Wed-Thurs, Oct 11-12…
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| (Note very small antler on MH.) |
Easy drive south to Albuquerque,
where we’re dry-camped at the Elks Lodge (which isn’t as crowded as I
expected). We’re on the edge of the city, near lots of hotels and larger businesses.
Not a lot of trees, but a good breeze and sidewalks along all the streets. The
lodge put on a turkey dinner, and Greg loves to socialize so we enjoyed our
second “thanksgiving” in two weeks (broccoli way overcooked but everything else
pretty darn good). Good chat w/ a couple from Florida (orig Connecticut) who’ve
been on the road since June. Their focus is national parks.
The Balloon Fiesta
is extremely well organized in AM & PM blocks. No visitors from noon-4pm.
We have park-‘n-ride/entrance tickets for tomorrow, and the weather looks like
it’ll be perfect. (Downside? Gotta get up at 4am!)
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Wandering aimlessly on arrival.
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THURSDAY we’re both mostly awake when the alarm goes off. By 5am we’re riding an Albq school bus to the
balloon park. Half an hour later we’re wandering in the dark trying to decide
which section of the 54-football-field venue we should stand in. Only the 6
dawn-patrol balloons are visible (they go up at 6am), but dozens of others are
laid out, waiting for the go-ahead signal for inflation – and as one fills up,
another is spread out. We spend a few minutes next to a family w/ 4 young boys,
all slurping cereal (w/ milk, in paper bowls) on a blanket. Vendors with
glow-toys are everywhere. Soon we find the Dunkin’ Donuts booth and warm up w/
decaf & hot choc (which is hot & filling but tasteless compared to the
from-scratch stuff I make) and fresh donuts.
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Raising the flag for the national
anthem. |
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| Dawn |
Below I'm tracking the inflation/ascent of the RainbowRyder balloons (about 20 all told) that were the first to ascend. These had paying passengers.
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Note difference in height of
people & balloons in each photo. |
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| Fully inflated... |
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| ...first lift off! |
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| Half a dozen up, lots more to follow. |
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| What's on your bucket list? |
I'll share other balloons over the next few days, but I want to close today with 2 shots of one of my favorites. It was on the ground forever, and we really weren't sure what the total package would look like. (And all that orange in front is a completely different balloon - more on it in a day or so.)
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| First peek... |
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| Full frontal stare. 😃 |
And just one more... tonight's sunset horizon.
THURSDAY we’re both mostly awake when the alarm goes off. By 5am we’re riding an Albq school bus to the
balloon park. Half an hour later we’re wandering in the dark trying to decide
which section of the 54-football-field venue we should stand in. Only the 6
dawn-patrol balloons are visible (they go up at 6am), but dozens of others are
laid out, waiting for the go-ahead signal for inflation – and as one fills up,
another is spread out. We spend a few minutes next to a family w/ 4 young boys,
all slurping cereal (w/ milk, in paper bowls) on a blanket. Vendors with
glow-toys are everywhere. Soon we find the Dunkin’ Donuts booth and warm up w/
decaf & hot choc (which is hot & filling but tasteless compared to the
from-scratch stuff I make) and fresh donuts. 
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