10-09-09

I got up at 6:30 to go check out the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta which coincidently was taking place while I was in town. I figured I’d be the only one there that early in the morning. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s the largest balloon event on Earth with over 600 balloons, the largest international event held in the US and also the most photographed event on Earth. About 100,000 people attend it each year.
Parking was $10 and admission $6. I found a strip mall parking lot about a mile away and parked my Jeep for free. The line up of cars for the $10 parking stretched back to where I had parked. For once my cheapness worked in my favor. I walked past the line of cars and got to Balloon Fiesta Park before they did.
As I walked in to the park, Dawn Patrol was taking place. They send up some balloons just before sunrise to get a feel of the conditions.
At 7:00 was the Special Shapes Rodeo, a launching of balloons that are anything other than the usual round shape. Almost anything imaginable took to the sky. Crowd favorites included; Darth Vader, The Space Shuttle and a beer mug.
It was fun for me to hear two local radio announcers call the play by play. One of them was a ballooner and had some great insight into what was happening. Of course they cunningly worked in a lot of plugs for local advertisers.
After the Special Shapes Rodeo was the Bean Bag Toss and Key Grab. Hundreds of balloons came over the horizon toward the park and attempted to drop their bean bag closest to targets and grab keys off of long poles that stuck up into the air. The skill of the pilots was very impressive. The crowd would watch with anticipation as a balloon would get close to a pole, then all at ounce shout, “OOH!” as the key would be inches out of reach, or “YAY!” when someone would grab one. One of the 5 keys had a certificate for a brand new hot air balloon. All of the keys were taken, so someone did win the grand prize.
I overheard a local woman in the crowd say, “There’s just no Albuquerque Box today, it‘s too warm”. I had to ask, “What’s the Albuquerque Box?” She explained that that’s why the fiesta is in Albuquerque. The conditions create a situation where near the ground the wind blows north, then up above that the wind blows south. A skilled pilot can go round and round over the field like a ferris wheel. She went on to explain a lot of interesting balloon knowledge. I said, “You should be up there doing play by play”.
After enjoying the amazing balloon display and thousands of smiling kids of all ages I walked back to my Jeep and drove to the bus to head south to Texas. As I left I felt sad to leave Albuquerque. It was such a wonderful city to stumble upon.
It took several hours to reach Texas. El Paso traffic was busy, but I made it through just fine. After El Paso, traffic thinned out to virtually nothing.
I stopped for the night at a small rest area just past Van Horn on Interstate 10. Before I went to bed I adjusted my fog lights. It was the first time I was parked in the dark with a long stretch of pavement before me, without anyone to disturb in the way.