EARTH, WIND AND FLYERS…PART 2

Saturday, October 2 – What a memorable day!  This year’s theme is “Earth, Wind and Flyers.”  It is the 39th International Balloon Fiesta. The Albuquerque Fiesta traces its origins to the ascent of 13 balloons on a chilly April morning in 1972.

Since we are volunteers, we get into every event free. A visitor needs to pay $10 for parking a day and $6 entrance.  Most events begin at 6:00 a.m. then break around 11:30 with the next one beginning at 4:00. If you visit just twice in one day, you already have $32 wrapped up in the Balloon Fiesta. When the balloons are flying or glowing, there are tons of other activities like bungee jumping, tons of merchandise tents, food vendor galore, and not to be left out the carnie games.

 

We started the morning with our breakfast in the “Landing” tent. They have a few choices each morning. It was packed.

 

Each morning at 6:00 a.m. a dawn patrol balloon goes up to check the currents.

There is opening ceremonies each morning with one balloon carrying the flag. The first one was the Albuquerque balloon.

Now the fun begins. There were approximately 500 balloons in the Mass Ascension held at 7:00 a.m. Marsha couldn’t snap the camera fast enough. These balloons were still lifting off 9:30.  It is so nice to be able to walk through the infield as the balloons are inflated and launched.  Unlike the Football Hall of Fame Balloon Festival where the public is fenced off the infield, Albuquerque has found a way to include the public safely, and it sure pays off for a fantastic experience. You can touch the balloons, hear launch directions, share the excitement as volunteer crew members are invited to “fly” with the pilot, and watch the joy of children as the balloons lift off around them. WOW what an experience!

They are so close together that they actually lean on each other until one of the balloons gets clearance to lift off.

Then the skies fill with balloons. What a site!

Not only did standard balloons lift off but there were tons of special shape balloons.

It was packed! Can you tell?

This lady went all out. Marsha thought her skirt was great.

Texas has a huge tourism section.

We were to work from 4:00 – 7:30 but lightning and black clouds closed the balloon glow down at 6:30. We all went home and watched college football.

To see more of these awesome balloons, click here for group balloons and click here for some individual shots of balloons. As soon as we buy a program, we will have the names for most of the balloons.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you come back again. Have a great day.

BALLOON FIESTA…PART 1

Wednesday, September 29 - We moved to the Balloon Launch area this morning. We pulled out of the Enchanted Trails RV Park about 9:15 and within an hour were settled in at the Balloon Launch Area. We are boondocking (no electric, water or sewer hook-ups) in what you might call a gravel parking lot. We'll live with our onboard water, sewer holding tanks and battery or generator power for the next 12 days.

Looking at the parking lot.

We pretty much just sat around and enjoyed conversation among friends this afternoon and evening. Tomorrow is the first day of work (training). The first launch comes on Saturday morning.

Thursday, September 30 – This was our first day of work. To put it nicely.....they are very unorganized. We reported for training a little early for our 9:00 am start. We pretty much stood around or did busy work for about the first hour. We then took a tour of the launch area and watched a video on balloon crew safety. We then returned to the sign-in area and helped register chase crew volunteers.

Inside the “Landing” tent.

Some one is having a good time.

This is where it all happens starting on Saturday morning.

The field is 78-acre grassy field. That’s the size of 54 football fields.

Beautiful backdrop.

One of the several beer gardens.

There is entertainment throughout the day on the big stage.

 

Paul and Marsha working at the Chase Crew table.

The corporate sites.

We did receive are volunteer gift bags. A beautiful nylon winter coat, a balloon sweatshirt, various balloon Fiesta trader pins, tickets for the Volunteer Party on Monday, the Albuquerque Zoo party on Wednesday, the Awards Party next Saturday, and our official ID badge that gets us into any of the Fiesta events. They have a great breakfast for us every morning starting at 5:00 a.m., snack at 9 and lunch beginning at 11. Here we go again…going to gain all the weight back we just lost from Ohio and Florida. OH MY!!!

Give us a few days for the next update. We are working everyday and crewing a balloon, so time is limited.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you back soon. Enjoy your day.

PETROGLYPH NATIONAL MONUMENT

Monday, September 27 – We made one of our shortest moves today.....across I-40...a total of 3 miles. We are at Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post. We'll be meeting Betty and Jay Crane plus another couple here before moving to the balloon launch area on Wednesday. This is quite a historic park. It was originally known as Hill Top Trading Post, do to its location of the hill South of Albuquerque on the historic Route 66. The road and sites are gravel.

The Hill Top Trading Post is located in the office area.

Club room

45 year old Wurlitzer organ.

The next two trailers are located at the entrance to the park.

Our very spacious site.

Looking both ways on our road.

 

Our friends, Betty and Jay, plus two other couples that will be working the Balloon Fiesta, pulled in this afternoon. We all gathered for a get-acquainted happy hour. After getting to know one another, we headed to the casino for the $7.99 buffet. It was amazing. Tons of different nationality type foods were available. They had a great sweets bar to boot. Marsha and I aren't big buffet people and once again we came home miserable......ate too much!

Tuesday, September 28 – This morning we headed out with Betty & Jay Crane to visit the Petroglyph National Monument. We chose to hike Rinconada Canyon. It is a 2.5 mile round-trip hike following the base of the volcanic escarpment. Geologist estimate the Albuquerque volcanoes last erupted 150,000 years ago. Basaltic lava seeped from a 5-mile long fissure. As the sand eroded from underneath the lava, boulders tumbled down forming the escarpment on which the petroglyphs are found.

Jay and Betty

Marsha and Paul

What are Petroglyphs? They are rock carvings (rock paintings are called pictographs) made by pecking directly on the rock surface using a stone chisel and a hammerstone. When the "desert varnish" on the surface of the rock was pecked off, the lighter rock underneath was exposed, creating the petroglyph.

Archeologist believe Puebloans made most of the 1200 petroglyphs in Rinconada Canyon four to seven hundred years ago. The images include human-like figures, concentric circles/spirals, animal figures, and geometric designs.

We spent about two hours hiking the circular trail and viewing the many petroglyphs. It was amazing to see so many petroglyphs in one spot.

We also saw many millipedes, beetles, lizards, rabbits and other insects.

Milliped

Collared lizard

There was lots of different plant life along the way.

At one point, another hiker warned us of a rattler just ahead, but we were unable to find it! It was an enjoyable morning hiking among the petroglyphs with friends.

See more of Petroglyph National Monument here.

Tomorrow we will be moving to the Balloon Fiesta parking area. We will be boondocking (no utility hook-ups) for about 12 days. We will be working at the Balloon Fiesta just about everyday. We won’t be updating as often as usual. We hopefully will have some awesome pictures to share with you from the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great day. Hope to see you back real soon.