The Butterfly - new

The Basketball - new to our team

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Keystone Cop - sold on 1st flight

Albuquerque is the Southwestern home to a colorful collection or art, culture and nature. It is abundant with affordability, accessiblility and authenticity. It is insirpired by Native American and Hispanic culture, diverse attractions for all ages, dramatic landscapes and and a mild, sunny climate ideal for year-round outdoor activities.

Wednesday we arrived in Albuquerque NM for the 40th annual Balloon Fiesta. We came here last year and became captivated. It is ‘The Greatest Show Off Earth!’

 The balloons launching area is the size of 54 football fields.

tick tock - new to my team

Wednesday night we had dinner at this awesome Mexican restaurant called El Pinto. The proprietorship is held by two brothers. The atmosphere is  exceptionally beautiful. They have 15 foot tall water falls throughout the establishment. The bar area sits close to 100 people. They have mariachi bands walking around, oh, and the margaritas? To die for!

 

Janeyl and Sire

Glowdeo

We elected to find open seating in the bar area because the wait was over an hour to be seated in the restaurant. (Even though the dining room area serves 250). We settled in on a high top. Next to us was a party of 4, also at a high top. Soon after sitting, Tommy leaned over to the girl sitting at the table next door and inquired how the margaritas were. She was fully dressed in tattoos. Bleach blonde hair with black roots. She wore a biker tee shirt with skulls and bones on the back. She responded to Tommy, with his long, Jesus like hair style and scruffy, unshaven face with ‘Um they are good, here want a taste? She says this as she lifts her glass and offers it to Tommy. He says, no, no, I just was wondering if they were too sour. Her response; F@&* it, take it, try it, they’re good! AND HE DID!! Then he proceeded to hand me the glass for a taste. I was shocked he took a sip of her drink. I did not. We ordered are own. They were good, we each had a two.

back side of tick tock

Needless to say, we have made more friends. They were all from Denver and flew in on one of gentlemen’s private plane. He being the pilot. This gave Tommy and him plenty to talk about being Tommy is also a pilot. There was another couple along our new friend, Bethany and the pilot. We chatted all throughout dinner and shared appetizers, along with drinks. Tommy ordered frozen margaritas, and Bethany had on the rocks, so he and Bethany switched back and forth during the meal.  Bethany and I traded FB contacts and phone #’s. We continued to talk for the rest of their visit. They had rented an RV and were staying at the same park as us.  We invited them to come to FL anytime they could, and they reciprocated with us being invited to Denver, anytime. They were a lot of fun; we really had a good time with them. They flew back home on Friday morning.



Thursday, 5AM came quick. We headed over to the field where our crew was, and reacquainted ourselves again. This year they had 5 balloons to fly. 3 of them were brand new. The Farm Chicken was a repeat from last year along with the Scarecrow. The new ones were the Keystone Cop, Tick Toc, and the Basketball. I crewed on the Keystone Cop. Unfortunately a front was coming through and the winds were too high so we only tethered and did not fly. If the winds are higher that 5-6 mph it is unsafe to fly the special shape balloons.

One of the core reasons Albuquerque is chosen for this massive festival is because of its box winds, and weather. The box winds simply put mean that at certain levels of ascension, the winds change directions, therefore allowing you to guide your balloon in the direction you want to fly and land. They winds are consistent and the pilots love it. There are 550 registered balloons here this year. The weather this time of year is genuinely clear and beautiful.

Thursday night’s Glowdeo was cancelled because of the weather. It rained too heavily all day. Glowdeo is when all the balloonist tether down and light up all at once. It is outstanding. They did, however, shoot off fireworks.

Friday morning again we woke at 5AM watched the news for weather and again, the mass ascension was cancelled. The rain came through from the northwest and lasted until early Saturday morning. Which meant Friday night’s Glowdeo was also cancelled. We had the day off and were glad for it. We went out for breakfast around 7am, came back to the camper, and both went back to bed. We hung around the camper until dinner time. We found this local burger place called 5 star burgers. They were the best. Everything they serve in this area has chili peppers on it. The peppers incorporated themselves with the burgers and were scrumptious.  We ate at the bar and had a good time with the bartender. The chef came out and chatted with us for a while and we had a lot of laughs.

Saturday morning,  we woke up a little later - 6am. The weather is beautiful. Cold, but clear, sunny, and low winds. We bundled up and headed to the field. Because the grounds were saturated our pilots choose not to fly. The main reason being they have a balloon business in Brazil. They create and manufacture these special shape balloons back in Brazil. They bring them here, fly them, get exposure, and sell them. If they were to lay the balloons out on the grass they would get dirty and heavy from the mud. BTW, the Keystone Cop sold the first time up in flight.

this is what we woke up to Sunday morning

The average cost of a regular hot air balloon is $25k. A special shape balloon could cost up to $85k, depending on how much material is used and how complicated the pattern is. Last year Sponge Bob Squarepants sold for $80k and the Haunted House sold for $60k. The approximate cost per flight in fuel is $400-500 for an hour in the air. It is hobby not for the meek of means.

There will be a Glowdeo tonight but my crew will not participate in that either. They have an annual party on the Saturday night before the end of the festival. Which ends tomorrow. They never fly on the last day, Sunday, because they have a lot of people and a lot of equipment to prepare to fly back home. So we are done. We are actually relieved . W can go tonight and tomorrow as spectators and shoot tons of pictures. Im not sure how I will be able to choose which ones to use in the blog. There are so many new balloons this year. I love them all.


The Glowdeo was wonderful. We took Janeyl with us. She is my 4th cousin. My cousin Michelle lives in Rio Rancho which is suburb of Albuquerque. Janeyl is Michelle’s daughter. We also took her to Sade’s for dinner. Man oh Man, the only thing we ate was the sopapillas,(little puffy dough that is drizzled with honey), because everything was WAY too hot to ingest. We literally could not eat our meals.

A staple of Albuquerque's cuisine since Spanish colonist introduced it centuries ago, chile peppers are on the menu morning, noon and night. they do NOT exaggerate when they say they are HOT!!!

Sunday morning while lying in bed we heard whoosh, whoosh, whoosh and immediately knew what it was. There were balloons flying over our camper. We turned the coffee maker on and ran outside with the camera. Holy Crow!!! There must have been close to 300 balloons all around us.

In the middle of the RV park where we were staying, there is a 4-5 acre empty lot. It is left empty because it seems to be a popular spot for the pilots to land. We were ecstatic that we slept in (7am) and stayed at the camp site, as opposed to going over to the field. The show was colossal.

Sunday, the last day of the festival was the best  experienced this year. We have decided not to volunteer any longer and just be spectators from now on. It is so physically difficult to participate in the launching and chasing and we were relieved we had limited responsibility this year.

Sunday evening we met up with Michelle and her boyfriend Ray, along with another couple for dinner at the Olive Garden. We had a great meal and a lot of fun. It was wonderful to spend time with my cousin and her family and friends.

We will leave here Monday morning and head straight home. Stopping only if something intrigues us to stay. We are both looking very much so to getting home this year. We have moved around a lot more often than we did last year, and can’t wait to just stay put.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we did watching the balloons in flight. Thanks for reading.