International Balloon Fiesta In Albuquerque

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta lasts nine days, with 800,000 spectators, 650 balloons, and 1000 pilots and their crews. We arrived from White Sands and parked next to our Northern Virginia Airstream friends, Elaine and Lloyd, with reservations for three days. The children were awed by our great parking site right across the road from the Balloon Museum and Fiesta office. We were dry camping which meant no connections except for our Honda generator. Our fresh water tank was full and the gray, and black water tanks were empty. The refrigerator was well stocked to include homemade cookies. We left for an early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes; we needed to be on the field the next day by 6:30 A.M.
Saturday A.M. was dark and chilly as we walked to the Mass Ascension. As we crossed the street in front of the Museum, a pretty young lady stopped her large golf cart and called to us, “Hey, I have room for seven! But I do need someone to ring my cow bell.” Jerry readily agreed to the task. He really enjoyed ringing that bell at every crossing. Morning dawned and the balloonists were given the flying okay; excitement grew and the children asked permission to check out all the balloons and collect trading cards. They met a lady from San Marcos, Texas near to where they live. The big red Wells Fargo stagecoach, a huge, “udderly” beautiful cow, Mirabelle, and the largest balloon, a cathedral from Switzerland, drew large crowds.

Thirty-five countries were represented in the early morning hot air balloon mass ascension from a 72 acre field. The evening the balloon glows are magnificent. Hundreds of balloons all light up at one time when the signal is given. The after glow fireworks are extraordinary. Sunday morning dawned gray and threatening with a heavy cloud layer that soon opened and poured on us. Not to worry. We had had Sunday school in our trailer and the children listened intently to two Bible teachers on TV. Then we spent time investigating the marvelous International Balloon Museum. Jack, Lucie, and Lincoln all enjoyed flying their balloon on a computer, getting their picture taken in a balloon basket, building a flying machine, and visiting the gift shop. That evening we returned to the balloon glow and the after-glow fireworks.

Monday morning we were all back in the middle of the balloons as the pilots and their crews prepared to take flight. The sky was exceptionally blue and the balloons arose in mass. Our grandchildren once again were eagerly collecting cards from the balloonists. Kathy one of the pilots gave each of us a lovely pin, her card and an invitation to return to Albuquerque for a free hot air balloon. In late morning, we bid our friends, Lloyd and Elaine, a fond goodbye and departed in a southeasterly direction hoping to reach the Texas border by the end of the day. We are delighted to see that fuel prices are dipping.