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It’s been raining for the last 2 days. The Balloon Fiesta is having a big washout. One news report today said that the 6 inches of rain in the last 48 hours is more than the normal rainfall for New Mexico in the entire month of October. It’s supposed to clear up by tomorrow, and be nice until at least this coming weekend. Hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to attend another event at the Fiesta.
Today we went about 40 miles west to the Acoma Pueblo. We visited the museum, and toured the oldest continuously occupied in North America.
The Acoma have a long and colorful history. Since the end of the 19th century they have been careful to ensure that the protect and preserve their culture while working and building their economy in the modern world.

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Had a liesurely morning, and spent the afternoon at the Pueblo Indian culture center watching the dancers, touring the museum, and looking at the Jewelry, pottery, and crafts by the indian artisans. There’s a lot to learn about native american culture and history. More photos to join the galleries.

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It’s hard to believe we actually woke up at 4:00 AM this morning to make it to the bus that took us to the Fiesta Grounds. It was still dark when we left the campground at 5:30 AM. They said there were +/- 70,000 people there for the Grand Ascension. We have more than 200 photos to post to the gallery.
We were back at the campground before Noon. Would have been sooner, but there was another phoobar by the organizers from the campground so we spent more than an hour riding around in circles on a School Bus. It was still worth it. The show was spectacular.
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We spent the Afternoon shopping and eating at Old Town Albuquerque.

Got a fairly early start from Tucumcari. Made pretty good time until a car pulled along side and waved us down. The big Winnebago mud flap was falling off the back of the coach. We pulled over and Richard managed to get the flap off and into the coach.
After that we managed to get to the American RV Park to check in. The place was a mad house. Our prepaid reserved pull through site had been reassigned and we were assigned to a small back-in site that wouldn’t hold our rig. After several go arounds, we were assigned to another pull through site that was assigned to a no-show.
We got in and got hooked up. Then we took a drive down Central Avenue (Old route US 66) through town. Got to see a Police stand off, found the local Winnebago service shop, and the Balloon Fiesta park.
We’ll be here until Sunday October 15.