When we arrived back at Yakima, WA, the RV was ready. They had fixed everythng except the problem with our basement drawers. They suggested that we go to the HWH factory in Moscow, Iowa to have them fix it. We said OK and got on our way.
Our next destination was Salt Lake City, Utah to stop at the MotoSat factory to have them check our satellite dish. On the way, we went through a horrible lightning and pouring down rain storm. You would see the lightning and then wham - you would hear the thunder like it was right next to you. MotoSat rebuilt our satellite dish and loaded new software into the system. Yeah! Now it works much better. We decided to stay in a new RV park that wasn't too far from the MotoSat factory. Larry went into register and it took forever. They ended up charging us $48 for one night. We couldn't believe how expensive it was considering there was no cable hook up and the pull through was designed in such a way that you still had to disconnect your car to get to your hook ups. Larry plugged in the electricity and nothing happened. We immediately thought that it was our RV again. We then started to disconnect the car from the RV so we could move the RV back to reach all the hook ups - but the car wouldn't start. It was dead. Larry called AAA to come and start the car. In the mean time, the manager drove by and we told him that we couldn't get any electricity. The manager checked the electrical post and said that their was power. Larry preceded to tell him that the design of the lot was bad and that they were charging too much money. The manager got mad and suggested that we go down the street to the KOA and he would refund our money. We said that we would be happy to do that as soon as AAA arrived. AAA arrived and found that our battery was shot. So he installed a new battery and we got the heck out of there. When we arrived at the KOA, we plugged into the electrical post and the electricity worked just fine. All in the life of a full-timer.
Our next stop was Acoma, New Mexico. Also called Sky City. The RV park is owned by the Acoma Indian tribe and includes a nice casino. There were 119 Alpine coaches all parked together in the RV park. We had lunches, dinners and a tour of the Sky City Pueblo. We were lucky on the tour because we arrived first thing in the morning and there were only 7 people in our tour. The later tour had 75 people. The pueblo is the oldest continuously lived in pueblo in the U.S. There are still 13 families that live there and there is no electricity, water or toilets. They have a generator that they run once in a while. The families enjoy the peace and quiet so they don't use the generator unless they have to. They haul all their water up to the pueblo in bottles in the back of pick up trucks. They have a few port-a-potties scattered around the pueblo. The women own the homes and the land. The men govern and make the rules of the pueblo. The houses and property are handed down to the youngest daughter. When a daughter marries - her husband then builds her a home and she owns that house. Sounds right to me.
The Acoma tribe still practices their Indian beliefs and also Catholicism. The guide said that they don't use the confessional because they don't have any more sins. The Spanish people were very cruel to the Acoma tribe in the early years. They would take their children and send them to Mexico as slaves. They insisted that they practice the Catholic religion and forget their own beliefs. It is a wonder that any of them survived.
Three days later, we arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Since we were with such a large group of RVs, we got VIP parking. We were located right above the field where they launch the balloons. It was an easy walk to the field so we could be right next to them. We also could sit in our RV and watch them go right over the top of us. The first morning, the big cow-shaped balloon went up but couldn't stay up. He came down right in front of us. The front legs hit a RV and the back legs were hanging over an iron fence which had sharp points at the top. They had to get a lot of people together to lift the hind quarter over the fence. Then they needed a lot of space when they deflated it. It was great to watch. You just never knew when they would come crashing down near you. At night, they would have the glow. The balloons are inflated and tethered to the ground. It is a beautiful sight. After the glow was over, they put on a fireworks show that lasted at least 25 minutes. The best part was that we could watch the entire fireworks show from our RV. We were very lucky on the weather too. It was in the 80s during the day and the wind came up in the afternoon. So the balloons were able to take off into our direction. The last day, the winds changed and they took off away from us. We got so many beautiful pictures (photos may be seen at www.imageevent.com/ltibbitts). We had been before, but it never ceases to amaze us. Over 750 balloons in the sky at the same time - all different shapes and colors. We had a wonderful time.
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