Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - anyone else going?

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by CZNEDY

For people that don’t know the entire story, that would be gross.

Ha. True, true- freshwater bladder = Aquatank2:
https://learntorv.com/aquatank2-water-bladder/

Sewer bladder = custom built by a company that makes bladders in all shapes and sizes:
https://learntorv.com/sewer-bladder/

[ependydad]

It has been an amazing Fiesta so far! The weather was hot to start and is turning COLD with tomorrow's weather front moving through. For y'all with electric, let's just say I might be a little jealous. I spent yesterday dumping water, getting gas, and getting propane in preparation for the next few days.

The South lot is wonderful to see the balloons and get to the Fiesta, but this new North lot is awe-inspiring. You can see so much from the ground, but going up on the roof is pert-near like being on the field. There's just nothing obstructing our view!

I have hundreds of pictures on my phone that I need to go through. But I have been posting pictures, videos, and going Live on my family's page.

My daughter was offered the opportunity to go fly this morning. And we've been invited to tag along with the pilot + his wife next year as they fulltime around the west. We'll likely take them up and catch up in Yellowstone-ish later in the year before the Fiesta.

The family is already lobbying for us to reserve again next year.

[shelkol]

Shot this photo and thought it appropriate for this group. Been in the south lot, have not run into any FROGs

[mjacxx]

Here. Way out back. Row 35 I think.

[ependydad]

The FROGs brought the cold! Man was it windy yesterday and cold this morning!

I sit here listening to the sound of propane burners overhead... I don't think I'm going to be able to stay inside for long!

[The Wanderer2]

This place is huge and next to impossible to find someone in the crowd. This morning was cold but the balloons did take off.

[5picker]

You all must own cameras that do not work!

Almost 50 posts and about 5 pictures!

It never happen without photos!

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by 5picker

You all must own cameras that do not work!

Almost 50 posts and about 5 pictures!

It never happen without photos!

My family's Facebook page is littered with photos but I haven't gotten them to Flickr yet for posting here.

Let me see if I can rectify that.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by The Wanderer2

This place is huge and next to impossible to find someone in the crowd. This morning was cold but the balloons did take off.

Head away from the front corner. The further down the field and especially the further to the higher numbers (away from the shops), the lighter the crowds are.

But, you're right- I had a buddy that I stopped over to see yesteday. Even on the phone and knowing quadriants, it was a pain to find each other!

[CZNEDY]

We made it here

[CZNEDY]

Here’s a couple more.

[CZNEDY]

Originally Posted by ependydad

The FROGs brought the cold! Man was it windy yesterday and cold this morning!

I sit here listening to the sound of propane burners overhead... I don't think I'm going to be able to stay inside for long!

Sorry we brought the cold and the wind.

[CZNEDY]

More pics from tonight’s Glo

[5picker]

Beautiful!
Thanks!
On our bucket list.

[mjacxx]

A small sample.......

[ependydad]

Alright, let's do this trip report - style.


Getting There

We made our way west to Albuquerque over a couple of weeks. Started in Florida, stopped in Huntsville to see my cousin, overnighted near Memphis in Mississippi at a beautiful COE park on a lake (I wanted to fill in MS in my "visited states map"), went to Hot Springs, AR, Oklahoma City, and Amarillo (stayed down in Palo Curo Canyon State Park) before getting to Albuquerque.

I won't delve into any of the steps getting there. Each was nice. Ask if you're curious about anywhere.




Before the Fiesta / Getting Ready

We did get to Albuquerque quite a bit before the Balloon Fiesta actually started. Its first day was Saturday, October 5. We arrived in Albuquerque a week prior to that on Sunday, September 22.

We spent a week at High Desert RV Park. It's a no frills kind of place. It was the first place that I've stayed that says they charge extra for electricity for weekly arrivals. But it's been 2 weeks since we left and I haven't seen an additional charge hit my card. Maybe I should have properly checked-out....?



We were there for 2 reasons:
#1 - FULL HOOKUPS. We had no sewer the week before at Palo Duro near Amarillo. We wanted to get caught up on laundry and get good showers before rolling into 2 weeks of dry camping.

#2 - ordering all the things and doing all of the projects that I had been putting off:

• Awning poles - modeled from this post
• Installing Xantrex auto-transfer switches on 2 circuit breakers (which meant dropping the under belly and running 2 extension cords)
• Getting a wagon for taking chairs to the launch field easier
• Installing my lithium-aware converter (which meant dropping the under belly and running a 12gauge romex + installing an outlet)
• Installing a bus bar to cleanup my negative battery connections
• Getting ready for my 150-hour oil change
• Getting a genturi since rally parking is so tight (plus figured out an extension would be good to get)
• Realizing some of the LEDs in my taillights burnt out, so ordered replacements (got installed at the Fiesta)
• Bought plexiglass for the screen door (never got cut + installed)
• Bought a trucker OTR antenna for my booster (never got installed)
• Bought a pump that fits onto 5g water jugs so we could cheaply/easily refill them and not use water from our freshwater tank
• Sanitizing the freshwater system and bladder
• Get haircuts

Plus friends got there who wanted to hang out. And, while there, I ended up helping someone whose truck broke down as he got to the park (first he needed leveled and then he had to move sites)... so made a new friend there. They invited us to their rig for dinner one evening.

We went to Petroglyph National Monument. This was really neat and the movie at the Visitor's Center taught us a good bit about the Albuquerque area.



Oh! We also had dinner with a FRF member and his wife at Ranch Cafe. I sadly didn't get any pictures. But the food was great and company better.

So, as you can see- it was a busy week!

[ependydad]

Boondocking Readiness & Generator Issues

I've been preparing for dry camping over the years:

• 60g freshwater bladder
• 100g black/gray water bladder
• 4x Battleborn 100ah batteries
• Just installed automatic transfer switches for 2 breakers making almost all of the outlets in my house hot
• The toy hauler we got last year has a built-in generator

For the bladder, I've used it a handful of times. The first time I got back, my neighbor told me he thinks I only put in about 50 gallons of its 60 gallon capacity. But he also wasn't 100% sure what 60g looked like. He also just so happened to have a hose water meter. First, he was pretty spot on- about 48g. Second, I took it with me to fill it a second time and let me tell you- 60g is uncomfortably full into the bladder! Here's what it looks like:



The built-in generator is super convenient. The Xantrex transfer switches were awesome- generator goes off, the outlets stay hot. My wife thanked me for the simple setup. The generator mostly did OK but I did have a couple of issues. I definitely want to add solar to the mix as I could have gotten away with no generator runtime on a few days if it wasn't for the batteries.

Having almost all of the outlets hot mean we are power hogs. We regularly go through 150-300 amp hours daily (well, likely more since we had a few hours of recharge time each day). I can definitely say the toaster was used regularly and hair heating devices. The Keurig was too much for my 1000W inverter and the microwave isn't inverted at all.

First, I ran it low on oil. I had gotten everything for an oil change but hadn't actually been checking the oil. At 153 hours (3 hours past the 150 hour change target), the generator went off and flashed a code #2 (aka oil pressure low). The oil change was easy enough as I had the oil, the filter, and the special filter wrench. My wife's cousin baby sat me back at 50 hours for the first oil change and it turned out to be easy peezy lemon squeazy.

Then, the generator acted starved for fuel and would stall out. My father-in-law found if he fiddled with the governor by hand, he could keep it running but it needed to be babysat. We tried changing the fuel filter and made things worse- the generator wouldn't start. Cummins Onan has a setup on-site (which is where I got the filter) and I got an appointment for the next day with them. They determined it was the fuel pump and replaced it. $100 part, $190 service visit + labor. Fortunately, they agreed to handle it as a warranty item (2 years or 2,000 hours).

It ran fine for a day but the next day was still surging. A little annoyed, I called them up and said it still didn't sound right. They came right out and tested it with a 1 lb. bottle of propane and determined it was getting too much fuel now. They said it was a warranty item for a carb to be giving too much fuel and changed it as a warranty item. Generator actually runs pretty good and we ran it for 15 hours straight at Walmart just last night into today.

[ependydad]

Pre-Fiesta Fulltime Families Rally

We moved over to the Fiesta grounds before they opened for camping. We moved over on Sunday, Sept 29 to help the organizers get setup with the Fulltime Families (FTF) rally. Camping officially opens on Monday, September 30. The days prior to the Fiesta are 1/2 price at $20 for dry camping. Moving over, we stopped at a Flying J and filled the two fuel tanks at about 20g each and two 5g gas cans.

The FTF rally ran from Monday, September 30 to Sunday, October 6. Each day had something going on. From kids activities to adult rally gatherings. I helped with an RV Maintenance and Weighing BYOB talk one afternoon. The FTF group was put into the "Cemetery Lot" which worked well because it's small and contained. When you have 50 families: about 100 adults, and 200 kids, things get a bit raucous. Being isolated from the rest of the Fiesta goers was good for everyone.

Here's the empty lot:


The spots are tight, there's no way around it:


From the sky (one of the FTF parents were taken up in a balloon during the Fiesta, here's the cemetery lot from the air):



The FTF community is amazing, during the whole 2 weeks- everyone worked together, sharing equipment for water fills, to "the water brigade" having 3-4 water containment vessels going at once, filling anyone who needed water. To sharing paid dumps so blue boys could be thrown into pump outs (they would also pump out your sewer tote when you pay for a dumping). To sharing tools and knowledge and help. I even did a couple of pump outs while I had my bladder out. The sense of community is unparalleled to anything I've enjoyed/experienced before.

No campfires of any sort are allowed, not even propane fire pits (it's the site of an old dump + they worry about methane igniting). So we made due:


My in-laws joined us in our rig on Friday, October 4th. 9 days of dry camping with 2 extra bodies... sure, why not?

Friday evening, FTF put on a dance. Once of the dads is a professional musician and DJ'd the party with fancy lights and all. We didn't stay out too late as we knew Saturday morning would come bright and early!

I wasn't the only person with Victron gear:

[ependydad]

Fiesta, Opening Weekend

Once the Fiesta opened on Saturday, it was all Balloons, all the time. My daughter crewed every morning of the 10 day festival with Fred and Christel Dinkler's balloon, Carried Away. They each remembered her from 2 years ago and treated her so well.

Saturday morning, she crewed and the rest of us joined her. There was a mix-up with the bus providers (aka they weren't running to the RV park) so we walked over to the field. It was a good mile walk to the gate and pert near another 1/2 mile to where our pilot's quadrant on the field was.



Still was better than the crazy amount of traffic.

Unfortunately, this morning a fog rolled in after the dawn patrol went up and before many (any?) pilots could launch. They inflated and waited for direction, but couldn't launch. Sadly, the field was red flagged and then not a 1/2 hour later, the fog lifted and it turned out to be a beautiful morning.









Paige and Momma selfie while leaning on the basket:

[ependydad]

Fiesta, Opening Weekend, continued
Saturday evening, we went into the Fiesta grounds for the evening glow. This is a static display of balloons inflated. As it gets dark, they'll light the burners and makes the balloons "glow". It's really quite a sight to see. There were sky divers while it was still light out and then another set who had light-up suits and fireworks after dark. And finally, the evening ended with fireworks.

Sky divers as we walked up:


Glow:


To escape the crowds, you have to go to the far end of the field. Otherwise, mayhem:


My son and his grandpa:


Evening sky divers with fireworks shooting out of their butts:


Glow:


Fireworks:


Sunday morning, my son and I went over to crew. We did a few jobs here or there and then he disappeared off during one of the rounds of "hurry up and wait". I found a bunch of selfies of him on my phone!