New Mexico and ArizHOMEa!

10/5/26 - A fairly short driving day was made long by needing to fix a leaking RV tire, following a drunk driver (we called it in), and Albuquerque rush hour traffic. After setting up, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at Chili's.

10/6/26 - Up at 3am!!!! to get to Balloon Fiesta Park before the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival activities started at 5am. We enjoyed the "Gondola Club" which provided parking, a shuttle, private seating, hot drinks, breakfast buffet, and bar.

The morning started with an excellent drone show

Eight balloons lifted off before dawn. I think this gave the other pilots a feel for what the wind was doing. Wind direction at ground level was often opposite from higher altitudes!

At 7am, hundreds of balloons lifted off. Beautiful!! A representative said that over 500 pilots had registered for the event, which started in 1972 with 12 balloons.

My favorite balloon

Pat's favorite was the cement truck balloon

From 8:00 to 9:30, we watched the "fly-in competition" where the pilots maneuvered their balloons to drop small sandbags onto targets in the field. The closest sandbag would win (we don't know what the prize was). We walked onto the launch field for a bit before returning to the RV for a nap.

10/7/26 - A day of cleaning the RV while we still had air conditioning.

10/8/26 - We drove about 7 hours and are happy to be home!!

Our favorite things from this summer:

• Fun with Family, Friends, & Horses in Kentucky

• Carlsbad Caverns: ~500,000 bats leaving at dusk and the caverns themselves

• Amazon Fulfillment and Toyota Factory Tours

• 4th of July at Montgomery (AL) speedway

• Learning about and seeing the locations of the Civil Rights Movement

• Certain hikes and RV locations

The status of our RV travels is shown below. Next summer we plan to drive to Alaska, then return through British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. That will leave six east coast states and Hawaii!

Thank you for following along on our journey!!!