Playing Catch-up Again

Ok, let's see, where are we now. Oh, yeah, back in Arizona after a week in New Mexico. The balloon fiesta in Albuquerque was fantastic. We sure are glad we parked right on the park grounds because the traffic trying to get into the facility in the early morning was backed up for miles, according to the local news stations. Also, the early morning events started at 5:45 AM. Ouch. But we did not shirk them and we are so glad we did not.

The morning started out with the Dawn Patrol, a group of balloons which would launch before dawn to "prove" the wind direction and speed before the mass ascension. This was more than just balloons in the dark, because they would do some "all burn" and "flicker burn" maneuvers  to light up the morning sky. It was quite colorful.

At 7:00 AM the rest of the balloons would begin inflating and launching into the sky as soon as they were ready. By this time the sky was light and by the time the last balloons lifted off, the sun would be bright over the Sierra Madre mountains. The best thing about these balloon launches was that the public was able to mix and mingle with the balloons and launch crews right on the field as they wished. It was quite something to see these huge balloons inflate, rise over you head, and then rise into the morning air. Each time one lifted off there would be a cheer from the crowd right around it.

The first morning we saw the mass ascension, it was just the special shapes balloons. The other balloons were at another site to the northwest of the field. After the special shapes were all launched, they clear the field and set up targets for the other balloons, which then flew into the filed, dropped markers into the targets, and tried to retrieve envelopes form tall poles. This was the "keygrab" competition and it was quite something to watch. It is amazing show the pilots can actually do some fine controlled maneuvering of the balloons. It would get really interesting when there were several balloons really close together over the field jockeying for position and "kissing" each other to get to the targets and poles.

The after noons would be relaxed and the balloon crews would do maintenance and rest up. Then in the evening, they would get back onto the field and inflate, but not fly. They would then do a "Glodeo" in which they would light their burners all at once or in a flickering pattern to make everyone "oooo" and "aaaah". It was very colorful. The evening would then be topped off with a fireworks show.

On the second full day there, we got up early to see the dawn patrol (5:45 AM!) and then to watch the mass ascension of all of the balloons, both special shapes and the “regular” balloons. I set up the video camera and shot 90 minutes of the activity. Then I put it all on

Mass Ascension

my computer and compressed it to run in 2 minutes. It is pretty cool and you can see it here on YouTube. We had 3 days of great fun, until the last evening, when the winds decided to kick up and they had to cancel the balloons. They still did the fireworks, so all was not lost. The last morning, they were supposed to do another mass ascension as a farewell but the winds were still too high. We were so glad we did not wait until the last day to see that.