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.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

We landed in Flagstaff, AZ in anticipation of a few restful days. The infamous Route 66 runs through Flagstaff, AZ.

 I would imagine, you would believe traveling the way we do, it is not hectic, tiring, or pressured. Although it is alot of fun. At times it is very stressful. Not to take away the appreciation we have for what we are able to do and see, but I have been astray, health wise, for a couple of weeks. My shoulder hurts all day and night, and lately I have been lethargic and weak. My shoulder I can handle with ibuprofen until getting home. The tiredness and weakness is driving me crazy-ER. Lol.

After researching on Web-MD, I was confident I have Mono. But today, I woke up at 8am, and so far, 8 hours later, I’m still good to go. Tommy is convinced I am just physically exhausted. We run around and around everyday, every place we stop. We try to get in all that there is to see and never just sit around the RV park like most RV’ers do.

This trip, this year, we have, up until now.... driven and explored over 11k miles, in 5 months, and are still over 2k miles from home.

 Albuquerque is our last major stop before going home. I am very much looking forward to getting home. Although, I am truly excited to participate in the balloon fiesta.

In flagstaff, we looked at several houses, all to no avail. It is so frustrating to find a new place to settle without making you broke, or having to rip apart an older house and re do the entire structure. We have done that in our Florida home and are not interested in remodeling again.

seismic meter

molten lava

One night while in Flagstaff we visited to the U.S. Navel Observatory. It was the only night of the year that it is open to the public. Our timing seems to be impeccable sometimes. Unfortunately, the weather that evening did not cooperate.  We were able to see the moon and its craters up close.

lava rock

We were not able to see Jupiter or its moons. Nor were we able to see any constellations. The dome in where you observe is a very complicated piece of equipment. The entire roof of the observatory rotates and opens in panels as the astronomer programs it to a certain place in the sky. Once a desired location is achieved there is a lens you look through to see the astonishing, illusory, ’out of this world’, vision. It truly is amazing to take into account what is above our atmosphere at all times of the day and night.
We additionally visited Sunset Crater National Monument. I was not prepared at all. I did not wear hiking boots and was under the weather by the time we arrived. We did get out of the car and look around for a while but not long enough for any good mentioning. We did walk on lava rock and it was pretty interesting looking. I am sure we would have enjoyed hiking up to the  actual volcano. However, I did get yet another cancellation in my passport book which made me happy.


We spent Sunday afternoon downtown Flagstaff, which is historic and very impressive. We hung out in a sports bar and watched football. We still do not have our new Dish Network receiver so unless the campground we stay at offers cable, we have no TV. Our new a receiver was shipped to my cousins house in Albuquerque, so as of the end of this week we should be back in business. YEAH!!

The greater part for me in Flagstaff was dinner at Black Bart’s. It is a saloon venue with authentic memorabilia everywhere you look.  It is over priced to say the least, but the entertainment is a lot of fun. Dinner consisting of a 9 oz. prime rib with baked potato and side salad = $30. Vegetables, bread, drinks, and anything else you request, is Ala carte. It was a very expensive dinner for not so great food. I’d say mediocre at best. Total bill was over $100.

What made it pleasurable nonetheless was the staff. You do not just have one server. All the servers help all the tables all the time. Also, at any given moment the staff would break out in song. They would intermittently join together on the stage with a piano player, or sometimes just stop where they stood and belt out an old Showtime tune. Tommy knew none of the songs which made it uninteresting for him. He kept saying it was merely a big karaoke contest. I loved it. They sang songs from Oklahoma, Fiddler On The Roof, the Music Man, etc. Tunes from all the plays I was dragged to as a child at the Jones Beach Theatre and hated back then, but  appreciate so much today.

the servers/entertainers

On the way out of the restaurant we dropped in on the saloon. I started taking pictures and chatting with the people at the bar. It turns out that one of the guys I chatted most with was the manager. OPPPS, found that out after I berated the menu! BUT I did say I enjoyed the entertainment and the ambiance! 

The Black Bart’s Saloon is arduous to find. It is located inside the RV park in which we stayed. It is a big tourist attraction. It was packed every night, with a waiting period. 

Black Bart himself, was notorious for robbing stage coaches during the time frame of 1875-1883. What made him so ‘famous’ was the fact that he always left behind a poem after a robbery. He never killed or hurt anyone. He would never take a woman’s purse and he always used an UN loaded shotgun. His poem was as follows:

    So here I stood while wind and rain
    Have set the trees scrubbin’
    I risked my life for the damned stage
    That wasn’t worth a robbin’

Eventually he was apprehended and sent to San Quinton. He served a 5 year prison sentence, after which, he disappeared forever.

We are now on our way to Albuquerque NM and will stop at the Painted Desert/Forest National Park along the way. Thanks for reading.