2008 Balloon Fiesta

Well there were two good sports along on this trip... Dick (Martha's brother) and me...

We didn't even suggest that the ladies stand in front of this sign... we have learned a few things over umpteen years of marriage... lots of learnin' to go...

This was in "Old Town" in Albuquerque. There were lots of buses full of old geezers there... we had to steer clear of them... we were afraid they would mistake us for one of them and haul us off to a home in Tucumcari...

We got to the the Balloon Park well before sunrise... and the "Dawn Patrol" had already taken off. We saw 7-8 balloons lighting up and flying away. They were supposedly up checking out the winds and reporting back to the others. After that, the action was non-stop ... balloon after balloon was unpacked, inflated and flew away right in front of us. We saw it so many times that we are sure we could do it now. I don't think we could afford a balloon though-- $30,000 to $500,000 up... Heck...I'm saving up for a new kayak.











The Balloon Contests.

The Balloon Park is about 400 acres and we were sitting on the edge of a 80 acre grass field. The balloons flew down that field as part of contests. They dropped their markers on targets on the other side of the field from us. Right in front of us there were 3 poles about 30 feet tall with envelopes attached to the tops of them. Each envelope had $2000 in them.

I was amazed at how much control they had over the balloons. We were sitting on the grass at the front row of the crowd and they would float by... climb out and catch a west wind then a north wind and then descend right back past us to the south. We all won cushions (sit-up-on's) from a friendly local casino... even in the desert, the grass is wet at dawn.

Later we heard there were between 500 and 600 balloons. I believe it.










This was one of our favorites.









We had breakfast burritos at the fair grounds... ala tourista style... not too hot... but there was no foo-foo coffee to be had. About 10am we headed back to the hotel for a nap... the maids at the Hyatt Regency limited that nap to 30 minutes.

Side note: Yea for Southwest Airlines and the Southwest rate... we got the crew rate at the hotel... yea.

We had a nice drive along the Rio Grande River and headed back to the fairgrounds. We couldn't see the river on our drive, but we did see some neat real estate. We got to the balloon park about 2 hours before dark... that was too early. But we did get our funnel cakes... I wasn't planning on sharing, but I did. We were laying in the grass listening to a local oldies rock and roll band when they started unrolling the big Stork balloon... we had to keep moving... it was huge.




This is the huge stork that you may see in some of the photos. We decided it was our favorite... because of Mommy Melissa. It was a huge balloon.

Those flames had to scorch some hands... some wore gloves... they are just holding the fabric away from the flame.







The Balloon Glowdeo.

When it gets dark the balloons glow from the gas flames they used to make the hot air. Don't they look like a bunch of drunk Halloween characters... ?

It was so dark outside I thought it was unsafe... there was 80,000-100,000 people wandering around in the dark. Then Martha told me to take my sunglasses off... I had walked around with my sunglasses on... for an hour or so after sunset. I am glad she told me before the huge fireworks show!

Every few minutes they did a countdown over the PA system so everyone would light up at the same time. The whole crowd was going... 3...2....1.... The cheap video camera I have makes it look daylight in the video... it was actually pretty dark... especially with sunglasses on!



The Balloon Fiesta was different from our fiesta in two very good ways. Booze... there was only one place to drink beer... a beer-garden... that's it... no one sloshed beer on us at any time. The other good thing was the traffic. Traffic was not a problem... they have a handle on it... there was a short backup to get out of our parking lot, but that was it... zoooommmm...

One day a the Balloon Fiesta was enough for us. We were there on Thursday... which is the special shapes day... that is why most of the balloons don't look like ordinary balloons.

So Friday it was off to Santa Fe for a half day. Then up to Los Alamos to see the Aspens and the old homestead.