Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Thursday we arrived at the RV Balloon Fiesta RV parking. There are anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 RV's that get parked here during the 10 day Fiesta. We paid $24.00 a night for dry camping. It's a little pricey, but couldn't be anymore convenient to the Balloon park. We've been riding our bikes over to the Balloon park entrance which is about 1/2 a mile away.

We attended our first event on Thursday evening. It was the special shapes rodeo followed by fireworks. No ballons actually lift off. The various special shaped balloons are inflated and then glow in the dark. About 8:00p.m. there is a firewooks display.

Friday morning we arrived at the balloon park about 7:00a.m. Again, the special shapes were blownup and then lifted off. They were done by about 8:30 or 9:00. Shortly after that the regular balloons took off north of the field and came low over the field for the key grab competition. The ballonist try to grab an envelope off a pole in the middle of the field. They can win a Honda truck or various cash prizes. What seemed like hundreds of balloons came over the field trying to grab the key. It really gives a great view of the different balloons. In the afternoon we went to old town Albuquerque. It was a quite nice day - in the mid 70's. All in all a perfect day.

Saturday morning we arrived again at the park by 7:00a.m. Unfortunately, it was windy. Finally, about 7:45 the balloons started lifting off. Many balloons did lift off - but probably at least half didn't get airborne. This was to be a mass ascension. By 8:30 there were reports of lightening and no more balloons lifted off.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Balloon Museum. This nice museum is located on the road into the balloon park. We happened to enter right when a tour had just started. We joined into the tour and learned lots of interesting information about balloons that have flown around the world and crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific. Also, some interesting info about balloons that were let off by the Japanese from November 1944 to March of 1945. These balloons had bombs attached and actually landed in the United States. They were quite an engineering marvel. The United States government knew they were landing and were fighting the fires caused by the bombs, but asked the press to never report on them landing in the U.S. They didn't want Japan to know that they had actually landed because if the Japanese knew they had been successful they might have loaded them with chemical weapons. Imagine in this day and age the press keeping quiet about something like this!!