took off in the Jeep over to the Garden of the Gods. We walked around for an hour or so and worked up an appetite then headed over to a restaurant called the Saigon Grill where we had Vietnamese. After dinner, Sim suggested to go back to our coach for dessert of fresh fruits. We got caught up on their adventures and ours over dinner. They are moving out of their truck camper and into a 5th Wheel that they own that has been in storage. It was nice to see them again.

Oct 5 – 8 (4 nights, Balloon Fiesta Park, Albuquerque, New Mexico USA)
We drove to Albuquerque today and I was really glad to finally get there. It seemed like a really long drive and I was pretty tired when we finally arrived at the Balloon Festival RV Parking. There was a line a 100 yards long for registration, but we finally got assigned a spot waaaaay in the back of the lot in the second to last row. I guess you had to get there in September to get closer. The RV park is situated on an old landfill and has been recently renovated I was told. It was still a big dirt parking lot however. All the spots with electricity were all taken months ago before we made our reservations.

The festival officially started on Saturday so we got up bright and early at 4:30, and after breakfast walked the half mile or so to the Festival grounds. Admission is $6 per person per event and there are morning and evening events. Sim had heard on the news that some balloonists needed crew. So we volunteered to be on a balloon crew, and were given Crew Passes, which allowed us unlimited entries to all events. We were supposed to crew on Monday and Tuesday mornings for Pilot Bilbrey, balloon 936, at grid position M4.

We wandered the field and marveled at the colorful balloons and the characters that owned and flew them. We went to the station where our Pilot was supposed to be staged but he was not there. We wanted to introduce ourselves and offer any help he needed as long as we were there. We were hoping we might get a balloon ride too. We enjoyed the festival for several hours in the morning, then went back to the RV park had lunch and a nap and went back to the festival for the evening show. They don't fly at night. They just inflate the balloons, then on queue, they all “light them up”.

A short explanation of how these particular hot air balloons are inflated. First the balloon is laid out on the ground. They hold open the bottom and blow in cold air from a portable fan until the envelope is about 80% full. Then they turn on the propane burners and the warm air inflates the balloon until it rises and fully inflates. The basket is tethered to the chase cars so it does not take off. They keep firing the burners to keep the balloon at a neutral buoyancy point until they are ready to launch. When the ground control referee says the sky is clear the pilot fires off the burners, the ground crew un-tethers the balloon and away they go.

Oct 6


It is Sunday morning and we are up again at 5:00 am to see the Mass Ascension of hundreds of hot air balloons. It is cold this morning. We went to meet our captain again. And again he was not to be found. We checked our assignment sheet again to make sure we were going to the right place and yes we had it right.





Oct 7
Monday morning. Our official day of crewing. It is really friggin cold. The temperature gauge says 32 degrees outside. We brave the cold, but manage to catch one of the shuttle buses that runs from the RV park to the Festival grounds. We are on the field at location M4 on the grid and no captain in sight. We wandered around the field and watched the balloons ready for flight, constantly running to the balloons that were firing off their propane burners so we could get a blast of hot air to warm our faces and hands. Even so, it was bitterly cold and our fingers and toes were going numb. At last, our captain shows. He and his party are just sitting in their truck. I guess it was still too cold for him. We kept one eye on him while we continued to warm up by the balloons that were being inflated. When we turned around to check on Captain Bilbrey, his truck was gone. Too cold for him to fly I guess.

Oct 8
We were supposed to crew today as well, but after everything we had gone through to meet this guy and help him out, we decided not to get up at 5:30 and endure the freezing temperatures again We slept in and awoke around 7:00 to a gorgeous day. I made some coffee and Sim made oatmeal, and we went outside to see several hundred balloons in the sky. Today the weather was perfect for flying. Albuquerque has what is called a “box effect” in that the winds will be in one direction close to the ground and in the opposite direction at a higher altitude. Balloonists can, theoretically, fly back to their original takeoff points.


Oct 9 - 10 (2 nights, Meteor Park RV Campground, near Winslow, Arizona USA)
Today we are driving to Meteor RV Park in Arizona where we will stay for a couple of nights. I want to take I-40 so we will be on a well traveled route. I have no idea if the weird electrical problem will surface again and if it does I don't want to be in out in the sticks somewhere. Everything seemed normal and it was an uneventful drive. Arrived at the RV Park in the early afternoon and took advantage of the 2nd night free coupon witch we got at the Balloon Fiesta.

Oct 10
After breakfast we headed out to the site of a meteor landing that happened some 50,000 years ago. The crash made a huge hole in the earth some 2.4 miles in circumference. They have a nice museum, gift shop and even a Subway sandwich shop on premises. You can go partly down one of the old trails used by the early geologists, but be prepared for a hike over rough terrain and wear closed toed shoes as they do not allow sandals and flip flops. Sim and I watched the short movie in the theatre and browsed the museum for a couple of hours. Sim said the hole could fit millions and millions of her.

Oct 11 – 27 (16 nights, Willowind RV Park, Hurricane, UT USA)
We had reservations in Hurricane starting on the 12th, I thought. Today is the 11th, so we had one day to kill before going to Hurricane. We were going to drive to Kanab, UT and spend the night at the local Wal-Mart. We got to Kanab, and stopped in front of a big hotel to get some free Internet and down load our email. We got an email from Randy and Martha, the couple we met in Mazatlan, Mexico last year, who checked in Willowind RV park in Hurricane already. They were expecting us yesterday. I decided to call Willowind RV Park and find out when we were really due. After calling and finding out we were due there today, so we headed for Hurricane. We had to skirt Zion, so we headed north and west to Hurricane. We arrived late in the afternoon and got our spot right next to Randy and Martha,. We had dinner with Martha and Randy and watched the baseball play off game between the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona D'Backs.

Oct 12 – 14
We are just going to relax for a couple of weeks here in Hurricane. They allow washing of vehicles in your spot so we couldn't pass this opportunity to clean our coach and car. Martha prepared chicken pablano with chipotle sauce for dinner two days ago thinking we would arrive on the 10th. So, we ate it today on the 12th, and it was very delicious. We caught up with each others traveling adventures while watching the baseball playoff game. The Rockies beat the D'Backs again. On the 13th Sim throughoutly cleaned the interior of the coach. Again we had dinner with Martha and Randy. Can you tell how much we enjoy their company? Sim made chicken satay, spring roll, and carrot salad. Yummy as usual.

Oct 15
Today we played golf at one of the local courses. Sim went along as the official cart driver and flag tender. The course was really beautiful with the red cliff background of the Utah desert. We planned to have Alaska King crab for dinner, but we called it off since all of us, except Sim, were beat after the golf.

Oct 16
We were talking yesterday about Alaskan King Crab so today we went into St. George with Randy and Mart to buy crab and other groceries. We had a great dinner of King Crab, with Soba noodles. Mart made a cabbage cole slaw and we ate and talked well into the evening.

Oct 17
Going to fix the window shade today on the drivers window. I broke window shade string months ago while we traveled in Alaska I didn't do any thing to it because I wasn't sure if I was going to fix it myself or ordered the new one. Today is our activity free day, so I am taking the window shade down to figure out how it goes together and what I need to get it back into working order. While it is down, I will clean it as well. After lunch Sim told me that she was going to give Martha hair cut. I don't think Sim has ever taken any hair cutting classes. Apparently, she cut Martha's hair once when we were in Mexico. She said Martha is her first and only client. Hope it comes out good.

Oct 18 - 24
This week we are cleaning the inside of the coach. It was really dusty on a lot of the roads in Alaska, so a thorough inside cleaning is in order. My job is to take down each of the Day/Night shades and wash each of them. At the same time I am removing the rope lighting from the valence as many bulbs are burned out in every one. One of the Foretravel group members has a roll of rope lighting that I can use but I can't get it until we get back to Arizona. I am using Simple Green and a soft brush on the shades. They are pretty sturdy and hold up well to washing. I am letting them dry in the warm Utah sun. One shade a day is all I can do because I am laying them out on our outside table to dry and only one shade will fit on the table.

Oct 25
Happy Birthday to me.

Oct 26
Today I washed the exterior of the coach. This is about a 4 hour job. I started by getting on the roof with a bucket of soapy water, my long handle brush and the hose. After the roof was washed and rinsed, I started at the rear and work my way up the sunny side to the front. I washed and dried in 10 foot sections to keep the water spots to a minimum. Using a squeegee to remove excess water helps too. The shady side was a little easier and I did that side in 2 20 foot sections. If I was not too tired after washing and drying I might polish the aluminum wheels a bit. I used a couple of different products on the wheels. Nev-R-Dull worked really well, but requireed a lot of rubbing, and you had to wear latex gloves to keep the black off your hands. Mothers Aluminum Polish worked pretty good too. I use the polishing balls, large and small. This is the easiest so far. A new product that I was going to try was a deoxidizer and polish. Just got this so results would be published later. While I worked on exterior of the coach, Sim was cleaning interior and cooking.

Oct 27
We are going to leave tomorrow, so we asked to have the electric meter read. We paid the monthly rate of $350 even though we were not staying one month as it was cheaper than paying the weekly or daily rate. With the monthly rate however, you have to pay for your electricity at $.10 per kilowatt hour.

We had good bye dinner with Randy and Martha at their coach. Martha baked whole chicken, Macaroni and cheese and Sim brought carrot salad and fruits tray. Whole baked chicken and Macaroni and cheese were excellent. Having been leaving in the U.S. 10 years, Sim had never once tried Macaroni and cheese. She loved Martha's one. The night went by fast and we had to call it off when the clock ticked ten times.

Oct 28 – 29 (2 nights, Sams Town, Las Vegas, NV USA)
Got up early and prepared to head down the road to Las Vegas. Called the office and asked for our electric bill. One of the staff came to the site and read the meter again. We said our Goodbyes to Randy and Mart, hooked up the Jeep and started driving over to the office to settle our bill. The office staff lady came driving up on her scooter, said the bill was only $7.00 and not worth collecting. I wasn't going to argue with her, even though I had calculated the bill to be around $33.00, so we headed on down the road. We learned later that Randy and Mart's bill was $70. I think the staff at the park needs a refresher course in meter reading and bill calculation.

We arrived in Las Vegas and found Sams Town out on Boulder Hwy. Our reserved spot was not available yet so they stuck us in a tight, reach out and touch your neighbor spot. Good thing we are only here for a couple of days. We got all hooked up and then wandered over to the Casino at Sams Town. We are not big gamblers. Once in a while I will gamble with $100 on the crap tables. I was not in the mood today, and in fact, we left Las Vegas without losing a dime. It was easy. We did not gamble at all.

Oct 29
Sim was anxious to try out one of the big buffets for lunch. We were out on the strip and went into the MGM Grand and found their buffet. We looked it over and decided to have lunch. It was around $16. each and Sim wanted to get her moneys worth plus gained pounds in one meal. Sim's weight was a little under her desired goal so she decided to pack on about 4 lbs at lunch. Sim went back for 2nds, 3rds and 4ths before she quit. She paid the price later with a stomach ache.

We walked along the strip and stopped at on of our favorite resorts, the Bellagio. We hung out outside as it was almost 3 and the water fountain show would be going off in a bit.

After the show we went inside the hotel and checked out the latest changes to the lobby / reception area. As usual it was pretty spectacular. The theme was the Harvest season and the Bellagio had a beautiful display of plants, fruit and fall crops tastefully displayed.

There are several Asian grocery stores in Las Vegas as per the internet information. Sim wanted to stock some Asian fresh and dry produce and sauce, so after we finished sight seeing the Strip, we went to Asian grocery store locating on the northern part of Las Vegas. It took us two hours to get to the store. We were stuck on every traffic light. We passed the good part of the town to the bad part and into the worse part . There, we spot the Asian grocery store, and it was closed. Darn......

Tomorrow we are off to Apple Valley.

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