On the Road to Albuquerque

From the RV MAPS Convention in Carlinville, IL, we made our trek to Albuquerque.  An item on my bucket list is to see the Hot Air Balloon Festival there. 

We pulled into the Kirtland AFB FamCamp late Sunday afternoon and dry camped for one night.  We were able to move into a full hook-up site the next morning.

On Tuesday, we went to the Recreation Center to purchase tickets to the festival and we also purchased tickets to ride on the van to the festival.  We had to get up really early on Wednesday to catch the van but it was well worth it.  The festival has two sessions, one in the early morning hours to around 11:30, and the evening glow session. 

The early morning Dawn Patrol was beautiful.

After the sun came up the other balloons began to inflate.  I loved all the balloons but the special shaped balloons were amazing.

There were around 550 balloons, I read, that were here this year.  On Friday we went back and the balloons just hung in the air around the field.  There was not much wind that day.  The skies were beautiful filled with colorful balloons.

The evening glows were beautiful as well.

And who can forget Steve, the pin guy.

Playing Catch-up. July-August-September-October

It's hard to play catchup on our travels but here goes a few highlights.

After we left S & L. (See previous blog), we traveled north. 

Our further travels north took us to Waterloo, Iowa. Because of the holiday and bad weather we stayed at George Wyth Mem. St Park. Nice park. We also toured the John Deere Museum. 

On our way north, we stopped at The Mall of America....well....I can say I've been there. 

I wanted to see Lake Superior, so we traveled to Grand Portage, MN to start our tour down the coast line of Lake Superior.  We visited Grand Marias, Two Harbors and the little villages between there and Duluth. I have a lot of pictures but won't and can't post them here. Fun trip. 

Split Rock cruise. 

Duluth cruise. 

I loved looking for beach glass. Two harbors was a good place for glass. 

 We enjoyed our boat cruises. Apostle Islands. 

We did so much...  cruises on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan/Lake Huron. We enjoyed walks along the beach, waterfalls, and sunsets. We visited Madeline Island and MackinawIsland .  Toured the Quincy Copper mine. It was an amazing trip. Would love to do it again. 

One of our favorite parks was the township park in L'Ance, MI. Good glassing spot too.