They
had all kinds of different shaped and different colored balloons. It was
quite amazing to see.Albuquerque, NM Balloon Festival October 2007
Balloons, balloons everywhere! Meeting Roger in Albuquerque, NM, Eileen and Jen flew from Seattle to join Roger for a few days at the infamous Albuquerque Balloon Festival. Many of Roger and Eileen's friends have flown there or taken their RV's to the festival and Roger had decided that it was time for them to go see this event. Since mom was up in Seattle visiting Jen, Jen felt it would be a fun thing to go see as well, so she headed down with her mom and met up for two nights with the parents. Dad had driven the RV out to Albuquerque, and Jen finally got to spend the night in the RV. The next day was spent at the festival walking around taking picture after picture of balloons and being absolutely amazed at the number of balloons in the sky. There were hundreds of balloons, maybe even a thousand. All I know was it was a sight to see. Plus it was quite interesting at watching how the balloons started as a deflated piece of cloth and then within 30 minutes were taking off into the sky. The cool thing about the festival is that you can be right there on the field with all the balloons while they are taking off. So, you get to see how everything works and I'm sure you could probably help if you asked nicely.
After Jen left to head back to Seattle the next day, Roger and Eileen took off (in the RV, not a balloon) from Albuquerque and headed northeast to Taos, NM. Taos, NM is a true southwest town, pueblos and all. Of course, dad found the fly-fishing shop in town that was also an art gallery. After schmoozing with the owner, he has already began comparing his paintings with hers. Hopefully though, he at least bought a hat or something from her. Maybe even a new dry fly for his tackle box. Anyway, Roger and Eileen said they both had fun in the little town.
Anyway, so here are a bunch of pictures from the balloon festival and few from Taos. Enjoy!
They
had all kinds of different shaped and different colored balloons. It was
quite amazing to see.
How is
it that I'm the guest, yet somehow I'm the one still cooking. Well, at
least it was steak!!
Even
I'm afraid to admit it, but yes...."Father-like-daughter". It is really
scary sometimes seeing just how many things I do that resemble my father.
And yes, those are a few of the remaining
Lobster legs from there prosperous lobster hunt at Catalina. Mother refused
to be in the picture....I wonder why??
There's
mom and I after we arrived at the RV park.
Considering
we got to the festival at around 7am, it was a bit chilly. Mom found a
great place to get warm though. These balloon put out some heat. It
was funny though because after most of the balloons took off, it got noticeably
colder again. And by then it was later in the day too, so it was
interesting to see just how much heat hundreds of balloons will create.
We
got there just in time as they had just started launching the first half of the
balloons. The crowds were starting to fill in nicely.
As they
start filling the balloons, they start competing for space, I guess you could
say.
Here's a brief picture story of how a balloon is prepared to take off. First they lay out the balloon on the field and check it over for defects, then they start blowing in air with a large fan to fill the balloon. Once the balloon is almost filled, they start using the flame thrower things (I'm sorry, I have no idea what it is called) to make the air hot, which in turn makes the balloon start to rise. As the balloon starts to become vertical, one or two people will control the ascent of the balloon, so that it doesn't rise too quickly (I think). Then once everything is a good to go and the passengers are in the basket, the balloon and basket are launched and off they go, with a little help from the ground crew and a lot of hot air.
This is the cool thing about the balloon festival is that you can get right there in the action. Unfortunately, this also brings out the photo ham that my father truly is. Dear god...you nearly just hit that poor older man in the head. Geesh!!!
This
is a good picture just to show how many balloons are in the air. This is
only about a quarter of the balloons too as most had already taken off and flown
for miles with the wind.
Here are some of the different shaped and different colored balloons. We never saw two balloons that were alike.
It's hard
to see, but the night that Jen left, Roger and Eileen went to the "Glo-deo"
which is where they light up the balloons at night. I don't believe they
actually take off, but it's cool to see the different shapes lit up like this.
Here's the
downtown of Taos, NM. Pueblos and tourists without tans. Looks like
many southwestern towns I've been in.
Here's
the Fly Shop and Gallery that my dad found.
And on
their last night in Taos, they got a beautiful sunset. Now if the RV had
just not been in the way as they were taking this picture.