Recent Updates

New addition: the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Just completed our Golden Anniversary celebration in Belize.  Thanks for reading our blog.

Caravan to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Our traveling club of veterans, S.M.A.R.T. (Special Military Active Recreational Travelers) organizes several caravans each year and this year we signed on for our first: the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, held the first week of October each year.  This was their 47th!

We arrived on Thursday the 4th of October and started our visit with a walking tour of Old Town.  Facinating town, and our guides were excellent!  

Sabrina joined us after finishing the last day of her Grand Circle National Parks tour in Albuquerque.  We enjoyed her company for four days, even taking time for a little geocaching.

Meg holding up her GPS at a cache site.

 We visited the Acoma Pueblo about 50 miles west of the city, home to the Acoma people, direct descendents of the Anasazi people of Mesa Verde/Chaco Canyon fame.  Their home is on a beautiful mesa overlooking a valley of monuments.

A visit to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center included an afternoon of Indian dancing, in this picture the "Deer Dance".

Each morning of the Fiesta, weather permitting, a "mass ascension" of the balloons takes place.  One of the opportunities presented to attendees is to "crew" and chase the balloons.

This is one such morning with the "Emerald" of Oregon, the balloon for which we crewed three mornings.

The variety of shapes and sizes is remarkable!

The "zebras" are in charge and control all launches.  Essentially, safety officers.

Here are Meg with Jack and Sallie, the owners and pilots of the Emerald.  They were a lot of fun to work with; both are very knowledgeable and safety conscious.

Jack and Sallie

We're prepping the Emerald for launch.

 We finally get her ready and Jack said to me and Meg, "Climb aboard!" Wow! A dream come true!

Our "Zebra" gives us thumbs up and we're away!

Looking back at the launch field and many of the Strange Shapes

Roger with Jack

Meg's smile says it all! 

Two more "bucket list" items:
   1.  Balloon Fiesta....check
   2.  Hot air balloon ride...check

A wonderful time in New Mexico and one which we'd urge all of you to put on your own bucket list.!

Belize Celebration of Marriage

From the double-15 domino set our children had made for us.

In 2018 we celebrated our Golden Anniversary.  It was a time of real excitement and joy for us, one which we wanted to share with our entire family.  And since our married children have succeeded in their own marriages for 19-25 years, we chose to make it a "Celebration of Marriage" to honor each of them as well.  We chose Belize as our meeting place and invited them all to spend a week together with us there: the Griffis Family from Florida, the Ross Family from Oklahoma and Sabrina from California.  (Abey has chosen to not be a part of the family, choosing rather his own way to honor our anniversary. Ashley could not be there due to her pregnancy and Rodney was forced to work.)

Darren designed and made these shirts for the reunion.    He had 25 year shirts in silver for the Griffis's and 20 year shirts for the Ross's.

Day 1 We all flew into Belize City airport, where we were met by Ian and bused to the Guatemala border, our first real stop: Tikal!  We have visited several Mayan ruins in the past, and have read much about their exploration and this had been on our bucket list for a while.  We stopped for supper at the Taqueria Frontera near the border, and were then transferred to a Guatemalan van with driver Christian and taken to Jungle Lodge.  Sadly, the Griffis's missed their flight out of Florida, spent the night in the Tampa Airport.  They caught up with us at the Jungle Lodge on day 2.

Tikal is a wonderful UNESCO world heritage site which showcases the tallest of the Mayan ruins.  

You cant' hide!!

A wandering coatimundi

Day 3: After we had all had a chance to visit Tikal, we were bused back across the border to the largest Mayan ruins in Belize: Xunantunich.  Blasio was our guide.

This is the hand-cranked ferry across the river to the ruins. Meg asked if it was difficult, and was invited to crank it and get us across  

Yes, those are mangoes.

 Afterward went to Hotel Aguada in San Ignacio where we stayed for two nights. Lovely!

On the subject of the Mayan World, we'd like to recommend a great read: 

Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya

by William Carlsen  

It's a fascinating adventure book about a real-life Indiana Jones explorer.  Both Meg and I read it and were drawn to the visits we have made in Central America: Tikal, Xunantunich, Coba and Tulum.

Day 4: Now for the most amazing experience of our reunion: the ATM Cave with our guide Eric.   Phenomenal!  It's a cave tour like nothing in this country.  A river flows out of it and you must swim into the entrance.  There's lots of water (you're never underwater) and you're outfitted with life jackets and headlamps.  You scramble over rocks, swim through passages and slip down waters slides.  Discover Mayan skeletons and pottery. (Photos are not allowed, so I have none.)  Nothing I can say does this cave justice!!!  Therefore, I am adding a link to the description given by another blogger, Ashley Smith and her Wanderlusty Life blog.  Her descriptions are fun, colorful, very accurate and, if you find any of her words offensive, don't read them twice! 😉 Every one of us who toured this cave count it as the most incredible thing we've done!

Day 5: We traveled to Placencia and the Mariposa Resort which we called home for the next 4 nights.  It's a beautiful retreat where every cabin is a stilted tree-house, there is a lovely dining room across the garden and the beach is beckoning just beyond.

Nate's 18th birthday- worth celebrating!

The meals were great and the ambiance has all our girls wanting to go back for another reunion.  

 Some of us got a GI bug for a couple of days but it didn't stop the fun.   We played games in the evenings and just enjoyed being together.  

Day 7: We cycled into the village, explored, found a few souvenirs and an ice cream shop.  That evening we took the family out for  dinner at the Italian restaurant nearby.  Great food and a charming host!

Day 8: snorkeling the Belize Barrier Reef from Laughing Bird Quay.  We spent the day in the water and saw lots of beautiful fish, sea fans and other creatures.

Day 9: Blasio drove us off to the airport early for what were easy flights home.

To honor Meg for our "Golden" year, I gave her a gold Victoria sovereign for her neck.  Because we chose to honor our girls and their families, and to encourage each of them, single and married, on the godly path each has chosen, we gave each one a sovereign also, a tangible reminder of the golden time we had together.