Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

We arrived in Albuquerque Tuesday Oct 4.
We are here as part of an Escapees RV Club rally. Breakfast and dinner are catered. Because of balloon activities, breakfast starts at 5:30 AM. Balloon activities start at 5:45. We forgot that those hours existed.
It started raining 10 minutes after we got here. It rained off and on until Wed evening. Thursday and Friday we had rain or high winds all day. All balloon activities were canceled. Saturday was a beautiful day but cold in the morning. It snowed on the mountains.
Finally the balloons can fly.
We decided to go on the field for launch.
The reason Albuquerque is the "box effect" here. It is the only place to constantly have it. The "box effect" is caused by the different wind currents. The balloon will go in different directions depending on altitude. Different altitudes have different direction winds. A balloon can land where it took off by changing altitude thus changing direction.




The first up carried the flag.

 Then they started inflating. It looks like bedlam but is controlled my the "Zebras". Each balloon crew is told when to start inflating and when to lift off.

 The crowd is allowed to get close, no barriers.
They really lit up good.












 Up, up and away.









 There were lots of different sizes, shapes and colors.

 The basketball

Butterfly













Yogi Bear











Wells Fargo's stagecoach










Some were identical.


Observe how close the crowd is.

Sunglasses










Lots are already in the air.













The clock, Spider Pig, Butterfly and Bees

Uncle Sam

The Alien











looking south












 looking north.

Different altitudes, different directions.








  Starting to inflate.















Leaving the field looking east.










Some got close.












Sunday morning, we decided to stay at the RV. We sat up chairs directly in front of it.

They launched 350 balloons in 1 hour. Most came over us. Some took off, then landed right in front of us and changed gas bottles and passengers.








 Darth Vader flew over.













 The Jester landed and changed passengers.









we had a good view from the RV.















Cathy loved it.










The Stage coach flew over us.













Some of the people we were here with. Our coach was directly to the right.

Behind was some of the balloons that had just gone overhead. Note how low they are.







This was without telephoto.

Spider Pig again.













Some landed in the RV park. This one took off again.











Stagecoach again. He flew over us going both ways.











Time to quit.












People would go out to help them fold it up.


That's it for Albuquerque. We left right after this for The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. I'll have that one out this week.