ependydad...Doug

LOL. Oh, it went downward... just not into the drain! I’m wondering. They’ve been doing the Fiesta for 45 years or something. I don’t know how long they have been allowing camping in that- so maybe it happened before... doubtful, though! YES! They had midwives with them- so it wasn’t just Dad there to catch the baby. And it was thought out with a plan for how to supply hot water and the whole 9 yards. But they took it back to the pioneering roots!

You’re right, Carol! Ewwwwwwww! Ok, so the pregnant woman story. She is part of our group of families and arrived at the Balloon Festival the same day we did or maybe Wednesday. At this point, the rumblings in the group are “she can have the baby at any day now”. Last night, her husband refilled their fresh water tank and emptied their gray. This afternoon/early evening, I noticed him collecting hoses. I joked that “you just filled last night” and he responded, “it’s really happening! I’m filling the tub now”. Turns out the plan was for them to run a hose to a friend’s camper who has an

So I’m so sad to say, emptying the bladder at the gas station turned into a literal crap-storm! Might have had a spill... might have splashed my wife and I... might have covered my feet... might have them dropped my phone into standing crap water.

Welp! Decision is made ... sewer bladder is full in the back of the truck! How it came to be is an amazingly complex story that involves a pregnant woman and a planned home birth...

Oh what the phooey- it'll be a triple day update. But only because yesterday (Wednesday) has 3 pictures. First, Mom and Paige went over to the fiesta field to get Paige out crewing. Another chilly morning, but we didn't run out of propane, so I call it a win! Second, we had to say goodbye to Grandma. After almost 3 weeks together, it was time for her to go home. I'm really happy that we got to spend her birthday with her and she got to see the Balloon Fiesta. In about 3 weeks, we'll fly back to PA from Texas in order to celebrate my sister's wedding. We'll be there for 3 weeks; so it

Tuesday morning came cold and early. My wife was taking Paige over to the fiesta field to crew. Overnight there was a freeze watch and we used the furnace for the first time. Given the forecast, we got to the deepest darkest part of under our bed and got our thermals + my wife's winter coat out. It's black like my soul down there. I despise cold. Unfortunately, sometime between my wife leaving at 5am and me getting up at 7:30am we ran out of propane in the one tank. I only leave 1 tank open because I don't check propane often enough to trust that I'll notice when it automatically swi

On Monday, October 9.... Looks like I was wrong about Paige crewing. Oh well- you can't trust these trip reports... thank gosh I have pictures to jog my memory! I'm clearly getting days mixed up because I can't figure out where my wife or mother-in-law were that morning. Either way, I can definitely say that I got a late start but ultimately drug myself outside. There weren't a tremendous number of hot air balloons coming over the RV park, but we still decided to climb up on the camper to take a look at what was going on. (You want to talk about nervous- he's on

Thanks! I'm glad other people enjoy my humor- because I'm laughing while writing it! :) I haven't been up yet, but I might get a chance on Saturday. We'll see (but also not why I'm volunteering). The cool part about volunteering to crew is that the pilots have been taking 1 or 2 people each day up. Paige got an incredible ride yesterday from what I hear. Otherwise, the cost to go up in one is pretty high. Definitely add it. It'd be a great start to wintering in the Southwest. :) I'm glad we came and definitely can see us coming back! My wife and mother-in-law talk abo

Saturday "night" (aka Sunday morning) I worked and went to bed about 5:30am. So I missed the excitement of hot air balloons landing all over the RV park. My family was out there. But I lay asnooze in bed. About 4 campsites up, there are 3 spots empty and a hot air balloon landed right there. My wife, mother-in-law, and the kids had a front-row view. Pretty neat- wish work hadn't gotten in the way! I mentioned before, but we had run out of water on Saturday night. Apparently flushing with water bottles got old because my wife woke me up about noon and told me to deal with water! In prepara

It's been good. I hope y'all steer me back if I go overboard with it. The battery stuff goes from simple to complicated in an instant! Funny thing about the Smokey Bear one - there was a hispanic family who the wife/mother was taking the picture. I offered and as I lined up the picture, the dad said "Make sure you get Smokey the Bear!" It was seriously a highlight for him/them! Thanks TCD! I try to look for the humorous side of things. I also try to balance it for not falling off the "ohhhh he shouldn't have said that" edge. I fail often, but I'm usually giggling

Right now! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I meant to say it above and lost the thought- but I like it enough that I don't want it to get lost. After we launched Fred and the VIP sponsors, we were walking around. As we watched another balloon take off, I noticed Paige was just beaming. Ear to ear grin. She caught my eye and said, "We technically launched a balloon." I agreed, we sure did. --- What's even cooler, the crew chief talked to me with Paige there and said that Paige has hot air ballooning in her. She was a natural- just having an intuitive knack for knowing what to do and what comes next. The crew chi

It is beyond amazing. I came in with EXTREMELY HIGH expectations and it has exceeded them. I will suggest- stay on site at one of their RV lots. Either slum it like we are in dry camping or pay the (fairly high) fees for some hookups. But being able to see balloons literally landing between RVs, it's sooo worth it! DO IT! As soon as you can. Do it! :) And sign up to crew. Being able to help launch a balloon is spectacular. Welcome! Hola! So far, we're coming up on week #1. I recapped it in the prior post- but basically, 1 gray/black pump out (due to gray water f

Thanks everyone for joining along! What they don' tell you about ballooning is that the colder it is, the better they fly. It also means that days start inhumanely early. There were reports on the Internet that you wanted to get to the Fiesta field by 4am (yes, THERE by 4am). Heck, the shuttle busses from the RV lot started running about them. And there were many grave warnings about dire traffic getting into and out of the area. We were assigned to "crew" on Saturday. This meant being on the field at our pilot's assigned spot (the field is laid out in a grid and each spot is identi

Millers was good. We really enjoyed Bahama Breeze off of 192, right near the 429 toll road. Chuy’s is decent. For pizza, you can get Chicago style pizza at Giordano’s. It’s literally a Chicago, IL pizza chain and is amazingly good! If you get a deep dish, it can take a while. They often have balloon guys going around to entertain the kids. I wanted to go to Twin Peaks by my wife said no. (lol) Mellow Mushroom isn’t super close, but is worth it. It’s over by Sea World. Personally, my favorite is Wawa’s subs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ll try to go live tonight with the tethered evening glow and then fireworks. http://fb.com/OurNowOrNever Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks guys. I did forget- mostly because my wife took pictures and I didn't. After we left Meteor Crater but before we got to the RV park, we stopped in front of Wigwam Motel in Holbrook. These were partly the inspiration for the Cozy Cone Motel in Cars. I'll have to get her pictures and circle back.

Well, it's 1:30am on a Saturday into Sunday and I'm supposed to be working. The work is hard and I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around it. So might as well share a bit of a trip report here. First, sorry y'all- I'm wordy. October of the first year we launched fulltiming, we started seeing fabulous pictures of the International Albuquerque (henceforth known as ABQ) Balloon Fiesta (aka BF or maybe IABF if I'm feeling fancy). We were in awe at what we saw and swore that we would attend in 2016. As soon as registration opened, I booked our sites. Stuff happened and we ended up

We run all of our drinking water through a Berkey Water Filter typically. This week, to save on water usage- my wife bought something like 5 x 2.5gallon jugs. But I more meant just from a water conservation perspective. We only have a 42g freshwater tank (same with gray tank). We are afraid of running out and are afraid of filling the gray- more water and pump outs are $25 a piece. I have bladders for both (60g FW and 100g sewer bladder) but the logistics of sharing truck bed space and all that jazz is baffling my feeble little brain.

I'm really excited. We got here today and survived our first day boondocking. I think we're all afraid to use water. My electric plan is 2 part: 1) generator for A/C as needed and to recharge my batteries (especially as the A/C is running) 2) a small 1000W inverter. I cheat and run a cord from it's outlets to the camper's power inlet and got a 50amp to 15amp adapter. I then manage (the very limited) energy available. So far, I only popped the GFCI on the inverter once and that was while I was researching which outlets/appliances were on which breakers. Thanks for

I uploaded our remaining days. We left the hotel on Thursday (the morning after the Halloween party) and moved over to Anaheim RV Resort. We had left the truck + trailer parked in Disneyland Hotel’s parking lot. I intentionally left the fridge and all parasitic draws on to see how my new lithium battery bank faired. And then also to see how long it took to recharge batteries. All told, it was a win. Thursday evening, we picked Grandma and Grandpa up from the airport. They were flying in because Grandpa was supposed to visit his work’s home office. Instead, he got calle

We did not. With a 5 year old, we were concerned about the "scary" aspect of it. Funny story to that ... when he was just barely 40" tall, we put him on Tower of Terror. He says he liked it but would never ride it again. Fast forward a year or two and we're in Disneyland faced with Guardians of the Galaxy. WE know it's just a new face. HE doesn't. As we are in line, my daughter quietly asks me, "Dad, what didn't he like about it last time? The ride or was it scary?" I chuckled and exclaimed, "we're about to find out!" Turns out, he found the Twilight Zone aspect scary. GOG was f

Thanks for the kind words. I am also amazed at how different Disneyland is vs. Disney World. Honestly, for most things- I like Disneyland better. Though, our CM interactions felt a little more abrupt. I definitely liked most of the WDW Halloween party better than the DL Halloween party. The parade itself was something significantly better at WDW. It didn't help that we were ushered from where we were sitting after having asked a cast member if it was OK if we sat there and sat there for 10-15 minutes. We ended up with less than stellar seating arrangements at that point. Also, a tip

Thank you! And now there are even more. I just finished uploading 2 back to back days at Disney’s California Adventure.

We also bought the Max Pass for a few of the days we were there. It comes with PhotoPass access for the day which we enjoyed- especially because Grandma and Grandpa joined us for a day at the park. It was nice to get some cute photos with them and the kids. The double-booking thing was helpful. We didn't think to try and book passes for rides that commonly break down-- though, given what we saw during our 5 park days, that seemed like an awful lot of things! One caveat- they aren't always "anything" passes- California Screamin' went down (for the day) on us and the fast pass was NOT good