Category Archives: Beer

The Green Flash

Mission Bay RV Resort fills up every year for the Thanksgiving weekend. The park had been fairly quiet since Halloween but it was full on Thanksgiving. Security Supervisor Thomas told me that 70 rigs checked in on the day before Thanksgiving. That’s more than a quarter of the park’s capacity. Kids had the week off from school and many parents had a four-day weekend.

On Sunday, there was a mass exodus as many of the rigs packed up and left. Looking around, I would guess more than a third of the sites are empty now. There aren’t many kids here as they’re back in school and parents are back to work.

Lots of empty sites

Another change occurred after the wet weekend. The strips at the back of the sites are usually grassy. This year most of the grass is gone and it’s just dirt. They must have seeded it at some point. After the rain over the weekend grass is sprouting now.

New grass sprouting behind our site

With the RV park quiet and not much foot traffic, it seems like the grass will have a good chance to grow.

We had periods of rain Monday afternoon. Sini gave me a couple of bottles of beer. I enjoyed an IPA from Green Flash Brewing called Soul Style. They bill it as a tropical flavor. However, it doesn’t contain any fruit or fruit juice – the flavor is strictly from the hops used in the brewing process. It was a good beer and I drank it while watching Monday Night Football.

By the way, the name Green Flash refers to a seldom seen phenomenon as the sun sets. Under the right conditions just as the sun drops below the horizon, the red or orange sun rays appear green for about a second. That’s the green flash – it’s most likely to be seen when the sun drops below the horizon in the ocean.

Donna made a chicken enchilada soup Monday. She had it in the slow cooker all afternoon. It was delicious and just right on a rainy evening.

Chicken enchilada soup

We awoke to a cloudless blue sky on Tuesday. The wind which had been blowing for three days had dissipated. Beautiful weather ahead! I rode the Spyder to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center and played pickleball for two hours. It was nice to be out and about and get some exercise.

The only chore I accomplished was dumping and flushing our holding tanks. Before I dumped, I had to make a repair to our Camco Rhinoflex sewer hose. Last time I dumped the tank, I saw a couple of drops of liquid come from the hose fitting. I unscrewed the fitting from the end of the hose and applied plumber’s grease – a clear silicone grease sometimes called faucet grease – to the fitting and screwed it back together. Problem solved. No one wants a leaky sewer hose!

Last night Donna made a new recipe – crispy dijon tilapia. It was good, but Donna wants to make it with a flakier fish filet next time, maybe rock fish.

Dijon crusted tilapia with asparagus and potatoes

Today we should see a high temperature of 70 degrees. The weather forecast for the coming week looks great. I have a list of projects piling up. Today I’ll have to get busy and start tackling a few things I’ve been putting off. After all, I’m not on vacation, right? It’s a lifestyle.

*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!

Turkey on the Traeger

I resumed pickleball on Monday at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center. In my fourth game, I suddenly experienced pain behind my middle toes on my right foot. I don’t know for sure what happened, but I’m guessing that I pushed off with my foot to get to the ball and somehow strained my foot. Donna wondered if it was a gout flare-up. I haven’t had any issues with gout for about four years – I take allopurinol and it’s been very effective.

Monday evening Sini told me the floor was wet again around her toilet. I had replaced the seal on the bottom of the bowl and thought I’d solved the problem. Tuesday morning I went over to check it out. I found the toilet was loose – I could rock it back and forth. Apparently the high density closed-cell foam seal had packed down after I mounted the toilet. I tightened the four nuts on the mounting studs and I think that will solve the issue. Note to self – after replacing a toilet seal, re-torque the mounting nuts after a day or so!

I took it easy for most of the day, resting my sore foot. Donna bought a turkey breast half at Sprouts Market and we wanted to roast it on the Traeger wood pellet-fired smoker grill for dinner. I decided to brine it. This was new to me, I haven’t brined meat before. I made a solution with a quarter cup of salt and two tablespoons of sugar in one quart of water. I put the turkey breast in a pot and added the brine, then put it in the refrigerator around noon.

I made a run to Trader Joe’s to replenish my scotch supply. Trader Joe’s has a house brand of Scotch whisky (there’s no ‘e’ in whisky when it’s Scotch). Their house brand is bottled by Alexander Murray and Company, a bottler in Scotland that buys whisky from various distillers and private labels it. In California, grocery stores can sell liquor. Trader Joe’s has a variety of scotch whisky under their own label – both single malt and blended.

I tend to prefer single malt Highland Scotch – preferably from the Speyside region – over the smoky Islay varieties. Trader Joe’s only had 16-year-old Speyside on hand and I thought it was too expensive. I ended up with a bottle of Glenfiddich 12-year-old scotch.

Back home, I put the turkey breast on the Traeger at 5pm. I figured it would take 75 to 90 minutes to cook. I was just guessing though as I couldn’t find a recipe for a half breast which was slightly less than three pounds. I started with the Traeger set at 325 degrees. After 40 minutes, I upped the temperature to 375 as the skin wasn’t browning. Fifteen minutes later, I raised the temperature to the highest setting, 450 degrees.

This is completely backwards from how I wanted to cook it. Next time I’ll start at a high temperature to crisp the skin, then reduce the heat and cook until an internal temperature at the thickest part of the breast reaches 165 degrees. In the final minutes of cooking, I basted the turkey breast with Fisher and Wieser pomegranate and mango chipotle sauce.

Although I was all over the board temperature-wise, the turkey breast came out good. It was moist and flavorful.

Traeger roasted turkey breast

Donna served it with cumin roasted cauliflower dressed with sherry vinegar and baked acorn squash mashed with butter and orange marmalade. Delicious.

A meal fit for a king

Sini joined us for dinner and we enjoyed the meal and company. I paired my dinner with a Blood Orange IPA from Latitude 33 brewery while the girls had red wine with theirs.

Blood orange IPA

Sini brought us a gift. It’s a red and green laser light – it emits hundreds of tiny red and green spotlights over a large area – up to about 3,000 square feet. I set it up at the front of the coach and aimed it at the tree in front of our site. It makes the tree look like it’s filled with tiny Christmas lights. I’ll try to get a photo of it tonight.

My foot feels better today. I think I’ll head out for pickleball again. The weather was cooler yesterday with partly cloudy skies. We hit a high temperature in the mid 70s. Today is forecast to be cooler again with a high of about 70 with partly cloudy skies.

Pack My Bags

As I left the Mission Bay RV Resort Wednesday morning, I had to stop the Spyder and snap a picture of De Anza Cove. The bay water was so calm, it looked like glass and reflected images of a few clouds in the sky, palm trees and the houses terraced in Bay Park.

De Anza Cove

There was a boat anchored in the cove – a cabin cruiser I hadn’t seen before. They found very smooth water to spend the night in. But I imagine the noise from I-5 couldn’t have been pleasant.

I played pickleball at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center. Ocean Beach is a unique community – it was a hippie hangout in the ’60s and ’70s and that influence is still obvious. It’s also a popular place for surfing. When I left the rec center, I took a ride along the waterfront. I saw a cool old VW bus that someone had cut a section out of, shortening the wheelbase.

Sectioned VW bus

On Tuesday, our friends John and Sharon Hinton checked into the park (On The Road of Retirement). We got together Wednesday evening for happy hour. They brought homemade garlic pesto pizza. Donna cooked salmon with ginger and scallion topping and made guacamole with pomegranate seeds, a twist she picked up from The Barrio Queen restaurant in Gilbert, Arizona. John and Sharon are beer lovers. We shared a blood red orange IPA from Latitude 33 Brewing. It was tasty, as was the food.

Happy hour became dinner

We were so absorbed in conversation, I never thought to have them pose for a photo.

A couple of hours passed quickly. When I came inside, I turned on game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series. The Cubs were up 5-1. I thought it was game over. But over the next few innings, we had some twists. First the Indians stormed back to tie the game at 6-6 in the eighth inning. Then there was a rain delay. The Cubs won in overtime in the 10th inning.

Thursday was another beautiful day in San Diego. My first priority was a run to Costco. I picked up coffee K-cups for the Keurig, a case of bottled water and pork tenderloins. I arrived at Costco at 10:05am – they open at 10am. This is the way to do Costco. The parking lot was only half full and I didn’t have to fight crowds in the store.

After I dropped the stuff off back at the coach I headed out for more pickleball. Later, I spoke to my daughter, Alana, about picking me up at SeaTac airport tomorrow in Seattle – I wrote about the reason for this trip in my previous post. I also spoke to Sini. She’s already packing her things in her coach.We plan to get together Saturday evening and hit the road Sunday morning for our trip back down to San Diego.

By the time we get here, Sini will be a seasoned big rig driver. I have a plan in mind for her to get up to speed driving her motorhome – we’ll see if she likes my plan.

Donna made coconut curry chicken in the slow cooker for dinner last night. She served it over jasmine brown rice with chopped cilantro. I thought it was great but Donna wants to double the amount of curry powder and add some turmeric next time she makes it.

Coconut curry chicken

I paired it with an IPA from Left Coast Brewing in San Clemente called Trestles. Trestles is a reference to a popular series of surfing spots near San Onofre Beach in north San Diego county.

Trestles IPA

Today is another sunny, beautiful day here. The high is expected to be in the mid-70s. Seattle’s forecast is wet with the high temperature in the upper 50s for the weekend. I’ll pack my things today and leave for the airport around 6:30am tomorrow. I don’t know if I’ll be able to post over the next several days while we’re on the road.

San Diego Routine

Donna has been busy writing while I’ve been getting out to play pickleball. She has a mid-December book deadline and also has couple of articles to complete. I played pickleball four days in a row – about two and half hours per day. With the shorter waiting times between games at the Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach Recreation Centers, I’ve been getting a good daily workout.

My days are already falling into a familiar San Diego routine. Get out of bed around 7:30am. Mess around on the Internet for a while. Breakfast. Pickleball. Read. Happy hour with the guys at Offshore Tavern and Grill or Dan Diego’s. Watch a show or movie. Bed time.

The Internet continues to feed my latest obsession. Last weekend I ordered another pair of Lucchese cowboy boots. This time I went a little overboard and bought full quill ostrich boots with calfskin shafts. They arrived from Amazon on Wednesday. I was really disappointed when I opened the box. The stitching on the shafts – the part that comes up around your calf – was supposed to have a gold hue contrasting with the brown calfskin shaft. These boots looked like someone had smeared brown shoe polish over the stitching and the shafts were uniformly brown with no contrast – you could hardly see the stitching.

I called Lucchese customer service and told them the boots don’t match the images I saw online. They were very helpful and told me something was amiss. They stitch the shafts after the leather is dyed and polished. I don’t think it was a factory defect – something happened to these boots. They offered to repair or replace the boots if I sent them to the factory in El Paso. I opted to return them to Amazon since I had free returns with my Prime membership. I boxed them up and rode the Spyder to the UPS store in Pacific Beach. It was super easy – the UPS guy scanned the return label and gave me a tracking number.

When I came home, I ordered another pair of the same boots. I received an email from Amazon telling me they had already processed reimbursement to my credit card – they must get a notification when the return label is processed by UPS.

While I was at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center playing pickleball on Thursday, I got a notification on my phone telling me the replacement boots had been delivered! Wow! I ordered the replacements around 4pm on Wednesday and they came before noon the next day!

Lucchese full quill ostrich boots with calfskin shafts

We had another minor issue this week. Last weekend the Mission Bay RV Resort office lent me a converter box for our TV since trees were blocking my Dish satellite reception. It worked fine on Sunday – I watched NFL football all day. On Monday night I wanted to watch football but the reception kept cutting out. Monday was a cloudy, overcast day. I assumed the clouds caused the RV park’s Direct TV antenna to lose the signal.

On Wednesday we tried to watch the presidential race debate, but the TV signal was cutting out again. There weren’t any clouds on Wednesday. The RV park sent a guy out on Thursday and he gave me another converter box. When I hooked up the new box, it couldn’t acquire any signal at all. I found it hard to believe that I had two defective boxes. I suspected a problem with our coaxial cable. The 50-foot cable I used to hook up to the park’s TV system was given to me three years ago by my brother-in-law, Tommy. It’s been knocking around in a container in our trailer since then. I went to Home Depot and bought a new cable. Problem solved – the TV reception is great and I was able to watch the game last night.

Donna made a pot of pork chile Thursday with the chicos she bought in Santa Fe. She had it in the slow cooker all afternoon. Our friend Mona visited with her while I watched the game and enjoyed the chile with a Racer 5 IPA. The chicos were coarser than I expected. Maybe that’s the way it is with ancient foods. I’m sure I got plenty of fiber.

Pork chile with chicos

Racer 5 IPA from Cloverdale, California

As the sun was setting, I walked over to the cove and shot a different sunset view. De Anza Cove is east of the RV park. Looking across the cove you see the Bay Park neighborhood terraced on the Clairemont Mesa. The sun lit up the neighborhood as it dipped below the horizon. I missed the dramatic lighting by a minute or two, but this photo gives a sense of what it looked like.

Last rays of sun on Bay Park

We had an unseasonably warm day yesterday – the high was 89 degrees. The weather guessers are calling for low to mid-80s for the weekend before the temperature falls to a more normal high of around 70 degrees. Tomorrow we’ll go to Donna’s sister’s annual Halloween party. I’m taking a break from pickleball until Monday.

Run, Donna, Run

We had a fairly quiet weekend as we settled in at Mission Bay RV Resort.

Donna went to an office in Mission Valley Friday morning. She volunteered to do some data entry for an organization called Girls on the Run. I took a couple of walks around the RV park and mostly read a book on my Kindle. I retrieved the Weber Q grill and stand from our trailer in the storage lot so we could grill steak for dinner. Then I went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for happy hour and met up with my pals there – Bob, Tye and Tim. We caught up and of course I entered the football pool.

On Saturday morning, Donna and I rode the Spyder downtown to the Little Italy District for the farmers’ market. We always enjoy farmers’ markets and the San Diego Saturday market is a good one.

Farmers’ market on Cedar Street

We strolled through the four-block section of Cedar Street and had food samples. We weren’t really shopping for anything, but we ended up buying a Greek-style eggplant and yogurt dip, baguette, smoked gouda cheese, uncured salami and two kinds of sausages from The Meatmen, a bomber bottle of Modern Times blood orange gose beer (brewed in Point Loma), plus pomegranates and kale. We like the smaller Tuesday farmers’ market in Pacific Beach too.

Ozark the cat has really taken to her window mounted bed. She slept Saturday afternoon in it, but the sunshine must have bothered her eyes.

Ozark the cat shielding her eyes

Donna had volunteered to work from 2-4pm at the Girls on the Run booth that was set up for the Esprit de She race on Sunday so she rode her bike over there. While she was out, I made a run to the store. One of things I like about the west coast is the availability and large selection of craft beer in 22-ounce bomber bottles. We found plenty of craft beer in New Mexico, Colorado and even Wyoming but you had to look for it and generally it was only available in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles. In California, Oregon and Washington you’ll find good selections in just about every grocery store.

Islander IPA from Coronado Brewing Company.

We snacked on the food we bought at the farmers’ market for happy hour, then Donna made turmeric chicken with bone-in chicken thighs. She served it with Israeli couscous and steamed green beans.

Turmeric chicken thighs

Donna had her alarm set for 5:30am Sunday morning. She was entered in a 5k race at South Shores Park on the south side of Mission Bay, just east of Sea World. Her plan was to use a City Bike to ride to South Shores Park – the race was scheduled to start at 7:15am. City Bikes are rental bicycles found in various locations in San Diego. The bikes are electronically locked in bike racks. You pay five dollars for half an hour – the machine will release the bike and record the time. When you return the bike at any City Bike rack, it locks in the rack and records the return time. There’s a rack of bikes just outside Mission Bay RV Resort, about a quarter mile from our site.

It had rained overnight, but no rain was falling when Donna left just after 6am. She had to take a towel along to wipe down the City Bike seat – and my headlamp as it was still dark. She was able to ride a bike path all the way to the bike drop-off, then walked another 1/2 mile or so to South Shores Park.

The start of the race was delayed until 7:45am. Donna ran a good pace – 9:48/mile and nearly met her goal of finishing in under 30 minutes. She finished in 30:25 and won the woman’s 50-59 age group.

I spent most of the day watching football. I was getting excited about my chances in the football pool. I picked winners in 10 out of 13 games played on Sunday. I ended up in second place though – the winner also picked 10 out of 13 but he ended up with 84 points to my 80. Oh well, there’s always next week.

Wipe Out IPA from Port Brewing Company

On Sunday evening, Donna made a marinara sauce from scratch and served sweet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese ravioli – we bought the sausage and the ravioli at the farmers’ market.

Swwet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese raviola

Sweet Italian sausage with marinara over goat cheese ravioli

I have a few errands to run today and I need to get cracking on next year’s health insurance plan. This afternoon I’ll probably play pickleball at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Donna is working on a new book project that will occupy much of her time as she needs to meet a mid-December deadline.

2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta – Part Two

After I posted on Monday, Jim McManus of the Escapees Boomers group organized a trip to the Boxing Bear Brewery a few miles down Alameda Boulevard from the RV park. I rode with Jim in his Jeep. We had seven people – five men and two women for the brewery tour at noon. The tour was given by the brewmaster, Justin. This is a relatively small brewery using a 10-barrel system. A standard beer barrel is 31 gallons, so they brew around 300 gallons of beer per batch – the exact amount varies depending on the grain bill and how many hops are used.

Fermenters on the left, 10-barrel tun on the right

They had some brews aging in bourbon barrels.

Aging brew in bourbon barrels

It was a nice tour and we each had a couple of pints along with lunch. The lunch special includes some really tasty sandwiches – I had the Cubano – and a pint of beer for $10. Not a bad deal! The beers were very good and a good time was had by all. We came back to the RV park around 2:30pm. It was nap time for me.

Tuesday morning I was up before 5am. Brad picked me up at the entrance to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park. After another odd breakfast in the Pilot’s Pavilion – a New Mexico dish called Frito pie – we went to the pilot’s briefing. Frito pie is a bowl with a handful of Frito corn chips topped by chili with beans, beef and cheese. Breakfast of champions.

Once again we had iffy wind conditions. The dawn patrol balloons remained grounded and a yellow flag was flying – meaning the field was closed and no one was allowed to lift off. Our pilot, Brad, had to decide if he wanted to go offsite on the chance that the field would open and he could fly in the day’s competition or stay at the field since there was a good chance the competition would be cancelled.

The competitions involve a target and test the pilot’s skill. The object is to fly over the target and drop a bean bag on it or toss a ring on a pole – things of that nature. Usually the target is on the balloon field. Competitors have to launch a minimum of one mile away from the field and aren’t allowed to lift off until all of the other balloons have left the field.

Brad decided to stay at the field. Our friends, Tom and Kris Downey (Open Road 365), arrived yesterday – they have their RV in the VIP parking area inside the Balloon Fiesta Park and they came to our launch site. They were excited to be here – it’s their first time. I explained what was going on to them and also told them they were only seeing a fraction of the normal number of balloons due to the wind concerns.

Around 7:45am, the field went green and balloons began to launch. The day’s competition was cancelled. We scrambled and assembled the balloon and inflated quickly. Brad was in the air by 8:10am. The wind out of the north had the balloons moving briskly to the south. At 8:23am, the announcement was made to close the field at 8:30am. It was getting too windy.

Brad made a short hop with his two passengers. We picked them up a few miles south of the field around 8:45am. It was short day of flying. I saw a few balloons landing at speeds that looked a little scary. Anything over 10-12 mph can be hairy.

After lunch, I spatchcocked a chicken with poultry shears Donna bought recently. The Oxo poultry shears made cutting the backbone out of a whole chicken a breeze. This was the first time I tried spatchcocking a chicken myself and it was easier than I expected. After I removed the back bone, I flattened the chicken and cut the wing tips off. Donna marinated the chicken in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper. I cooked it on the Traeger and it was delicious. I set the Traeger to 350 degrees for 40 minutes with the chicken breast down, then I flipped it over and raised the temperature to 425 for 10 minutes to crisp the skin.

Traeger chicken with roasted potatoes and asparagus

I slept soundly and the alarm woke me at 4:45am this morning. I walked across the street to the entrance to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park where I waited for the crew to pick me up. I talked to Johnny, the security guy at the entrance. Johnny has been working that post for 17 years. He always has a big smile and a wave for everyone entering the park. He knows many of the participants by name after all these years. Lots of people bring him food or coffee which they hand off to him as they enter the park.

On Wednesday morning, the conditions were much better. They would have the competition today, but competitors would launch from the field and make a drop on the target south of Alameda Boulevard in the RV park right in front of our site! Donna had a front row seat from the coach!

Balloons inflating and launching

Special shapes balloons

The famous Albuquerque Box was working today. Wind near the ground and up to a few hundred feet was moving the balloons south. At higher altitudes there was a wind shear and the wind brought the balloons back north – northwest. By working the balloon up and down, the pilot could move back and forth over the park.

After we launched the Heart’s A’Fire balloon, we piled in the chase vehicle and drove out to the south entrance – where I was picked up earlier. We waited there to see where Brad would end up. Lots of balloons were flying low overhead and I shot a few photos.

Coming through low over the trees

Special shape in flight

Lots of balloons

Pretty in the early morning sunlight

After flying low over the target, Brad flew the balloon high and went north past the Balloon Fiesta Park. Then he dropped down and we lost sight of him. After a while he contacted us on the radio and said he was on track to land back in the park. We drove back into the park and saw him coming in. The traffic was slow and I was afraid we wouldn’t get there in time. It wasn’t too big of a worry though – with so many crews in the park, someone would help them.

While we were stopped in traffic I decided to bail out of the truck and run to where I thought he would land. Brad’s wife, Jessica, said she would run with me. When I said run, I meant jog. Jessica ran. The balloon landed before I reached their landing point. Jessica got there a good 30 yards ahead of me! Jessica is 37 years old and I’m on my last day of 59 – that’s my excuse.

After we packed the balloon, I found out we had another task. We were taking the balloon to the school where Brad and Jessica’s three older children attend. We would set up for a static display and demo for the school kids.

While we were setting up, Brad noticed a tear in the envelope. The tear was nearly two feet long. The fabric was torn near a pulley for the top release. When we landed at the park, a guy I’ve never seen before helped us take the balloon down. It appears that he didn’t know what he was doing and pulled hard on the rope which must have been jammed at the pulley and tore it.

After the demo we packed up again and went directly to a shop called Aerco. They are an FAA-approved balloon repair facility. We unloaded the envelope and they will have it repaired by the end of the day.

It turned out to be a good thing we did the demo – if not, we wouldn’t have discovered the tear until we set up Thursday morning and the day’s flight would’ve been scrubbed.

Tomorrow’s forecast looks good. Hopefully they have it right and we’ll have another great day of flying on my 60th birthday. I forgot to mention this morning’s cold temperature. It was 48 degrees at 5am. Just before sunrise the temperature dropped to 37 degrees before it started climbing again. This afternoon as I type this, it’s 75 degrees outside. Thursday isn’t supposed to be quite as cold in the morning and we’ll see mid-70s in the afternoon again.

2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta – Part One

The 45th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (AIBF) opened on Saturday. This annual event starts on the first Saturday in October and runs for nine days – the final lift-off is on the second Sunday of the month.

My plan was to meet up with the rest of the crew at the entrance to the Balloon Fiesta Park and ride in with them. The entrance to the park is only about a quarter of a mile from our coach on the north side of Alameda Boulevard. My alarm sounded at 5am. I thought this would give me time for cup of coffee and light breakfast before I headed out. As soon as I rolled out of bed my phone rang. It was our crew chief, Yonnie, advising me they were 15 minutes away.

I quickly dressed and brushed my teeth and went out the door. Luckily the gate at the northwest corner of the RV area was open, so I had a short walk to the Balloon Fiesta Park entrance. I stood by the entrance in the dark looking for our pilot Brad Rice in his Infinity SUV with the balloon trailer. An Audi Q7 stopped and I heard someone calling my name. I jogged over and got in, wondering who’s car it was. It was another crew member, Jeff, and his wife Katie. Aaron was also with them. We drove in and parked in the south lot.

Brad drove in behind us. Brad got us into the Intel hospitality tent where they were dishing up breakfast burritos and coffee. Yum! I was thinking I missed out on my breakfast, but a big egg, hash brown and sausage burrito with cheese filled me.

The next order of business was the mandatory daily pilot’s briefing. This takes place at 6:15am on the west side of the launch field. Five hundred and fifty pilots and balloons were registered for the event – many more applied but 550 is the limit. Each morning several pilots have their number called at random and they must report to the FAA officials to ensure they attended the meeting. It wouldn’t be practical to have a roll call with 550 pilots.

Pre-dawn pilot’s briefing

The dawn patrol goes up before sunrise. These are specially licensed balloons with running lights that can lift off in the dark. They give the rest of the pilots a good visual clue of what the winds aloft are doing.

Dawn patrol

After the briefing it was time to get to work. We had plenty of manpower – our pilot is a local Albuquerque resident and many of his friends come out to help on the weekend. The core crew group is Yonnie, Aaron, Darren and me. Alex comes out when he can and also Jeff. During the weekdays, we lose a few of the guys due to work commitments, but there’s always someone to fill in. We set up the basket and laid out the envelope after sunrise.

Envelope laid out with basket tipped on its side

We’re in row “H”, so we have to wait while balloons south of us launch before we can be released to launch. We try to coordinate our set-up to be ready with time to spare, but not too early as it wastes fuel to sit on the ground with the balloon inflated. With all the manpower we had Saturday morning, we set up a little too quickly. We start the inflation process by blowing air into the envelope with a large gasoline engine-powered fan. This is called cold inflating. With our quick set-up, we ended up with a long cold inflation period. Darren and I man each side of the throat of the balloon – the opening at the bottom of the envelope. We hold it open so air can blow in and we stabilize it so the envelope remains oriented properly. This can be difficult at times because the sponsor banner, which is on top of the prone envelope is heavy and wants to roll to one side or the other and any wind component will also roll the balloon. We were wrestling with the lines at the throat for a long time before Brad hit the burners and the hot air stood the envelope and basket up.

Brad’s wife Jessica went up along with another passenger, Bryan. Although they own the balloon, Jessica hadn’t been up in it for several years.

Jessica and Katie with their Heart’s A’Fire attire

Officials at the launch site called Zebras – they dress like a football referee in striped outfits – give the go ahead to launch. Brad hits the burners and lifts the basket about a foot off the ground. We walk it away from the crowd and vehicles and he gives the “hands off” command and heats the balloon to lift off.

Lift off

After the launch, we gather up gear and head out to give chase.

Mass ascent

Sometimes it’s hard to pick out the balloon among the hundreds in the sky. It’s good for one or more of the chase crew to keep eyes on it – once you lose sight of it it can be a little scary.

Where did they go?

Brad made a tricky landing southwest of the park in a small clearing – he had to avoid trees and a wall around the clearing. Jessica and Bryan jumped out and Brad went back up in the balloon with another passenger for a short hop and landed again in another small clearing with a few other balloons in it. The ground wind had picked up considerably, but it was a successful landing.

While we were breaking the balloon down, we heard a loud pop – like a gunshot. It was followed by a hissing sound, making us think a tire had blown. A quick walk around the Infinity SUV and trailer showed the tires to be good, but the rear of the SUV was sagging. An airbag for the air-ride suspension had blown! First day of the Fiesta and the chase truck was out of commission. Yonnie’s Suburban was pressed into service to tow the trailer and carry the chase crew. After we packed up the balloon, we returned to the Balloon Fiesta Park for the tailgate party. We had plenty of food and cracked open beers before noon!

Donna and I came home around noon. I took a short nap. We had to go back to the park and set up again in the late afternoon for the evening glow event. The glow is a static display – we inflate the balloon just before sunset. The crew weights the balloon to keep it down by leaning our arms on the basket. After dark, the pilots hit the burners to light up the balloons in unison and they glow in the dark. It’s a popular spectator event and the Balloon Fiesta Park is filled with thousands of people.

Heart’s A’Fire glowing

Glow display

We packed the balloon around 8pm – it was a long day. I came home and relaxed with a scotch on the rocks before sleeping like a rock. At 5am Sunday, the alarm went off and I was up and at it again.

This time after meeting my ride at the entrance, we went to the pilot’s pavillion for breakfast. It was genuine New Mexico fare – green chile chicken stew before 6am! We had another day of beautiful weather and our preparations were just like the day before – including another long cold inflation period. I’m getting a real workout. Brad took a couple of representatives from his sponsor – Cottonwood Mall – up. They had a great flight and landed the balloon in a small park south of the launch site.

I spent the afternoon watching NFL games and snoozing on the couch. Rain moved in Sunday night – I woke to the sound of raindrops on the roof. By the time my alarm sounded at 4:45am it had stopped. Brad picked me up at the entrance and went to the pilot’s pavillion for breakfast. This time it was green chile beef stew.

The front that pushed the rain in was causing strong winds aloft. Although it seemed fine at ground level, the wind speed picked by 400 feet above ground level and grew stronger as you went up. The flights for the day were scrubbed. No balloon flight meant I was back at the coach by 7am and I had a chance to write this post.

The weather guessers say we’ll have cooler weather as the cold front comes through. We should stay dry for the next few days with highs in the 70s. With any luck we’ll have balloons in the sky tomorrow morning.

Good to Have a Plan “B”

In my last post, I mentioned a problem with our awning. The pin that the upper eye on the gas strut mounts to came off. I temporarily installed it and secured it with wire. I needed a new clip washer to complete the repair.

Tuesday was our last full day in Santa Fe. While Donna went out for a run in the morning, I took the Spyder to Home Depot to see if I could find what I needed. No luck finding an actual clip washer. After searching around, I came up with something I thought might be workable. The pin is 3/8″ diameter. I found internal toothed lock washers and selected a package to fit a 5/16″ bolt. I figured I might be able to force the under-sized washer over the pin and the teeth would grip it.

5/16″ internal toothed lock washer

I tried to force the washer over the end of the pin by fitting a 3/8″ socket over the washer and tapping it with a hammer. The stainless steel washer was too stiff, I couldn’t get it over the pin. I used pliers to bend the teeth slightly, opening up the inside diameter of the washer. A few more taps with the socket and it was on. Then I used a punch tool and tapped the teeth firmly against the pin.

Washer locked down

This locked the washer in place. I’m fairly confident it will hold the pin. It took longer than it sounds, but in the end it was job done!

I downloaded another novel by Kyle Mills from Amazon to my Kindle Reader. This is my third book from this author – he writes a great story but the Kindle editing and formatting leaves a bit to be desired. There are typos and missing punctuation at times.

On Wednesday morning, I had much to do. I secured everything in the trailer and loaded the Spyder. I checked our tire pressures and put away the tire covers. I filled the fresh water tank and dumped and flushed the holding tanks. I worked for nearly two hours before I was ready to light the fires in the Cummins ISL diesel engine. We pulled out of Los Suenos de Santa Fe RV Park right at 11am. I usually prefer to hit the road earlier than that, but we were only going to Albuquerque – about 60 miles away.

Our first stop was at the San Felipe Truck Plaza in San Felipe, New Mexico – about halfway to Albuquerque. We’ve only covered a little over 200 miles since I last filled up in Raton, but we have run the generator a lot since then and I will be running the generator in the next few weeks. I like to have the tank topped up when I know we’ll be using the generator. Diesel fuel at the truck plaza was $2.19/gallon. That’s the least expensive fuel price we’ve had since we hit the road.

Our destination was Jessica Rice’s parents’ home in the North Albuquerque Acres neighborhood near Sandia Heights. Our plan was to dry camp on their property for a week until we move to the Balloon Fiesta Park. I had looked at the property on Google Earth and it looked large enough, but I thought I would have to back into their driveway or else I wouldn’t be able to turn around and maneuver.

When we arrived, we saw Jessica’s dad Bruce in the driveway. I stopped in the street and got out to look things over. The street was narrower than I expected. When I stepped out of the coach, I noticed that the edge of the road dropped off immediately into a ditch. I also found the weeds along the ditch were full of goathead stickers and my bare feet in flip-flops collected several. Ouch!

After looking the situation over, we decided we needed to go to plan “B.” The narrow road with no shoulder coupled with posts on each side of the driveway entry would make it difficult if not impossible to get into the driveway. Even if I made it into the driveway, there was less room than we thought there would be. I think Bruce was surprised at the size of our rig. Bruce felt bad about us having to go somewhere else, but it wasn’t his fault.

It’s always good to have a contingency plan when we’re going to an unknown dry camping place. We were invited to join Bruce and his wife Casey along with Brad and Jessica and Jessica’s brother Bruce and his wife Julie for dinner at the elder Bruce’s house around 5pm. Donna had baked pear gingerbread before we left Santa Fe in the morning to contribute to dinner. We left the gingerbread with Bruce and headed over to the Sandia Resort & Casino.

This was our fall-back option. We knew we could park overnight at the casino which is only about five miles from Bruce and Casey’s house. After some tight maneuvering in the casino lot, we found ourselves in nearly the same spot we occupied last year.

Donna took her laptop into the air-conditioned lounge in the casino and used her phone as a hot spot to get some work done. It was 87 degrees in the coach! Around 4pm, we rode the Spyder and made a stop for a quick cold one at Albuquerque Brewery which was near Bruce’s house. This is a small brewery making good beer to style. We met the brewmaster who is also one of the owners. We had a nice chat and enjoyed a pint before we headed to dinner.

Casey cooked up a large pot of southern New Mexico-style green chile enchiladas. These are different than the usual rolled enchiladas. It’s more like a green chile chicken stew served over a fried tortilla and it was absolutely delicious. The eight of us enjoyed the meal and conversation and had a great time. Casey gave Donna some of the leftovers and also a couple of servings of adobada (sometimes spelled adovada) which is a red chile marinated meat – most often pork or chicken but could also be beef. I’m not sure what’s in this dish, but I’ll find out for sure today. If it’s half as good as the green chile enchiladas were, it’ll be a treat!

We were having such a good time, I didn’t want to interrupt the flow by taking photos, so no pictures from the dinner party. It started to sprinkle as we were leaving but we managed to outrun the storm. Back at the coach, I covered the Spyder before the lightning, thunder and rain hit.

This morning it’s clear and sunny. We’ll move to an RV park on the west side of town called Enchanted Trails RV Park. I’ve booked a week there, then we’ll move to the Balloon Fiesta Park as planned.

Wild Hogs and Young Guns

We left the Santa Fe Elks Lodge just before noon on Wednesday. Our destination was only about eight or nine miles away – the Los Suenos De Santa Fe RV Park. This park is a little pricier than we usually pay, but we love the location. I’d mapped our route on Google Maps before we headed out. I hit a snag at the first turn off Old Pecos Trail. I’d planned on taking West Zia Road to Rodeo Road, but there was a sign prohibiting vehicles over five tons on that road. We weigh more than three times that.

That’s why I like to use our Rand-McNally RVND 7720 GPS – it’s specifically programmed for RVs. I input our weight, length, height, amount of propane on board and other factors. It stores this information and uses it every time it suggests a route. I don’t have to worry about being overweight or encountering a low bridge or overpass.

I continued on Old Pecos Trail and hit Rodeo Road. It only added a mile or so to the route. We stayed at this park last year and knew they had long pull-through sites. The pull-throughs are 70 feet long but relatively narrow. I remembered it being difficult to maneuver into the sites – you have to make a sharp 90-degree turn off a relatively narrow road and enter the site between two concrete barriers. Whoever came up with this design doesn’t understand that 70-foot long sites are intended for big rigs. Threading your way between concrete barriers is unnecessarily risky.

When we pulled up to site 76, there was a truck in the back-in site behind it, preventing me from swinging wide enough to enter our site. Donna and I agreed the best course of action was to make a loop of the park and back into the site from the front side. There aren’t any barriers on the front end and the road is wider there. I was able to back in the trailer in one shot, only pulling forward a bit to straighten it out. Much better than trying to get past the concrete.

You’re supposed to enter the site between these concrete barriers

A few rain drops fell while we were setting up, but it wasn’t a big deal. Later I relaxed and read a book. Donna made lemon chicken with creamed spinach and brown basmati rice for dinner.

Lemon chicken with creamed spinach and rice

On Thursday, we woke to bright blue skies and the promise of nice weather ahead. We rode the Spyder about 20 miles out to a small town called Madrid – it’s not pronounced like Spanish capital (mah-DRID), locally it’s called MAD-rid. The town has a population of less than 200 people. The main street is lined with art galleries, jewelry and gemstone shops and four restaurants – we thought there were five, but I’ll get to that.

Madrid Main Street

We walked and looked at the shops. Donna was tempted by some clothing, but we didn’t buy anything. In 2007, Madrid was the setting for a movie co-starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy called Wild Hogs. A building was converted into a diner for the set. The diner was run by Maggie, played by Marisa Tomei and about half of the scenes shot in Madrid were inside or in front of the diner. When we drove through here last year in our coach, we saw Maggie’s Diner, but the streets were too narrow to park our motorhome so we didn’t stop.

This time we walked to Maggie’s thinking it would be fun to have lunch there.

Maggie’s Diner

It turned out that Maggie’s Diner is just a movie set, not a real diner. It looks like a diner inside, but all of the booths and counter space are filled with T-shirts and other memorabilia. It’s just a touristy gift shop in reality.

Wild Hogs poster at Maggie’s

We walked back up the street to The Hollar, a southern-style restaurant and found a table on the patio there. I had an excellent smoked brisket sandwich while Donna had the stacked shrimp which was sauteed shrimp stacked in layers of cheesy grits and fried green tomatoes with a lavender bechamel sauce. Donna said it was delicious.

On the way back, we made a short detour to another small town called Cerrillos. It’s hard to believe today, but in the 1800s, this was a booming mine town and the hub of activity in the area. By 1900, the mines had shut down and the town dwindled. In 1988, a western movie co-starring Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez called Young Guns was filmed here. The old hotel and saloon where many of the scenes were shot is still standing.

We made one more stop at Santa Fe Brewing just outside of town. We sampled a beer then Donna bought a few beers-to-go. She brought home a six-pack of IPA called Happy Camper, a six-pack of Imperial Java Stout and a bomber bottle of sour ale for me.

After we came home, I made a trip to old downtown Santa Fe while Donna caught up on some work. Since Donna bought me cowboy boots in Cheyenne, I’ve become a real fan of western boots. I love the fit and feel of them. I have a hankering for another pair and I’ve been looking at smooth ostrich skin boots. Ostrich skin is a soft yet durable leather and can be found in a few different varieties such as full quill which is full of dimples from the quills, smooth quill which has a few of the quill marks and ostrich leg which requires several pieces sewn together to make a boot.

In the old town area there are a few western boot shops. I stopped at Lucchese Boots. They are a well-established boot maker in Texas making western boots since 1883. I tried on a pair of full quill ostrich boots there and they were unbelievably comfortable. But they were way out of my price range. The boots in this store were priced from about $1,400 to over $4,000 for off-the-shelf boots. Custom orders are also available. The next two shops I looked at were also handmade boots that could be bought off-the-shelf or custom-made bespoke boots could be ordered. Again, way more than I’m willing to spend. I tried on a pair of boots at one shop that were handmade and priced at $1,900. They were horrible for me. The insoles felt lumpy and they didn’t fit me well at all. It goes to show, boots are a personal item and spending big bucks doesn’t guarantee a good fit.

I’ll keep looking – maybe I’ll end up buying myself a birthday present when I find the right boot.

Today we’re expecting a high temperature in the low 70s. It’ll become partly cloudy in the afternoon. A passing afternoon shower is always possible here, but the forecast looks good. Donna and I are going to the community center to play pickleball this morning – we haven’t played in months! Other than that, I have no plan for the day. Maybe I’ll get ambitious and wash the Spyder.

Manby Hot Springs Adventure

We had fine weather on Monday and went out to explore. I worked out a route on Google maps that would take us on a loop to a few sights we wanted to see and bring us back to the Taos Mesa Brewing Taproom.

We rode through town around 11am and hit NM522. We took this state road to a county road marked B-007 which would lead us to the trailhead of Manby Hot Springs. The county road was paved for the first few hundred yards, then became a gravel road which quickly deteriorated into a rutted dirt road.

County road B-007

It was treacherous on the Spyder – we have less than five inches of ground clearance. I continued slowly and picked lines to keep us out of the deep ruts. I felt like the road was better suited for a mountain bike! The road was unmarked, I had to stop a few times and find my location on my smartphone before proceeding through intersections.

It took a while as I was only going 10-15 mph, but we eventually found the trailhead above the Rio Hondo River.

Rio Hondo River below trailhead

It was about a mile from our parking spot to the hot springs next to the river. The trail was steep and rocky in a few places, but it was mostly fairly easy going.

View of the Rio Hondo about halfway down the trail

Supposedly the movie Easy Rider used these hot springs as a setting for the swimming scenes at the hippie commune. I guess things can really change over the course of 45 years – the movie was filmed in 1968 – but the springs aren’t nearly as large as the pools in the movie.

Rock cairn by the Rio Hondo

Donna soaked in a pool that was supposed to be about 97 degrees but she said the water didn’t feel that warm.

Donna magically disappears in the hot spring

We hiked about 30 minutes up the trail back to the Spyder. I decided to take a different route out of there. County road B-007 became Tune Road – according to the map – there weren’t any signs. If we followed it, it would take us to US64, about four miles down the dirt road. This turned out to be a better route. It wasn’t rutted, but I still had to keep our speed down due to the washboard surface. There were a number of nice, large adobe homes along this road. A UPS delivery truck passed us on the way out. I can’t imagine driving a UPS truck on these roads day after day.

We followed US 64 west to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. There’s a rest area on the southwest side of the bridge and several vendor tables along the roadside with native jewelry, gems and rocks, pinon nuts and spices. This is a popular stopping place to take in the view of the gorge from the bridge.

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

Rio Grande Gorge

We walked out on the bridge. The bridge has a concrete sidewalk on both sides and viewing platforms in the middle. We took a selfie by the platform on the south side. It had an emergency phone with a direct connection to a suicide hotline! There have been a number of suicide jumps off this bridge.

Rio Grande Gorge viewing platform

We continued on US64 a few more miles to the radical Earthship Biotechture community. This is a supposedly self-sustaining community with functioning dwellings incorporating passive solar energy, thermal mass construction and integrated water systems. Water comes from rainfall, there are no wells here. Indoor gardens supply food sources.

Earthship

Passive solar heat

Another Earthship

Rain runs off the steel roof panel and down the channel on the right

The run-off from the roof is directed to a catch basin and drained into a filtration system

Thermal mass construction

It’s a real oddity in the middle of nowhere. They have been here since the 1970s.

We rode back to Taos and stopped at the Taos Mesa Brewing Taproom. We had a late lunch/early happy hour with a really good wood-fired grilled pizza and a few samples of their excellent beer.

As we were getting ready to leave, a few raindrops started falling. We were able to take a back road and outrun the rain shower instead of sitting in traffic in town as the rain came down. Later, Donna went out for dinner with her friends, Kenton and Ricky Pass. I stayed home and watched Monday Night Football – it was double-header night.

On Tuesday morning, we prepared for the road and headed out of Taos Valley RV Park at 11am. We planned to find a boondocking spot for the night before we check in at Los Suenos De Santa Fe RV Park on Wednesday. We changed our plan on the fly a few times. We considered stopping in Espanola where we hit US285, then thought we would go on to a casino near Santa Fe. Espanola sits at an elevation 5,600 feet above sea level – we dropped down from 6,800 in Taos. We eventually decided on the Santa Fe Elks Lodge.

The description said there were two acres of RV space, no hook-ups. Plenty of room for big rigs. I usually look at Elks Lodges on Google Earth to confirm the best entry and where to turn around if necessary. I didn’t do this since we made the choice while I was driving.

I missed the first driveway but there was a second driveway 200 yards down the road. Another motorhome was behind us and followed us up the driveway. As I approached the lodge, I had to choose – stay right and drive in front of the lodge or go left around the lodge through a parking lot. I chose right since I wasn’t sure if I could get turned around in the parking lot. The motorhome behind us went left.

He made the better choice. I ended up making a tight left turn past the lodge where the road narrows and there were trees overhanging on both sides. In hindsight I should have gone straight and turned down the first driveway – then I could start over. But I didn’t. I tried to cut the turn as deep as possible but still ended up with tree branches on the left side of the trailer. I’ve driven over 6,000 miles with the big car carrier trailer without incident. Now, after the last two stops, I’ve put scratches on both sides of it! Dang!

We hung out at the lodge and had an uneventful night. In Santa Fe we’re back up to an elevation of 7,200 feet above sea level. Today we’ll move to the RV park for a weeklong stay in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The weather forecast looks favorable with the temperature in the 70s and a 20% chance of passing showers.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Beer

The Green Flash

Turkey on the Traeger

Pack My Bags

San Diego Routine

Run, Donna, Run

2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta – Part Two

2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta – Part One

Good to Have a Plan “B”

Wild Hogs and Young Guns

Manby Hot Springs Adventure

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: