Oct. 23-24: Basque del Apache

Basque del Apache is a bird/wildlife reserve about 101 miles south of Albuquerque. It is most well known for the fall and winter influx of sandhill cranes and snow geese. Hundreds of the cranes start arriving in October and culminate with max numbers by December. The have a yearly crane festival here at the end of November and as one person put it, "The cranes somehow know to arrive in large numbers during the weekend of the festival."

To give you an idea of the size of these cranes, look carefully at the picture or double click on it to enlarge it, and you will see a duck in the pond behind the cranes. Most of these cranes are about 3' tall with their necks extended and have a wingspan larger that an eagle. Only a whooping crane has a larger wingspan.


As we drove through the refuge we at first saw only small clusters of 3-10 cranes but the more we drove around the more we saw and can probably estimate that we saw about 600-700. We went back in the evening and watched the cranes "fly in" to their safe refuge for the night. Tried to get up and out in the morning to see them "fly out" at sunrise but it was dark and cold. So we just stayed in and drank our coffee.

At one point as were watching several of the cranes feeding, we noticed a coyote lurking in the background. Though we thought he would pounce, he did not and in fact just mingled in the field with them. Then we saw another coyote grazing with about 7-8 cranes right next to him. According to the information we got from people, two coyotes circle around the cranes and then while one distracts them, the other approaches them and mingles in close. And then goes in for the kill. Fortunately for us and the cranes, something distracted him and they both ran off. Enlarge this photo and you will see one of them left of center in the background.

While watching the cranes, we looked up and hundreds of snow geese flew in. They landed at a pond too far to be photographed, but I did get this shot of them coming in.












Our original plan was to leave this morning to drive to Las Cruces. But it was raining................So we stayed here another day, will go see the cranes come in at sunset if the rain stops and leave tomorrow. The rain did stop and we went back in the evening to watch the fly out.

Today is a lazy day.........Barb worked on organizing paperwork and I just did stuff on the computer. Good restful day for both of us.

Love to all of you,

Linda and Barb

One more balloon: The Kissing Bees

I just downloaded the rest of the balloon pictures from my photo card and could not resist showing this picture.

Oct. 16-23: Albuquerque and St. Louis

On Monday we moved to a full hookup campground about 10 miles down the road. I will be here for a week, while Barb flies to St. Louis to visit with her mom.

No pictures........no stories............just an update as to where we are.

Oct. 11-15: Balloons: Shapes and More

For most of the rest of the week the weather was clear, the skies were blue and the balloons were magnificient. Each morning we set the alarm for 5:45 am so that we could get up to see the Dawn Patrol. These were the 6-8 balloons that went up before sunrise to check the wind and weather conditions. Since it was dark, the light from the firing of the balloons glowed in the sky. (But I could not take any pictures since it was too dark and my camera speed was not fast enough.)

At day light, around 7:00 am, there was a mass ascensions of all of the balloons. Each day there were between 500-700 balloons in the air.

We sat at our motorhome and just watched them fly over us.

I was invited to climb in the basket of one of the balloons that landed right next to our rig. The woman to my right was the pilot and was one of the few women pilots.

Each day we would debate whether we preferred the shapes.......

lighthouses, bees, turtles, cows, wine bottles, owls, witches, etc. ..........

.......or the teardrops with all of the magnificient colors.

One evening we took the shuttle to the fiesta park to watch the balloon glow.

Love to all of you.

Tuesday, Oct. 10: Balloons take off

Today we planned to sleep in but at 6:00 am this morning, Flo was banging on our rig................."get up, get up, it is a beautiful and morning and something is going to happen!!!". So we hurried and threw on some clothes and grabbed coffee and out we went to see the balloons. Sure enough, the sky was clear, we could see the stars and there was no wind. We stood outside and waited.

AND THEN THEY CAME!!!

October 8-9: Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

On Sunday when we woke up in Espanola, it was pouring. And this was the day we were to leave for the Balloon Fiesta. That means we would have to disconnect all hoses and electrical cords in the rain and then hitch up the car in the rain. An experience we try not to have happen but sometimes nature takes charge of our lives.

In addition, we checked the weather and it was supposed to rain for the next several days which was not real encouraging for the flight of the balloons.

But off we went, driving in the rain and arriving in Albuquerque by eleven in the morning. We set up, which means we unhooked the car. No set up for the motorhome since we would be dry camping for the next week. No hook ups to electricity or water.

Sunday and Monday were very disappointing since it did rain all day on both days and all balloon activities were cancelled. We continued to hope that the weather would clear by Tuesday.

By the way, for those of you who do not know, this balloon fiesta in Albuquerque is the largest in the country. There will be 700-800 balloons here and in the mornings when they have a mass ascension, all of them will go up. In addition the camping area where we park our rigs is directly across the street from the launching and landing areas for the balloons. We have been told that the balloons float right over our rigs! What an experience that will be.

So back to our rained out days................On Sunday evening it seemed that the rain had stopped and that the balloon glow would happen. But it didn't. The winds were so strong that they were concerned about putting the balloons up so they did what they called a "candle lighting".




They shot the flames in the air without the balloons. It was really a neat effect.




































After that there were fireworks.












Since it was raining on Monday, we went to the casino. In our package for registration there were two $10 coupons for a casino, so in the rain we all trouped over to the casino. Had fun playing there. Barb played poker at the tables and I used the two $10 coupons to play video poker. And I earned enough points to get a balloon fiesta sweatshirt. Since we were Seniors we had dinner there for $5.00 each at the buffet. Great buffet and of course we ate too much, much too much.

We drove back to rig in the rain and wind and projected that Tuesday would be clear and calm and sunny.

Love to all of you.

Oct 5-7: Espanola, NM

So here we are in Espanola, NM. You may ask why we are here. Well, if you saw this campground, you would really wonder why we are here. It was one of the campgrounds on our membership parks and all of us, (yes, there are still 3 rigs traveling together) had the same membership park. So, as I said, here we are. No, you do not get to see a picture of this campground.

The advantage of Espanola is that it is between Taos and Santa Fe. So on Thursday, we spent the day in Taos and on Friday we spent the day in Santa Fe.

Pictures from Taos.............







































While in Santa Fe, we spent money and boy did we do that well. We went to the Teseque Pueblo flea market and Barb bought me an African Drum for my birthday. It is really a great looking drum and according to the vendor, it comes from Ghana. Whether that is so or not, I am excited with it and plan to again join the drumming group while in Apache Junction. We each purchased earrings while there and I found a Mexican pewter serving tray.

After shopping at the flea market, we went to the Plaza in Santa Fe, had lunch at The Shed and then browsed among the Native American vendors in front of the Governer's Palace. There we purchased a beautiful sterling silver bracelet with turquoise inlaid stones. This will be our Chanukah present to each other and we will share wearing the bracelet.

So we did okay shopping. Today we are staying home and just relaxing. Barb did laundry, cleaned the coach and I drained the tanks and worked on the blog. We also both watched the final day of the World Series of Poker.

Tomorrow we leave for the balloon fest in Albuquerque. We will stay there a week. This is the largest balloon fest in the country; they are expecting 700-800 balloons. So hopefully, my next posting will have pictures of hot air balloons.

Love to all of you

We would love to hear from you.

Just in case you have any comments to make, I thought I would encourage you to do so. You will notice the comment button on the side of the blog. If you click on it, you can enter your comments anonymously; that is, you do not have to identify your personal info. Just sign your name (first only is fine). I have a privacy guard on the comments so they will not get posted right away. I will read them and see who they are from and then decide if I want to accept and post the comments. So be nice!

Oct: 3: Zapata Falls

On the road to the sand dunes, we saw a sign to the Zapata Falls. So we thought it would be a good idea to try to find them. The ranger from the visitor center at the Dunes told us that we would have to first drive up a dirt road for 3 miles and then hike 1/2 mile to get back to the falls. She said that even if we did not hike, the drive to the top was worth the ride. And yes it was.

Our friends arrived to the state park the day after we did, so they spent their first morning going to the Dunes. Then in the afternoon we met them to go to the falls. We drove up the mountain side almost to the snow line.......temperature dropped about 20 degrees. By this time we were at 7400'. When we got there we discovered the hike was uphill over what looked like must have previously been a river bed. So it was a very long 1/2 mile.......but Barb and I had our walking sticks and we made it. And so did everyone else. Low and behold, now we had to walk into the riverbed for another 1/4 mile with fast flowing water and hike into a cave to see the waterfalls. The rocks were slippery and water was cold. Did not seem too safe, so we just stopped there and admired the views.





We all had fun taking pictures and posing for pictures.























When we left the falls, we headed to two wildlife preserves where there was a possibility of seeing sandhill cranes. The cranes are migrating at this time to locations in the south, mainly in the Texas area. But during October and early November they can be seen in the area of the Sand Dunes. At the first spot we went to, we could hear them, but they were so far away in the high grass that we could not see them. Fortunately, at the second preserve, we saw many of them out in the open.

Upon returning to the campground, we were treated with another wonderful sunset. Because it was cloudy, the colors were not as vivid but the contrast of light and shadows was magnificient.




On Wednesday, Oct 4, we left to drive to Espanola, NM. It is located between Taos and Santa Fe. So touring this area will be the next adventure.

Love to all of you.