Oct 07, 2018
A surprise morning and afternoon
Wow! Colin, get up, now!
The Balloon Fiesta only starts on Saturday, October 6th. We arrived on Thursday the 4th in order to secure a good location to park the RV. For some reason I woke up early on Friday morning and looked out our big front window.
One after another they just kept coming.
Many of these were local companies charging clients to ride in their balloons.
But of course! Love the gold. Did you catch the firing of the burner?
The roof of the RV is bottom left.
We spent a full two hours at the Balloon Museum which is free the first Friday of the month and on Sunday’s from 9AM – 1 PM. So many fascinating facts, at least they were to us. The World Changed Forever. In 1783 man freed himself from the confines of gravity with the intervention of flight. In that year both hot air and gas balloons were invented near Paris, France.
I took this photo so that you could get some information on the first balloons. Be sure to read the bottom line re the heat source.
Replicas of the first balloons flown. The one on the right is often copied.
There are hundreds of displays with so much knowledge. One is a large board with a tiny blue balloon showing when each country first flew a balloon.
For my childhood friend Ena who is Latvian.
Mexico, my second home.
They were late getting into ballooning.
Aerial camera, c. 1910. This camera would have been mounted to the wall or the floor of a balloon to take photos of the landscape below.
I was so fascinated by this museum that I stopped taking photos after 30 minutes. It holds actual balloons of past flights, the differences between the types of balloons, information on round the world balloon circumnavigation, how balloons were used in war, how ballooning was the prelude to today’s astronaut program. We also enjoyed the short 4D movie that made us feel like we were in a balloon. I surprised Colin with a balloon ride for his 40th birthday so we have no desire to do it again. Click here for more information on the museum.
This is how the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta came to be.
We will have some pretty special photos to share, hopefully tomorrow. Between attending the events and editing photos ( both of us ) and writing the blog we are going full tilt. But we are ever so happy 😎
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We really enjoyed the festival. Wait til you see all the shapes that ho up. It really is incredible.
AS COLORFUL AS THESE BALLOONS ARE, WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE ALL THE SPECIAL SHAPES. I CALL THESE JUST REGULAR, COMMERCIAL BALLOONS. WE HAVE A BALLOON FEST HERE IN HAVASU WITH SOME REGULAR SHAPES, AND IRREGULAR SHAPES. I LOVE THE ONE WE NICKNAMED “THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST”. A WITCH RIDING A BROOMSTICK WITH A HUGE POINTED HAT. AND THE GAMES/RACES ARE SO FUN TO WATCH. CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR YOU TO SEE THEM. THEY ARE BREATH TAKING. SKIP TOOK SOME PHOTOS FROM LYING ON THE GROUND AS HIS NECK GOT SORE FROM LOOKING UP.
did you received the photo I sent over on Colin email ?
Wonderful information about the balloons they are amazing to watch, but like the other mentioned wait until you see some of the amazing shapes.
Looks like the weather is cooperating. Beautiful photos tonight and look forward to seeing many more. Enjoy!!!
Contessa, I loved all your posts on the balloonfest – thank you for the wonderful photos as well. I had no idea there was a hot air balloon in Latvia that early! but why not? very cool to see it mentioned.
Best wishes for continued safe travels and daily adventures!