#52--homecoming

Alas—we are home…but before we got here, here’s what happened…

We woke up Monday and packed up—we all felt conflicted on going home and all that’s involved, but over all—we knew it all had to end. The good news is that I figure that we can take the trailer about once a year and go someplace for a month. We learned about efficiency and saving money, so it should be feasible to do something about every year—at least that is our plan.

Monday we basically just drove, talked, and watched the country change. Stopped east of Ok City at Firelake Grand Casino, where they let us camp for free in their parking lot and didn’t care if we use the generator. Stacy and I went to it and ended up having a lucrative night. I won $30!!!!! And Stacy helped the cause by winning $210. It was cool.

We woke Tuesday with fog and a dreary day. We drove some more. We ended up at home by 5:30 and after doing the basic head count and finding the house all well, we joined our group up at El Charro’s. Not our official homecoming but a small start.

Tomorrow is Stacy’s B-day so it will be her day. I bathed 3 of the dirtiest dogs tonight and we have clean sheets so I figure sleeping late will be the first agenda. It also sounds like she wants pizza so that will probably be lunch and it sounds like there will be an even bigger gathering at El Charros tomorrow night. Then hopefully we can just relax a bit. Our friend Audrey did a good job on keeping up on the bills so it is an easier homecoming than some. And everyone did a good job on the house and working some in the studio. And it sounds like as long as we kept it to just one month—all would take it on again.

We appreciate everyone’s effort—taking care of our life can take some time…So we need to find our trinkets and gifts and pass those out after Stacy has felt she has had her moment. But it is first off Stacy’s day…

#51--Sunday night

It’s late Sunday night and we are through with our show in Albuquerque. We thought it would pull itself out, but we ended about 30% down from what we had averaged over the last 3 years, and it all fell apart just this weekend. At least we had the strong first weekend because the second weekend was the worse weekend show we’ve had down here. It was obviously the stock market of the last week that changed the entire mood. Oh well—at least we are use to being poor…

We are kind of wondering if we should even travel to our last 2 shows—one is in Dallas that has always just been marginal and the other is in Las Cruces—it was down when we did it the last time 2 yrs ago—I have no idea what we should do anymore…Both are before the election and I don’t foresee any major changes before then. Maybe all will get decided once we get home. I don’t have to make any decisions for another week. Maybe the world will explode by then.

In spite of our show we ended up the day on a very positive note. Denise and Rick called and wanted to meet us for dinner so after the 3 of us packed up—much easier with a third person—we went for Italian. It ended up being very good and reasonable—the visit was even nicer. Then we dropped Yuliya at the trailer and headed for one last trip to this casino. We walked out $50 ahead and were home by 10:30.

Now we just have to pack up in the morning and head north. Snow has been happening some in Colorado but it looks like our path is clear. Bad weather at this point in time would just be rude. That is one thing we have really lucked out on with this trip—the weather has been about as good as we could have wished for—especially since it was over 10 weeks—90% sunny and nice.

I have been checking on cruises to Alaska for next year. As far as I’m concerned we should book ours soon, before our money is all lost, and then we know we will get to Alaska! But our luck, the cruise line would go under a week after we paid for it…remember—stranger things have happened in our life. So right now I’m just in the checking prices stage.

Just thought I should mention to the people at home—ours that is—we should be home Tuesday night—El Charro’s? Maybe, but for sure a gathering of some sort at our house for Stacy’s Birthday—after all—you guys have to spend the evening telling us how much you missed us, or, more likely, complaining about all the extra work it was to take care of our life—I’m shooting for a mixture of the two…and hoping for tomatoes.

But ready or not—Janet, Stacy, & R.S.G. are coming home! Prepare thyself…

#50-hitting the economic brick wall

Well It’s our last Saturday on our big trip—couldn’t say last Saturday on the road—cause obviously we have more shows this year—but we will be taking long showers by next week!

Thursday was our last vacation day and we had a good one. After a slow morning in which dumping the trailer was the highlight--Stacy and I hit our favorite restaurant Pei Wei. Then we headed back to get ready for the Special Shapes Gow-deo.

We showed up and Denise & Rick were happy to see us—we loaded up our extra artist friends we had brought and piled into the 2 balloon chase vehicles and drove into the balloon park through the back door. The evening included a potluck dinner, lots of drinks and champagne, wandering through the crowds, and finally the wind died down and it was a great glow—followed by even better fireworks. We were home by 9 and the sad thing is that the “regular” public wasn’t even out of the park by then—let alone the traffic jam to leave. We are so lucky and the word is spreading through the artists we have a good thing going, we already have others that want us to take them next year.

Denise & Rick are 2 veterinarians that were customers of ours and they called us up several years ago to invite us into their ballooning clan. They have 2 balloons (Boobalina & Toots) that make up the “Tit’s Team”. Obviously it was a team we could fit right into—the group is very eclectic and many only come for the Balloon Festival, but there are no strangers. They had to move their base—usually in a junky backyard close to the field—to a new place this year—a Pet Memorial Crematorium—still close to the field. So not only is the whole thing fun, we got a tour of a state of the art crematorium. Kind of think we should be going into that business! But once again I did a first in life—I partied at a crematorium—we do live a strange life…

Friday was show time…but the money forgot to come. Whole new mood and although we did well over $5000 last weekend, our first day this weekend was $300. Just pitiful. And since this is already Saturday I’m sorry to say it isn’t much better. We are well on our way to having the worst weekend we’ve ever had down here. Guess our own concerns about losing 20% of the savings we’ve never had before this year—have a few other people concerned too. Looks like I need to get started on my plan D in marketing. I always have another plan…and we did have last weekend.

#49-a lazy day.

It’s Wednesday night and 6 days before we get home. We all agree we have mixed emotions about getting there. It’s been so nice to just be carefree and not really have the big responsibilities. It’s also been nice just having to deal with the three of us, if that makes sense. After this long—in this little of space-- we have pretty much worked out any differences and have gotten to a good place as friends. We’ve all learned a great deal over the time—about so much and so many…

Today we slept late—or at least I did—and then headed up to our favorite Mexican lunch—it included a couple of margaritas since it was after 12. Then, of course since it was close to the casino, we had to stop there—Stacy helped us come out $30 ahead which is pretty good since Yuliya was part of the losing crowd.

Then it was errands at Sam’s, Walmart, Michaels before we got to go home. We’ve since just been vegging in our homey little trailer. All and all, it’s been a nice, lazy day—one of the last of our life no doubt. The real world is waiting for us…

We ended the day watching the movie that our friends had gotten for our Bon Voyage “Second Hand Lions”. Although I had seen it before, Yuliya hadn’t, and it is a very good and a just plain nice movie.

This morning Stacy & Yuliya went to the health club where we have a couple of passes to go take showers. I once again stayed in bed and now get to take the last shower before we go dump. Hopefully there will be enough water! Stacy just went to Sam’s club to get something Audrey wanted us to bring home, and Yuliya is outside dyeing macaroni for her kids’ tent.

We have yet to do anything balloon oriented. Guess having our own home has changed our priorities somewhat. I do think we are going to find our friends and go to the Special Shapes Glowdeo tonight. It’s a good time and riding in with the pilots makes it so easy—plus it’s free. We have a couple of artist friends that want to tag along with us so hopefully we can make that work.

Guess I better go do the shower deed. If Stacy comes back and I’m still booth sitting she will get frustrated. She has a very hard time just sitting around—even on a vacation. That’s one of the differences between her and me…

#48--shopping, a domino thought, and popcorn

Late Tuesday afternoon. We’ve spent the day making Yuliya a very happy girl. She had gotten some B-day money for getting clothes before she went back to Russia, so we went to Kohl’s. I know you wouldn’t know it to look at me, but I am good at finding nice fashion. Yuliya has a completely new respect for my ability on that. And she has a body that is easy to dress—one of those little ones.

So we took the store by storm and she was convinced to change her style a bit. She was kind of stuck in the teenage era and I think most of those fashions look sleezy, so we encouraged her towards the later twenties, young professional, almost yuppie look, but casual of course, since she will be going to college, but more of a classic look. She finally started to see our vision and we found several very interchangeable jeans, sweaters, and shirts. We had to have a fashion show once we got back to the trailer and we were all pleasantly surprised how so many things could be used together. We did well. I told her I wanted to get it all done in one day—I do not enjoy shopping. Between my body and spending money—nothing works for me. But I doubt if I am completely finished…they’ll suck me into it somehow.

We then had lunch at a salad bar place—Sweet Tomatoes—so that was rather low key and almost healthy. But now we are bored so it looks like we will be headed to the casino after the news. Yuliya wants to stay back in the trailer to get some personal stuff done.

Ohh—almost forgot. We were awaken to the strangest sounds about 7 this morning. I looked out and all around us in the parking field we are staying in, there were balloons setting up. We were hearing the fans and blowers. It was gorgeous, Stacy and Yuliya took a walk outside, but I just stayed in bed and watched from afar. How often can you stay in bed and watch a dozen hot air balloons take off outside your window? It was very cool.

Boy—watching the news is really a bummer now that we have a little money. We have lost about $7000 since this started and we just thought we should stick it out. But now that it’s obviously having a domino effect on everything, I’m wondering how far it can go down before there is no return—and I’m kind of afraid we have already passed it. If anyone knows the answer and has any advice feel free to share it. And then we watch how a company that was just bailed out by taxpayers, was busted letting it’s execs have a major spa treatment retreat for the tune of a half a million dollars. And you know—that is how the corporate world thinks—they have no concern at all what it is doing to the working poor... Back to that desire of mine not to care anymore, we’ll personally either make it through—or won’t. What will be, will be…we tried. But keep the basic ideology in mind. As a compassionate society, do we want it to be “Survival of the fittest-or richest” or “Are we our brothers’ keeper? Even if it means we have to share?” In spite of everyone trying to use God, morality, democracy, and American freedom—that is the basic difference between the two parties, although both are power hungry money machines, it just doesn’t seem like totally free enterprise is working anymore.

And the sad thing is that I know I am so much luckier than most. I figure I can always hustle up a living—think of those who are just dropped with no options? It’s just a lousy thing…back to that “I wish I ran the world”. Some white collar crime might be subject to public stoning—and no one would be allowed more than I billion at a time—I think that’s enough to live well on—no matter who you are.

Promise I won’t write anymore during the national news. It gets me riled…think I need to go back to being clueless…

Guess tonight is turning into a trailer night. Stacy decided to go to Target and another Kohls (we each got 2 100% cotton jackets that will be great for tye dye—cool). Yuliya and I just stayed home. Stacy came home and is making popcorn—I’m watching the debate. Don’t get me started…

#47-We could have slept later...

It’s Monday night—nine days away from getting home. I wonder if home will be easier than vacation…life never seems to be too easy for us, but it does seem that we were really busy on this vacation, so it will be an interesting contrast to watch. It would be wonderful if everything was blissful, clean, and well oiled when we get home. It sounds like everyone has been doing their part, so it should be a nice homecoming. It’s nice knowing responsible, good friends are taking care of our home & WP life.

What’s interesting is that we know we are going home, but I think we will all miss our life on vacation—despite its ups and downs—or what some would describe as a roller coaster of emotions and happenings. Amazingly it’s still been a very nice time—not what we had originally intended but definitely not boring—and a lot of interesting—and a lot of learning about people, about ourselves, and even more about life. No wonder it was a busy vacation…

Today we tried to sleep late and it would have worked, had we not had the phone call for Yuliya at 7:30, another about an hour later, and then finally one for us after 10 from Audrey at home—she had no sympathy that we were still trying to sleep. Oh well—our present schedule allows us to try to sleep late again tomorrow morning—maybe we will have better luck. The other sleeping beauties are sawing logs already—can’t even wait until we have to turn off the generator!

Today we had to take the trailer and dump all the bad water and fill it up with good water. We also got propane for heat and gas for the generators, so we should be good on all those necessities until we get home. Sounds like it’s going to get cold next weekend and we should be totally prepared. They showed mountains where we just were at about a week ago and they were all snow covered—guess fall is here.

The rest of the day was spent looking for a printer for me. Remember ours shot craps a couple of weeks ago and since the error told us there was no hope in the old one, we hit Best Buy after checking some other competitors. I had checked CNET.com for reviews and ending up getting one of their editor’s top 5 choices for less than $50. I had wanted a portable, compact one, but they are about 5x’s more expensive, and printers have turned almost disposable if you can get anything over a year from them. I tend to be hard on printers since they often travel with us and I print business brochures on them. With this new one I need to get started on putting together a postcard for wholesale so I can drum up some business before the end of the year.

We ended the day with finding me a pair of shoes (my back has been bothering me since setup), hitting Border’s books, going to our favorite Mexican restaurant for their free happy hour taco bar and margaritas, and then ended up at the casino. Amazing how that sometimes works.
Stacy once again lost! But I saved the day by winning $8. Figure my luck has changed and I’m just slowly working up to the big win. Probably will be much, much bigger than anything Stacy has won. It will no doubt make all my past losses seem unimportant. At least that is what the $8 meant to me…

But my trailer mates are definitely not night people and even though I’m the oldest of the group—I’m again outlasting them into the night. But remember—I’m always the last one to take a shower in the morning…

#46--Sunday night--tired but a bit richer

Sunday night and all are well on their way to being asleep. Breakdown was minimal since we are here again next weekend and we are under a big tent. We did what needed to be done and then headed to Applebee’s for dinner. Not much conversation there—Yuliya was exhausted. Dropped her off at the trailer and then we headed up to the casino for a quickie. Not much luck there so we were home by 9 and Yuliya was already asleep. She said she was even too tired to put on her jammies. Welcome to our world of doing art fairs. No doubt tomorrow will involve sleeping late and being pretty low key.

The good news is that we have had a good first half of show. It’s the second best, 1st weekend we have had, so that is a very good thing. Hopefully next weekend will hold. Rain today cancelled balloon stuff so that helped us and people still seem to be spending money. Probably won’t be a record breaker, but at least it won’t be the bust we were almost expecting. The most common artist’s comment was “It’s better than I expected…” We have a couple more shows after this one and it will be interesting what will happen with those. Ballooning is a rich persons sport…

Don’t know what our plans are for the week. I have a feeling it will involve shopping, good lunches, sleeping late, and an occasional margarita. Oh—and maybe a casino run or two…sounds pretty decadent doesn't it?

We will probably just stay here at the show site. It’s only costs $50 for the entire 2 wks and is well located to what we want to do. The bad thing is that we will have to hook up about every other day and go dump and get water, but it’s less than 2 miles away so I guess it’s a small hassle. Of course if something better comes up we would no doubt be able to change our plans—remember—we are flexible!

Guess it’s time to join the sleeping beauties. Looks like it’s just me to walk the dogs. Our generator has to be turned off by 10:30 but we do have several TV stations so we are feeling pretty uptown. But I forgot how depressing the media is…

#45--Goatheads, "Tits", showers, and rain...

It’s Saturday night and we are almost halfway through with our first show since we left home. We were really worried about the economy but thus far we are doing ok. Of course we do have 2 weekends, and the final figures are what counts, but right now we are looking decent—middle of the road from past history—it’s just still too early to get too relaxed. Somewhat of a relief—let’s hope it continues. It's now raining and Sunday will probably have lousy weather--could be a good thing for the show.

And yes—Yuliya is handling all that is on her plate. I’ve been helping with the mural—we’ll take a picture—but she has been running the rest of the show. Stacy is better with people in the booth at this stage and helping Yuliya has been giving me a diversion. Sometimes really little kids want to paint and their parents show no thought process of “age appropriate” and let them smear all sorts of lousy colors over parts of the mural—I wait until they leave and repaint it the way I think it should be. No self expression in my world…almost therapeutic at this stage…

Yuliya has also gone with her aunt & uncle for the last 2 evenings, so she is having some good family time with them. Think she would rather be vegging at trailer tonight though—it’s a tiring day, working a show, and she is realizing it. We’ll all be exhausted by Monday…

But the good news is that we don’t really have to break down on Sunday night, so that means setup will be a piece of cake next wkend. That’s a very good thing…it’s a happy thought!

This show is a real treat to do since we are friendly with the establishment and have done it long enough that we have a good base of both artist friends plus customers. Now that we are staying on site, in our trailer, it’s even gotten easier. Just wish we had hookups—although we did find the dump station and it is fairly close and free!

We also wish the lot wasn’t covered with goat heads—those are those sticky NM things that track in and then poke you barefoot. The dogs hate them but we get our share just tracked in the trailer. But if that is the worse complaint, I guess all is well. I also guess we are finally getting old and tired—we would normally be going for dinner and then to the casino but last night it was a “they make/we bake” pizza in the trailer and tonight is leftovers. Figure the casino will be our next week entertainment.

Not sure how motivated we all are for ballooning with our friends, Denise & Rick, although we have gotten the “Tit’s Team” itinerary (and yes, that is the official name of their 2 pink and boob-like colored balloons). We usually try to chase at least one morning, go to the bowling experience, and then do the Thursday night glow—it’s such a treat riding in with our pilot friends and never having to wait in line. Back to knowing the right people at the right time…but chasing starts so early…it’s truly a conflict.

And we have all enjoyed sleeping late. This show has reasonable hours but we have all hated getting up in the morning—might have something to do with not having an unlimited shower to wake you up. Those short ones barely cut it on getting clean—definitely aren’t enough to wake you up. Sounds like we are ready to get home…houses still trump 24ft trailers no matter what the scenery. At least for some of life…

And a good shower is truly almost the meaning of life…but right now all we have is rain.

#44--Almost the end of our vacation--but still clueless...

We left Mesa Verde slowly…and then headed south. On the way we saw a chain saw art guy’s place that just invited a visit. After an hour we hammered out a trade that let us end up with a really cool chain saw vulture that will hang someplace—he ended up with some turtles—hope his wife likes them…

Then we headed on to Albuquerque—got there, said hi to Ruth—dropped off our trailer amongst the really big artists RV’s—obviously they are much more successful than we are—and then we headed to one of our favorite places—El Pinto’s for their free taco bar and very good margaritas. And then it was the casino—surprise, surprise. Of course I left broke and Stacy left with winnings—we are now $110 ahead for this grouping of casinos. Yuliya was my shadow—she was hoping she was my luck—guess not…

And now it’s our first morning of work—we have to go set up for the show and then help Yuliya figure out her job for the creative kid’s tent. She’s running that again this year and we have to come up with some cute but easy projects for kids 2-14. Shouldn’t be too hard…

Then we might try to play some the rest of the day. After all, it’s best to not just jump right into work phase…

I just watched an artist load his cart and then jump on a little motorized “cart puller”—back to the fact that everyone must be much more successful than we are. Obviously success can make you lazier! Good thing we still have to manually schlep our stuff in the old fashioned way—kind of like going to the health club.

Thursday night in our trailer—
Yuliya is frantically making examples of her kid’s projects. We set up our booth today—still have to put out product in the morning but once that is done this is an easy show to do—unless you have lots of irons in the fire--like we do.

The rest of the day was spent helping Yuliya set up her kid’s tent and then shopping for supplies for same kid’s tent. She’s in charge of the Kid’s Creation Station—same job she had here 2 yrs ago. I will help Stacy set up in the morning and then I have to go draw a mural—never have done that but I figure I can handle it—and it will be on a 5 ft by 8 ft piece of canvas. It just needs mountains, balloons, and a big top tent with artists in it. They’ve never attempted a group project like this before but what the h*ll…If it gets chaotic I can just pretend we are busy in our booth and leave Yuliya to deal with it—after all it is her job.

And then her uncle & aunt (actually cousins but in Russia he’s referred to as her uncle) are coming in from Arizona tomorrow about 3 and staying in town until Sunday morning. She has a lot on her plate but she seems excited about the whole thing—made her feel better when we told her it was ok to be a little stressed about everything. It does look like Balloon Fiesta will start of with some lousy weather--guess they will have to come to the show...

Just watched the debate—oh well—after the last 2 elections I have lost all hope in us as thinking people so there’s no reason to think anything will change now. It’s turned into one of the things I no longer really care about. I have no kids so why worry about anyone’s education or the environment as long as we can get at least another 40 yrs out of this decaying world. Just got to quit worrying about some things.

Right now I’m eating sushi and getting ready to draw the master plan for the mural—wish us luck on both Yuliya’s project, but I guess more importantly our sales! The people I’ve talked to are singing the blues. Not doing shows or having any news for the last 2 months we could imagine all sorts of happy thoughts about possibilities. Hopefully we don’t have to change our world—I’ve enjoyed being clue less…