SEDONA BALLOON PHOTO WRAP-UP

ARIZONA SUNRISES & SUNSETS SELDOM NEED ENHANCEMENT, THEY JUST ARE WHAT THEY ARE

(Thursday’s post – internet connection problem)

I like my big sticks & bricks bed because I don’t need a ladder to get into it & I don’t have to wear a bungee cord around my ankle in case I fall out of it.

  

 

THE BOYS ARE STILL DEFLATING THE BALLOON

Saw a series of bright flares in the night sky to the west last night when I was out with Pheebs.  Carefully scanned the stars in that area & sure enough two of them were moving.  Watched for a few minutes as they sometimes converged & separated.  The fact they had a consistent blinking to them told me they were probably aircraft from Luke Air Force Base about an hour’s drive south of Congress.  Two young fellas with a couple F-16 fighter jets strapped on practicing night maneuvers & dog fighting high above the darkened Arizona landscape.  Oh how I have often wished I would have had the smarts & self discipline to have pursued an exciting career like that.

 

A SQUARE CART ON WHEELS IS WHEELED OUT TO PUT THAT BIG HUGE BALLOON IN AS THE ROLLING UP PROCESS BEGINS

AS THE BALLOON IS BEING ROLLED UP DISASSEMBLY OF THE BASKET IS UNDERWAY

  

 

 

FINALLY THE BALLOON IS ALL BAGGED & CRATED

So which pair of PJ’s did I decide to go with first?  Figure I will wear out my Jammie Bears first & keep my Camo Jams as back-up.  Always good for a feller to have a back-up set of Jams:))

A LOOK INTO THE BASKET

 

THE PROPANE BURNER IS REMOVED FROM THE BASKET

Lots of dust on both the Jeep & Winnie the Bago from our Sedona romp but I’m not going to wash the rig because I just end up with a bunch of difficult to remove hard white water spots in tough to reach places.  A 70% chance of rain Saturday so I’ll let Mother Nature’s soft rains do the job for me.  I did surprise myself today by washing the Jeep though.

BALLOON PASSENGERS WATCHING THE PROCEDURE & SOON SOME WOULD BE HELPING

And a very belated but very Happy 90th Birthday to our good friend & fellow Jeep shotgun rider Carol formally of Arizona’s ‘Paws & Hooves’ & now a happy resident of California’s Placerville.  When are we going Jeeping again Carol?? 

LOOKS LIKE THIS CREW MEMBER IS STRUGGLING UNDER THE WEIGHT OF THAT LARGE BACK PACK

 

WHEELED BALLOON CRATE IS TIPPED BACK, TRAILER IS BACKED IN UNDER IT, CART IS TIPPED UP & WHEELED INTO THE TRAILER

NEXT TO BE LOADED UP IS THE BASKET & THIS IS WHERE THE PASSENGER HELP COMES IN

Tanks dumped, oil levels checked, etc & that was about it for me this morning.  Too windy to paint the shed doors so the afternoon just morphed into something along the lines of quiet relaxation.  Nothing too exciting to write about & my cameras remained hanging on the wall enjoying a welcome break.

A FEW MALE BALLOON PASSENGERS ON THE END READY TO TIP BACK THE BASKET

 

‘OOOOOOPH’

SUCCESS:))

Deciding on an RV lifestyle is a major decision for anyone.  It can be & often is life changing.  Some decisions can begin with a spur of the moment thought while others are years in the dreaming & planning stages.  Some folks just hunker down & go for it while others can be unsure & indecisive for a long time.  Like I said, it is a life changing decision in more ways than one.  Kelly & I started out as week-enders like most folks.  That progressed to a couple week long trips & of course we were hooked.  Then came the hard part, deciding on what we wanted to do.  RVing for sure but what kind of RVing?  Snow Birds?  Full Timers?  Decisions, decisions, decisions.  We waffled back & forth on the Full Time idea for about 3 years before finally understanding the fact it would probably be better ‘for us’ to stay with the Snow Bird lifestyle.  Once we accepted that understanding our lives became easier & we no longer spent time on trying to figure out how we could travel Full Time.  Steve over at  HOUNDS & RV'S has been wrestling with these very decisions for quite some time now & may have finally come to a final decision.  Might want to click the blue link & see what he has decided & what he had to do to reach the decision he has reached.  I did leave in part the following comment on Steve’s post……“The RVing bug bit us good back in 04 & I was pushing for going full time by 2008.  We even kinda put our house up for sale for a month at one point & had 4 different couples come through.  However, Kelly was a little more cautious than I.  The financial melt down in 08 rocked us back on our heals & eventually we both agreed it was best that we just continue as Snow Birds. In the end we just didn't feel comfortable selling everything we owned to hit the road & travel full time.   We have no idea if the full time life would have worked well or not but we do know the Snow Bird lifestyle has & that has been the right decision ‘for us’. With the addition of our little house in Congress Az. we do truly have the best of both worlds……….

OF COURSE PHEEBS IS RIGHT IN THERE CHEERING THE CREW  ALONG

  

THE BALLOON CREW WITH THEIR BALLOON & LOAD OF PASSENGERS HEAD FOR SEDONA

BYE GUYS & THANKS FOR THE PHOTO OP:))  RED ROCK BALLOONS

THEY SOON DISAPPEARED IN A GREAT CLOUD OF DUST………..

I was surprised today when I realized there were only 8 days left in the month of February.  Guess there’s some truth in that saying, ‘time fly’s when your having fun’.  And any time not spent in a cold bitter snow infested northern winter has to be constituted as some kinda fun.  Of course we all have our own personal takes on what fun is don’t we.   What really hit home is how fast our winter is slipping by.  In just a month from now we will be bearing down on some homeward plans.  Just when & which route we will take this year is something we will begin talking about next month at this time.

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take pictures of a great forest fire. He was advised that a small plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire.
The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour
before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, "Let's go!"
The tense man sitting in the pilot's seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air,
though flying erratically. "Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make several low-level passes."
"Why?" asked the nervous pilot.
"Because I'm going to take pictures!" yelled the photographer. "I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures."
The pilot replied, "You mean you're not the flight instructor?"