Travel Adventures of Tony & Stacie: arizona

Showing posts with label arizona. Show all posts

January 15, 2019

The Dam Bridge

It's always fun to walk across this bridge and see the views on either side. It's quite a long way down!

Going Up, On a Sunday

Sunday morning in Page turned out to be perfect for flying. It's crazy that the wind going a bit too fast or the wrong direction can throw off the day if you are a hot air balloon pilot.

New Wave Hike

Starting out on a new hike near Lake Powell. My friends did it before we came and I knew Tony & I just had to check it out. So glad that we did because it was fun and we got lots of good pictures!

Next on the agenda was to meet up on some houseboats on Lake Powell. Sad that Tony had to miss this part (at least the early stuff) because he had to work but it was fun to hang out with the other crew and catch up with various people.

Page Arizona Balloon Festival day 1

Tony & I drove all night pretty much and got in around 2:30am on November 2. But arriving at the end of a trip to hot air balloons is always well worth it, even when we are running on not much sleep the first day.

A Saturday in Mesa, AZ

photo credit Tony Hoxsie

Saturday morning started with meeting my friend and former coworker in Chandler at a restaurant called U.S. Egg. I wasn't sure how it would be but was pleasantly surprised.

Welcome to Arizona? La Mesa RV was on fire (service center area) when we got in to Phoenix. As we were leaving CA, it was pouring rain. Too bad it was not raining in Arizona when we got there, esp at the RV lot. Whoops!

Goldfield Mine Pt. 2

Oohkay, here we go. These are the pictures from our nicer camera and we got some really good shots. I'm excited to get these posted so take a look and enjoy!

Goldfield Mine

My friend Austin recommended we check out Goldfield Mine in Apache Junction while we were in Arizona so on Sunday afternoon Tony and I took a drive out there. These pictures were just from my cell phone, I'll do another post with pictures from our Canon camera. But take a look!

Last Day in Arizona

After the morning balloon flights were done and everything put away, we went back to my sister's place where Tony spent some time jumping on the trampoline with my niece and nephew and playing ball in the street. They definitely kept him busy!

Sunday Morning Balloon Ride

So blessed to be ale to get invited to ride up in Desert Drifter on Sunday morning with Judy and crew member, Pat. It's always exciting to go up in a hot air balloon!

Night Glow at Fear Farms - Phoenix, AZ

Friday night balloon glow was a bit sketchy with a slight wind but a majority of

balloons did inflate.

Our pilot pulled her balloon out but in the end decided against participating in the glow. I was able to get around to most of the balloon to capture some pictures.

Fear Farms Hot Air Balloon Festival - AZ

Tony and I got to Phoenix late Thursday night and stayed the next few days with my sister (thanks Allison!) We were up and out early, aka 630am, to get to the field for the pilot briefing. Here are some fun pictures from the weekend!

Rock House Adventure

I absolutely love stopping by these rock houses on my way to and from Utah to Arizona and visa versa. You have to be on the 89A to find them but it's a nice place to get out, explore and stretch tired cramped legs.

Monument Valley WOW

Monument Valley. Oh my...it's been quite a long time since we have come here! I'd say...2012 was the last time we were able to come. We had just picked up our teardrop camper in New Mexico and were hitting up some camping and sights on the way back to Salt Lake. We came here and I was blown away. It is a stunning place!

Horseshoe Bend, AZ

Since we were in Page, AZ for a hot air balloon festival this past weekend and this amazing place was only a few miles from our hotel, I went with my friend Kylee, her son James and their friend Whitney. Tony opted out because he was mega-tired and isn't too excited about seeing attractions multiple times. I, however, always like getting pictures so I went with Kylee who was so nice to drive.

Page, Arizona Balloon Regatta

Tony & I have not gone to a balloon event since September in Park City so I was really ready to get down to Page, Arizona for their balloon regatta. My friend Judy would be there with her balloon and asked us if we could come down and help crew for her. The weather was perfect and we left Friday evening after work and homework. I drove most of the way while Tony slept. Usually he drives when the teardrop camper is hooked to my car but this time it was my turn and luckily it went well. It was about a 6 hour drive and we pulled in to our 'campsite' about 2:30 am and didn't wake up until the alarm went off at 630am.

At 7am everyone stood around and listened to the pilot briefing - details on where the balloons could and could not fly or land, wind conditions and putting up a "pie ball" which means a helium birthday size balloon so that we could all tell which direction the wind was going and how fast. Pretty cool and definitely good information to have handy.

We helped Judy set up her balloon in the parking lot of a school and she had one of the crew members (Pat I think) get in the basket. Then she looked at me and asked me if I wanted to get in for a ride too. She didn't have to ask twice!! I scrambled in and up up and away we went! It was so unreal and I couldn't believe I was so lucky to get to go. We stayed up for about an hour! The time went so fast. I wish I had a better camera with me because everywhere I turned in the basket there was such an amazing view.

Pat , Judy and I rotated around the basket from time to time so Judy could do different things. Pat and I helped keep an eye on the gauges. If they got to a certain number that meant the balloon was getting too hot , I think. I am not so good at knowing this stuff but I am getting a little better each time.

Tony is down there in my gray car - chase crew! Following the guy Kenny I believe his name was, who was driving Judy's white car pulling her trailer. Being on chase crew can be intense at times because you have to stay close to the balloon so you can help catch it when it starts to come down. Judy didn't have walkie talkies with her this time so there was not a whole lot of communicating unless it was by shouting as we got lower.

When it was finally time to come down the crew was right there to help guide us to a safe place to end our journey. It was so so fun and so magical being up in the sky in a hot air balloon. I get all excited just thinking about it!

In the evening there was a balloon glow with about 24 balloons. This was one of the best glows I have gone to. Usually they just don't last very long because it starts to get too breezy and the balloons have to come down really quick. Not this night though. The balloons stayed up at least an hour and we didn't have to put all our weight on the basket to keep the balloon steady. I took a walk down the street with my camera and got some pictures, video and even did a short Periscope (live video stream).

At the end of the night we helped take the balloon dow and put it away for Sunday. Ate dinner at a restaurant called Slackers, visited Maverick for the restroom and called it a night.