Balloon Classic Indianola IA

We are still in Des Moines, IA. Thursday evening we went to the 40th annual Balloon Classic in Indianola, IA., a week long event with around 100 hot air balloons participating. Here are some pictures of the balloons being blown up, in the air and the night glow show.







For the RVers reading this the park we are staying in is called Cutty's. You have to belong to Passport or Coast to Coast to get in but if you belong and need a spot in Des Moines sometime I would recommend it.

There is a maintenance guy at the park we are staying named Dick that works for the park and also does RV repair. I hired him to help me (read I helped him) pull a couple of hubs to check a wheel that was running a little hot on the way over here. We didn't find anything wrong but I got introduced to Dick.

We decided to leave the car here for the next few weeks and get it on the way back through, so Friday morning we put the car in storage, fueled up the truck and got rigged down. While I was preparing to hitch up Momance the serpentine belt on the truck started shredding and knocked the radiator hose off. As I was looking things over Dick came by and said "Looks like you need to go get a new belt". I agreed but said I had just put the car in storage. He said he had a car, gave me a ride to his RV, handed me the keys to his car and told me how to get to the auto parts store. I went and bought a belt, when I returned Dick happened by and helped me put it on. After installing we found the cause of the problem was a bad tensioner assembly. Dick said I needed to go back to the parts store and buy a new tensioner. I asked if he could install it. He said he could but would have to do it after he got off work. I took Dick's car again, bought the part and we installed it that evening. I asked Dick how much I owed him, he said "I figure it's worth $40. I paid him $60 and told him if he said anything I was going to give him more. I had just had a show stopping mechanical failure, not while pulling down the highway or even running around town, but while parked in our "front yard". I didn't have to move it, got to buy the parts myself for about half what a shop would charge, and the mechanic came to me. Pretty lucky I would say. Did I mention Dick is 75 years old and has retired three times. (I know Uncle Jim is saying "So" but not everyone his age is that active and still working everyday.)

When we left Saturday morning we didn't get a mile when the electric trailer brakes quit working. We immediately turned around and went back to the campground, it's not a good idea to pull this rig anywhere without its' brakes working. Couldn't find the problem right away so we got another spot until Monday. I have done some research and think the problem is a short so I will be looking more today. If I don't get it figured out Dick is back to work tomorrow. In the meantime we are not stranded on the highway but "Home Every Night".