Thursday-Albuquerque

Special shapes Rodeo is today and tomorrow, so everyone except for the special shapes and the ride balloons launch out of the ravel pit. For the first time of the event we had a box, though there was a slight westward drift with each pass.

Short on time again today as we are headed to the tram. Will try to write more tonight after the Special Shapes Glow.

Fiesta continues!

Had another nice flight again this morning. Flew from north to south and landed in the Office Max parking lot with a few other balloons. Unfortunately, one of the balloons got a little cold and ended up burning several panels while waiting for his crew. A few Red Bull girls chased us down at the landing site, and gave us all free samples of Red Bull. Rich was in the first wave, so again don't have a lot of balloon pictures. While Rich and Mike were in propane, I met really nice mounted officer riding around the balloon field named Deirdre.

Short on time as we are headed to the zoo party, will write more later.

Dawn Patrol.

Mass Ascension with three targets south of the field.

View looking north towards the balloon field.

The crew with the Red Bull girls.

The stork.

Deirdre and Banjo.

Deirdre, Banjo and me

Day of Highs contines...

After a cool yet high flying morning, we set out to visit Tinker Town and conquer the Sandia Peak. Tinker Town was one man's self created collection of Americana. They had a boat that had sailed around the world (it took 10 years to do it), lots of old time circus paraphenlia, and lots of active displays. While at Tinker Town, we were buzzed by a gas balloon traveling back to the north at around 10,000 feet agl. The balloons should be headed north into the central plains over the next 24 hours. To follow the latest location of the balloons, click here.

From Tinker Town, we climbed to the top of Sandia Peak. This is the top of the mountain that overlooks Albuquerque. At that elevation, the temperature was a balmy 41 degrees F.

One of the many bottles in the walls at Tinker Town.

Glass bottle walls.

Thoughts to live by from Tinker Town.

Gas balloon as viewed from Tinker Town.

Mike, Rich and I at the top of Sandia Peak. Toward the top of the picture, you can see a gas balloon flying by.

Here is a picture of the snow at 10,400 feet. As you can see, I was dressed appropriately. ;-)

Flying High (or low)

I had the opportunity to fly with Rich and Rick (one of our crew members) this morning. Because of the marginal conditions on Monday morning, everyone except for the ride balloons was give a task to fly in to play Texas Hold'em. Despite the prevailing east to west flow, many ended up launching from the gravel pit to play the early morning drainage winds. We took nearly 40 minutes to get from our launch point to our landing point just south of the field. Throughout the flight, we did not climb more than a few hundred feet above the ground. Many of the pictures are zoomed out as much as possible (that is how much congestion there was).

Gas Balloons Away!

Monday night 17 gas balloons launched from the Fiesta grounds. The launch was an hour or two after dark, and despite trying several different battery combinations, I ran out of juice. The experience was beyond words.

Short on time, more pictures to come...