Tuesday was our last full day at High Desert RV Park in Albuquerque and it was a full day. We planned to have a visitor for dinner – Donna’s friend Hazel Thornton would join us. I rode the scooter down to Smith’s Market on the corner of Coors Boulevard and Central Avenue – across from the Albertson’s store. I stopped at Albertson’s the day before and looked at the baby back ribs. Albertson’s had a buy-one-get-one-free promotion. But here’s the catch – they were frozen, didn’t look very meaty and were priced at $8.99/pound! I didn’t buy them.

At Smith’s, I found fresh baby back ribs that looked excellent for $3.99/pound. Now we’re talking. I bought two small racks – about three and half pounds each. I brought them home and seasoned them with a brown sugar – bourbon dry rub and wrapped them in cling wrap to rest in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Dry rubbed with brown sugar – bourbon rub and ready for the refrigerator

After putting the ribs in the refrigerator, I saw a large calico cat stalking across the road toward our coach. Our cat Ozark jumped up to the bedroom window and was watching outside. I saw what the cats were interested in. There were two roadrunners in our site. They ran down the road, then came back and circled our coach. One jumped up on our picnic table, then they ended up in the tree next to our site.

Roadrunners visiting our site

They hung around our area for a while. The cats – both Ozark inside our coach and the calico outside – were mesmerized by them but had no chance of catching them. Roadrunners have been clocked at speeds greater than 20 miles per hour and they can fly. They generally feed on beetles, grasshoppers and crickets but they are also fond of lizards and snakes. Sometimes they’re called a chaparral bird, but I’ve always known them as roadrunners. The roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico.

Donna had a delivery at the office – the new walking shoes she’d ordered had arrived. On her walk back from the office, she stopped and chatted with new friends from RVillage, Denny and Veronica. We became RVillage friends some time ago but never had a chance to meet before. Donna invited them to join us for happy hour. They came to our site around 5pm and we got to know each other over a drink. They are young full-time RVers who also have full-time jobs. They have virtual office capability – so as long as they can get online they are as good as being in the office. Their blog is RVOutlawz.com. We had a fun time talking about our travels and the RV lifestyle. Like us, they’ve been on the road since 2013 and are here for the Balloon Fiesta. They seem like a really fun couple and we look forward to our next meeting down the road. It turned out the calico cat stalking the roadrunners was one of their two cats, both of whom like to roam.

Denny and Veronica had some shopping to do so we said our goodbyes and shortly after that Hazel arrived. Our baby back ribs were just about done on the Traeger smoker/grill.

Baby backs looking good

Donna prepared scalloped tomatoes using the last of the green chile sourdough bread from the growers’ market and steamed fresh green beans to go with the barbeque ribs. It was a nice combination.

Baby back ribs with scalloped tomatoes and steamed green beans

Donna gave Hazel a tour of the coach. Hazel brought gifts for Ozark – she’s a cat person. We had a fun evening together.

Wednesday morning I had to get down to business. The trailer still wasn’t packed. I had all of our chairs, the Weber Q and Traeger and the awning mat still out. I also had to put away tire covers and windshield covers and dump and flush the tanks. This may not sound like a lot of work, but it takes time. It was nearly 11:50am when I fired up the Cummins ISL and rolled the coach off the pads I had under the rear tires. By the time I put the pads away and made my final walk around, it was just past noon as we drove up to the office.

The office closed for lunch at noon and I needed to settle up my electric bill for the week. Luckily the girl who works in the office saw us and came back to the office so we could pay and leave. I had taken a photo of our meter before I hooked up our shore power and took another photo after I disconnected. I compared that with the meter readings they were billing. Apparently they read the meter after we hooked up and before we disconnected. They showed slightly less usage than I figured. Our electric bill for the week was just over $23. Not bad considering the high temperatures and a few hours of air conditioning each day.

We made the 25-minute drive to The Vineyard (map) where we’ll be for the next 13 days. This is a 55+ community with about 200 manufactured homes. Our hosts, Larry and Ruth, live here. They’ve set us up with a dry camping spot – 30 amp electricity but no water or sewer – for the duration of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. There are showers and toilets at the clubhouse and we have access to that. Larry and Ruth coordinate volunteers to crew for balloonists – that’s what Donna and I will be doing starting on Saturday. I’ll post more details once we’re fully involved and I know more of what I’m talking about.

One issue arose as we set up. My Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (EMS) detected an error and wouldn’t allow shore power to flow to the coach. It displayed E-1 which means the polarity at the receptacle is reversed. Not a good thing. I saw a guy that works here at the community and told him about it. He said I would have to talk to Kurt, the owner. He drove me to the office in a golf cart and I told Kurt about the issue. Kurt grabbed a couple of tools and walked with me to our coach. I showed him the error message on our EMS and he opened the 30-amp panel. In short order we had the hot lead and the neutral lead correctly wired to the receptacle and all was good. He said he has many friends that stay overnight here in their RVs when they travel through Albuquerque and no one ever mentioned the reversed polarity. These things can go un-noticed but they contribute to an early demise of components like microwave ovens or other electronic devices.

Our spot at The Vineyard for the next two weeks

The schedule will be a rough start for Donna. This morning, she met a cab at the gated entrance at 4:55am for a flight to New York City. She’ll be at the TV studio late this afternoon for a rehearsal. Early Friday morning she has a satellite media tour that will have her on various TV stations around the country talking about organizing and preparing your home for the winter season. Then she’ll fly back and arrive here late Friday night. Saturday we’ll be up early and head to the Balloon Fiesta Park at 5am.

With our volunteer duty requiring us to head to the park at 5am every morning, I don’t know what my blog post schedule will be over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned – I’m sure to have some photos and descriptions of a unique adventure!

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!