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Our drive to Albuquerque was uneventful. Traffic was bad but that was no surprise. The directions from Escapees were great. They even had a "drive in" video showing every detail from the interstate to our club camping area. We were directed to our site and we were all set up 10:30 AM. We were ones of the last to arrive. Most of the group came in the day or two before and everyone else arrived early this morning. After check-in, we spent some time relaxing at the RV and getting the ground solar panels setup. The system is working great then I discovered that the battery levels were falling even with the panels in direct sunlight. Well, I discovered the problem. I just wish I had remembered to unplug the charger. Yep, we were using our inverter to power the converter charger to charge the batteries that powered the inverter that powered the converter charger. Rookie move. I hope that is that last time I make that mistake. In the afternoon, we had a great get together discussing the fiesta and activities. A balloonist with over 3000 hours of airtime introduced us to the world of ballooning. He and his wife brought a basket and even lit off the burner for a few seconds. Wow! Lots of heat. The history of the fiesta was great. He explained the process of expanding the balloon (envelope) and filling it with hot air. Also, some of the ways we should act on the balloon field and when to help or not help the balloonists. The origin of the "Dawn Patrol" was interesting. Early on they realized that it would be helpful for a few balloons to go up right before sunrise to test the winds. If there was a problem then only a few balloons would be involved. It has become an event as they glow so bright in the almost dark sky. He even told us the source of the safety official uniform. An early organizer of the fiesta decided that it was hard to find each other with so many people. He ran down a purchased referee jackets for all of them. From then on, the safety officials were called Zebras. A new safety official in training are called ZITS. Zebra In Training. We are expecting over 500 balloons, 100 special shape balloons, 600 pilots, participants from more than 15 countries, and over 800,000 people total through the week coming to the event. That will work out to about 50,000 or more per day. Wow, things are going to be busy. We had over 50 people sign up from our group. Dinner was fajitas and was good. It always helps when your cooks background is from Mexico. History warning: The earliest known unpiloted balloons were flown as far back as 200 AD but that is just our written history. People could have easily been holding paper "balloons" over a fire to see them fly from hot air. The first documented piloted balloon was in France in the late 1783. Many of the attempts were fatal to the pilots. Nothing like a high chance of death to limit progress. Some were hot air balloons but many were filled with hydrogen. A very explosive and dangerous gas. Do you remember the Hindenburg? For years, they were primarily a novelty and only rarely used for a practical purpose. Someone soon figured out that being high over a battle field would give an advantage. Plus a very big and slow moving target. Again very dangerous. From the French Revolutionary war to WWII there were used in war and occasionally beyond that war. Most balloonists were thrill seekers trying to become the "first to" something. First to cross the Channel. First to cross from one point to another. First to cross the Alps, cross the Atlantic, cross the Pacific,.... This never really stopped. Eventually the last "First" was to circumnavigate the world, It was in 2002 when Steve Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone, nonstop, in any kind of aircraft. He launched from Australia, on June 19th and returned to Australia on July 3rd. He flew 20,626 miles and at over 200 MPH at one point he was the fastest balloonist. Modern ballooning is something relatively recent. Ed Yost is considered the father of modern ballooning from his work in the 1950's. From 1961, his company started selling hot air balloon "Kits" with everything needed to fly. Today, there more than 7,500 balloonists registered in the US and around 10,000 in the entire world. Now to our current event. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta started in 1972 and has grown into the largest balloon festival in the world. The Balloon Fiesta Park is 365-acre and a launch field the size of 54 football fields or 78 acres. The location is the only Balloon Fiesta in the world where a dependable “box effect” is found. The "box" is a unique weather phenomenon that can allow pilots to start at the field flying south, up, north, and then back to the same field. End the history lesson.  Our RV is 1 mile south of the field which should allow for seeing many balloons fly over every day and several will land VERY close to the RV.
Our HOP Festival Event includes: 9 nights – RV boondock parking 9 catered breakfasts 6 catered dinners Transportation to and from the field. Souvenir HOP name badges Souvenir HOP bag HOP hosts to organize and answer questions. And at a cost of $2200 for a couple and one RV. We will be here from October 4th to the 13th. Time for bed because breakfast starts at 5am.
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Today, we pull out of Logan. We are going to the Balloon Fiesta with the Escapee's Club.  Our Solar install is only partially finished. The batteries and inverter are installed but the panels are not on the roof. I did not have enough time to put the panels on the roof. We will have to make due with our portable panels. For the Fiesta, we will have 400amps of Lithium batteries and a 3000 amp inverter. Plenty to supply all our plugs but not run the AC. This will be a problem but for now we are expecting reasonable temperatures. Foreshadowing, the temps will be anything but reasonable for the fiesta. We are stopping for the night in Edgewood NM to drain holding tanks and fill the internal fresh tank with water. That was a mistake because the water at that RV park is AWFUL. Salty with minerals. Well, we primarily use that to flush the toilet when we boondock. I am glad we did fill our blue drinking water containers in Logan before we left. There was a local Pizza shop with good reviews. The pizza was great. Shawna had their stout. Weird name for it but most small breweries do that sort of thing.    If you see something like this coming toward you, get to some sort of shelter.  We were almost back to Logan. I was glad because if a vehicle is running it will pull the dust and sand into the engine and the paint may be sand blasted. Back at the park, we parked the truck where it would be protected and ran inside. Just in time. It was amazing how much the view changed. The camera could not focus during the worst of the storm. Everything was covered with orange dirt and dust.
We started the planning for this upgrade in July and have been receiving ordered parts soon after that. Of course, I had to research, draw plans, redraw plans, measure, fix problems with the drawings, rethink the plan, order more parts, redraw (again),.... Yep, I got really carried away. Originally the RV came with one lead acid battery. That would keep our 12 volt systems active for a day at best. In power, it was 50 amps of useable power. We did a simple solar upgrade. I replaced the original battery(in 2021) with 2 100 Amp Lithium batteries at about $900 each. OUCH! Then I installed a small inverter to make 120 volt power. Just enough to run the TV or a small device but not enough for a microwave. We also ordered two portable set-out solar panels to keep the batteries charged. This gave us 4 times the usable time and the ability to operate regular devices and almost unlimited if the sun shines all day.  BTW, Lithium batteries do not have to be mounted upright. The plan is to move the battery bank to the front bay. Double the number of batteries. Add a much larger inverter that will be able to power all the RV plugs at the same time. Even with this upgrade, it will not be enough power to operate the AC. We will also install 6 100 watt solar panels to the roof. The parts started coming in and they were taking some room in the garage.    The old install was removed and the new install started.   The install moves along slowly.   The final result is that half the front bay is taken over by the upgrade. Fuses and breakers to protect in every way I could determine. The 3000 watt inverter is connected to an RV plug. So technically we can plug our RV into itself for power.
We are running out of time before the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque so the extra solar panel install will have to wait. Even without the roof solar, this is a huge change in convenience for us. We can use the microwave, the air fryer, grind coffee, heat water in the electric kettle, charge our laptops, and phones with a regular plug. Not all at the same time, of course. We had a noisy night. This city is loud all night long. We got our breakfast at hotel Cafe and then walked the couple of blocks where we will get a trolly tour of the city. Our tour guide/driver was funny. And some flowers.... Looked in the visitors center, which is an old log cabin and was Anchorage first city hall. Walked down a couple of blocks to the Anchorage museum. Very nice. Back to the hotel lobby to relax before dinner at Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse.
Tonight, we catch a bus to the airport for our overnight flight to Houston and then on to Amarillo. We will be exhausted when we get to Logan. Up early to put our bags out for transport to the hotel. Breakfast at the main lodge was very nice. We had a short wait and boarded our bus. We did have plenty of views of the mountains.  We stopped for lunch at the Mount McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge.  Denali popped out of the clouds for pictures. It had been covered up our whole trip. Amazing that on the last day, the skies cleared and we got to see the top of the mountain. Only 30% of people visiting Denali ever get to see the top of the mountain. Our "box" lunch was awful and after throwing away most of the lunch, I walked out on the deck of the lodge to look around. There was a commotion and it was because a young moose had walked out of the woods. It was just off the porch and only about 50 feet from the building. We headed out at 9:30 am and arrived at the hotel in Anchorage at 3:30 pm. A long day with only one break. The hotel is old but maintained. Across the street was the Glacier Brewhouse. It had very good food.   
Today is Betty's 85th birthday. She especially wanted to see Denali for her birthday. This is the reason we booked the cruise/land tour of Alaska. Interesting numbers showing up today, our wilderness tour is 13, the bus is number 13, and today is Aug 13. The number 13 is our "lucky" number today.
We have to meet our tour bus early today. Up for breakfast and then walk up the hill to the bus stop. Our Wilderness tour guide, Sara, was fantastic. She told us that the park road closed by Sept 12th each year and that Denali has 18k ft of vertical rise making it the tallest in that measurement from its base in the world. An impressive mountain if you can see it. The mountain is so large it makes its own weather and it is often very different from the surrounding area. 
The bus looks a lot like a school bus but with some great video upgrades. Screens are spread throughout the bus and the driver/guide has a very high quality camera to display any wildlife she finds.
It takes about 10 minutes to get from the Holland Lodge to the Denali park entrance. We will drive just over 40 miles into the park and return for our tour today. The road stops at the point where a slide took out the bridge that would allow access the rest of the way. It will be several years before they replace the bridge.
Soon we get our first sighting of wild life. A big bull moose but he is a bit shy. More of these in just a couple of minutes. Even our guide could not get a good image.
For several miles, we get pretty views of the mountains and forests and then our next is a short walk and a bathroom break.
Just before our bus pulled away, we were given a "lunch" box and this was the content.
Only a few minutes after we pulled onto the road, she stopped for our second moose sighting.
More pretty scenery.
Next our first bear sighting. A mom and cub. Well, that is what we thought and then the second cub stepped out from behind a big bush. The mom was very light haired which is very rare.
More pretty scenery.
Another mom and cubs, a caribou, and a moose.
More Grizzlies, a Mom and Cubs.
More Caribou and some Dal Sheep.
Our wildlife spotting total today:
1 Huge raven 1 Snow hare 1 Arctic ground squirrel 3 Moose 2 Sets of Grizzly Bear moms and 2 cubs. 6 total 5 Sheep 4 Caribou Our guide told us that this one of the best wild life spotting tour she has ever had in one day. It is unusual to see so many of the local animals all in same day. The only animal we did not see was a wolf. Exhausted, we head back to the lodge for a huge steak dinner. 
First, head to get our breakfast and then a tour in the park. Hope we see the top of Denali and lots of animals.
Buses leave from the Lodge to the visitor center regularly. Once there, we waited for our tour bus that would take us to the Huskie Sled dog demonstration. Even the benches were neat.
Next the Sled dog demonstration.
We decided to walk through the park visitors center.
Some lunch. Pizza! It was a chilly(45 degrees), and misty day. So glad we had our puffy jackets.
Shawna and I took a walk along the river... and now some Flowers...
We are really happy that the tour buses have been upgraded. The originals look a bit uncomfortable.
Betty took a nap and Shawna and I walked over to a brewery and do a little window shopping.
Music of Denali dinner theater was fun.
Our walk back to the lodge gave some nice views of the surrounding mountains. The next morning, those mountains had a dusting of snow.
We got up at 5:30am and were at breakfast at 6am so we will be ready to disembark at 7:40. Lots of waterfalls.   Off the ship and a damp walk to the train to Denali by 7:30 am At 2.5 mile we pass through the longest auto/train tunnel in the US. Spread along the tunnel are 8 compartments with living areas with food water and beds in case of cave in. All air is evacuated between each car or train trip in either direction Whittier was made as a WW2 protective port. Eventually the port and town were turned over to residents and the military left. We were told that the train was known for having an amazing cinnamon roll. They were right.  There was a standing wave on the river and I was able to catch a picture of a surfer.  Lunch was good. The dining car was nice.    The mountains started to get more impressive as we got past Anchorage. Mom doing well in spite of the broken finger and some pain. Shawna tried the local beer.   Amazing views during lunch.  We were passed by the other cruise train heading down to Whittier from Denali. We travel along the Susitna river most of the trip up to Denali.  Back into the forest and crossing some bridges. We slowed to 1 mph as we crossed the highest bridge on the trip. It was great. Arriving in Denali. It was a 9 hour train trip up with a max speed of 60 mph at one point Our room at the lodge was nice. Time to get dinner at the restaurant.  Today is a sea day. We will be visiting College Fjord late in the afternoon. The fjord got its name from the glaciers that are all named after colleges. We are having a brunch this morning and plan to relax as the ship slowly moves into the Fjord. Our hope is that we will have clear weather but that does not seem likely.   In the afternoon, there was a wine tasting. Shawna takes pictures just in case she wants to buy the wine later back home. When we got back from the tasting, we got a knock on the door and it was Betty. She had closed the door on her finger. After a trip to medical and x-ray, it was determined she had broken it near the tip. At least, it was her left hand. College fjords was impressive if foggy. We could easily see 3 large glaciers and several hanging glaciers. |
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