Here we go again and again travel blog


The drive from Santa Fe to Albuquerque was only about 50 miles to the Balloon Fiesta Park so it didn’t take us long to get there. The Rally parking attendants were fantastic. In spite of a bitter cold morning they bundled up and had us all parked in no time. What a great job they did. That was about the only good thing that happened that day.

First of all I have to explain that there are about 6000 of us parked at the Balloon Fiesta Park while the show with all the venders are about thirteen miles away at the Fair Grounds. Now that might not be so bad if Albuquerque didn’t have so much construction going on in these thirteen miles and then to have snow mixed with rain all day made for a real mess. The Rally has trams that take you from your site to the Tent at the Fiesta Park where you take a bus to the fair grounds. Well let me tell you that that is not a lot of fun. It takes about two hours from the time you leave to arrive at the fairgrounds and most of that time is spent standing in the cold rain waiting in line. Thankfully, we were warned about the mess so we drove our truck to the fairgrounds instead. It still was a mess but at least we were inside.

We spent most of the day walking around looking at things and meeting people that we haven’t seen in awhile. Nick and Terry Russell are helping a friend at his booth and I got a chance to talk a bit with them. I also was able to meet EVDO Alex from the 3-G Store. Most of you on the MOC or Escapee Forums know how much help Alex has been to all of us with advice on what we need to have internet on the road. I have a Verizon Air Card that plugs into a Cradlepoint 350 router and a Wilson Antenna for the really weak areas so I have service all the time. Most of this I have purchased through the 3-G Store and the service after the sale is tops. The router enables both Bill and I to be on line at the same time and the antenna has helped at our lot in Florida since we are in the middle of a National Forest. Without it, I would be very frustrated. It is great to put a face to a name and Alex even gave us a t-shirt with their logo.. How nice.

Usually, at these big rallies, people are buying all kinds of things but I have heard from the venders that nobody wants to buy and tote things around all day and then carry them while they wait in long lines for the bus to take them back… What were the rally people thinking. This stinks……

To make matters even worse, one of the big attractions in Albuquerque is the ride up the longest tram in the US to the top of the mountain and they are closed for maintenance until after the rally is over. Not very good planning on the Cities part with this many tourists in town for just a short time.

Last evening’s entertainment was Neil Sedaka. The show was held in a big tent here at the Balloon Fiesta Park and we took the tram over to see him. Neil was great and we were so pleasantly surprised to hear his strong voice. Usually the voice fades when you get into your seventies but his is as good as it was 50 yrs ago. As much as we enjoyed his performance, it could not make up for the fact that it was freezing rain and the tent was very cold. We were all wrapped up in blankets and still couldn’t keep warm. When we tried to find a tram to take us back after the concert it was all full so we started walking. We must have walked two miles in the cold, dark rain before we finally found our sites. I don’t think I will ever warm up again…. And to make things even worse…… We paid for an electric site and at 2:00 this morning the main generator ran out of gas and they didn’t get it going until after 8:00 this morning. I’m so glad that we had our generator with so we could at least have coffee.

We are going back to the fairgrounds in a bit and things might be a little better since the sun is shining this morning. I sure hope the worst is over or else Tuesday is a long way away……..

Tune in later for the rest of this saga.

Bookmark and Share