Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/14-16/13

Traveling Home from Albuquerque

Yesterday was the final day of the Balloon Fiesta.  We started driving toward home then spent last night at the Meteor Crater RV Park.  This morning, we continued on the way home.  We drove to the Bullhead City, AZ / Laughlin, NV area where we discovered a great county park along the Colorado River.  It is Davis Camp Park which is one of the Mohave County Parks.  Davis Camp is actually a small village that was built for the workers on the Davis Dam on the Colorado River.  Now the County Parks have made the area into a very nice campground.  There are dry camp areas, full hook up sites and some of the remaining original cottages have been converted to cabins to rent.  The sites are first come first served so, since it was off season, we had lots of choices.  We opted for a site without hookups as the weather was not too warm and cooled off at night and those were right along the river.  This is our campsite for the night of the 14th.

Looking down from a hill that was across from the site.

Right on the river

Earl found some friends

Lots of water sports and activities were going on behind Earl.

We went out to dinner at the Riverside Casino in Laughlin, NV, just across the river.  This was a very nice place to spend the night.

 

The next day, the 15th, we drove to Edwards Air Force Base Famcamp in CA.  We have stayed here many times when we are traveling to the Southwest on I-15, I-40, or I-10.  It is a good distance from home that we can make in a 8 1/2 - 9 1/2 hour drive.  This time, we had an unusual experience,  There was a coyote just passing through the campground.

Just passing through

Coyote in Edwards AFB Famcamp, CA

We drove the rest of the way home on the 16th.  We stopped for dinner at Pea Soup Anderson's in Santa Nella, CA.  Great pea soup and chocolate shake for dinner!

 

We're home now.  I will post more when we take our next trip.

 



Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/13/13

 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Last Day

Today is the last day of the Balloon Fiesta.  We are going to leave today, but really enjoyed the final mass ascension while we ate breakfast.  We sat at the table in the trailer and had a clear view of everything since most of our rally mates left yesterday.  Here is some of what we could see out the window.

View out our window this morning

Some balloons are starting to land in the field

There are still plenty of folks in this camping area.  Some are participant with their hot air balloon equipment, but most are visiting, either as part of a group or individually, just to watch the balloons and experience the many other activities surrounding the Balloon Fiesta.  See how empty the area around us is compared to previous posts. 

Here, you can see how most of the trailers have left our
 area.  We moved the truck to the other side of the trailer.

The balloons are coming closer

To illustrate that the balloons flew over us almost every day, note the balloon overhead reflecting in the hood of the truck.

It is a colorful striped balloon reflecting in the hood
of the truck

We left Albuquerque late morning, but before noon.  Along the way, we passed through the small town of Joseph City, AZ.  There was a very interesting historical marker telling of the fort that was built by the Mormons in 1876.  Originally called Allen's Camp then St. Joseph, in 1878, in honor of Joseph Smith, its name was changed, in 1923, to Joseph City.  It is the oldest Mormon community in AZ.  The marker is made of petrified wood with a plaque on it.

Historical marker in Joseph City, AZ

Here are some close up photos of the petrified wood.  Over many millions of years, minerals have turned the wood into very colorful crystalized rocks.  You can see the tree rings and the bark on the ends of the logs that are now interesting colors depending on what mineral was absorbed by the wood.

We continued a little farther to stay at the Meteor Crater RV Park again, now, on the way home.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/12/13

Adventure Caravans Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Rally Day 9
Saturday, October 12, 2013

This is hitch up day, the last day of the rally.  However, the Balloon Fiesta officially ends tomorrow, so we have extended our stay another day.  Since we weren't going anywhere today, we slept in a little and just observed the balloons that were still up when we got up - no balloon pictures this morning.  By early afternoon, most of our group had left with only the staff and a few participants remaining for today.  All of the electric wiring, the huge generators that provided us with power for the last 9 days and the water pipes that provided us with water faucets to hook up to had been dismantled and stored for future use.  Here we are, now, set up for dry camping all self contained.

Most of our group is gone and we are in wide open spaces.

Late this afternoon we took the shuttle to the balloon launch grounds to see the last balloon glow and fireworks display of the Balloon Fiesta.  There was a very large crowd there, as you can see.

People gathering for the balloon glow and fireworks.

Some others were gathered around the music stage (big white
open tent).  See all of the speakers being held up by cranes. 

Each of the balloons has a chase vehicle that transports the balloon/envelope and the basket/gondola to the launch area and follows it, as it is blown by the wind, to pick it up after it lands.  Here are a couple colorful ones.

This one is for the Woman and the Shoe.

Her is the chase vehicle for the Sunday Cruise balloon.
The pilot is getting the gondola ready and testing the burners.

I may have mentioned, in an earlier post, that the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is one of the very few venues that allows the public to be on the field as the balloons prepare to launch.  We never went to the morning mass ascensions because we are not early risers and everything got started in the launch area between 4:30 and 5:00 AM.  Besides, the balloons all came to us each morning anyway.  If we had gone, we would have experienced the same thing as for the balloon glow, they just are tethered for the glow and don't launch AND it was much warmer than those early morning hours.  This is what it looks like as the balloons are inflating.

Balloons are starting to inflate.  First a fan blows air into the
envelope.  Then the air is heated after it is mostly full of
cold air.  That causes it to rise.

The pilot almost has this one upright.  It takes a lot of people
to hold lines and the gondola until everything is ready.

Here are some other balloons that we saw while we walked around and where they are from.

Sunny Days from NM

Dino the Dinosaur I couldn't find him in
 my guide book

Party Panda from CA

Standing in the middle of the field and looking both directions, we see that it looks like most of the balloons are ready for the glow.  There are some shapes and other very colorful balloons.


Now for the sunset and the glow.  See how close we are?  Sometimes an announcement was made and the balloons would all light up at once or other times they would do a synchronized pulse of light.

After the balloon glow and all of the balloons have been deflated and put away, there is a fireworks display, both aerial and ground.  They don't want any stray embers from the fireworks to burn holes into the balloons.  It was a very nice show.  Here are some interesting ones.

I like the stare effect

These look like giant sparklers that were stuck in the ground.

We made our way back to camp and relaxed.  Tomorrow we will be packing up and starting our trip home.

Albuquerque Internationa Balloon Fiesta 10/11/13

Adventure Caravans Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Rally Day 8
Friday, October 11, 2013

This is the last full day of the Rally and it is a free day for us to do what we want until it is time for the Traditional Farewell Dinner.  The weather was much better this morning and the Special Shapes Mass Ascension was especially great.  There were hundreds of balloons in the air, as you can see in these photos.  This is just a portion of what could be seen as we scanned the sky around us. The balloons come from around the world, for example...

Top Row (L -R) Eddie and Rickenbacker 1926 U. S. Army Air Corps from CA; (the tail of a yellow fish) Gus T.
Guppy from MN; Coco the Clown from MO.
Bottom Row (L -R) Jack (as in the box) from KS; Yellow Car from Germany; Cosmos 1 from TX; American
Rocket from IN

Top (L -R) Hopper T. Frog (green) from UT; Cosmos 1; Basketball from Brazil; Oogy the Friendly Dragon from IN.
Middle Left group - Little Wizard from Brazil; Centr Stage (Wells Fargo) from NM; Triple Clown from Brazil; buddy Beaver from AZ.
Bottom of photo - Miss Daisy from SC; Rocket Boy from Brazil; Old Lady and the Shoe from TX (behind cow leg);
 Airabelle from Canada

Here are some close ups.

Cosmos 1 front view. Note the sun rising
over the earth reflected in his visor.

Scarecrow from Indiana

Farm Chicken from Brazil

Sunday Cruise from NM

Like I said before, we were right where the action was.  Here you can see that we were right near where one of the large balloons landed and the process of deflation.



Arky from OR

Getting ready to deflate.  Note the yellow tarp to protect the
envelope/balloon.  The people with maroon jackets are with
our group.  This is how close we were.

 

Almost down

 

 

Now a small package to go into the chase vehicle



Although the rally is finished after tomorrow's mass ascension, the actual Balloon Fiesta is not finished until Sunday, so we have decided to stay for another day so we can avoid the mass exodus of those who have to travel home so they can be at work on Monday morning.  We did a little packing up and getting ready for dry camping.  Since we were with the Adventure Caravans group, we had water and electricity during the rally, but that will be disconnected tomorrow around noon.  We also had the pumping of our tanks included in our rally fee, so we are set for a few days without hookups.  We also did some shopping to pick up some supplies, while we were in a larger metropolitan area.

The Farewell Dinner was wonderful.  The staff had cooked all day to prepare a delicious grilled steak dinner, with all the trimmings, for over 150 people. 

Ready for dinner inside the tent looking toward the serving
line.  Earl bottom left.

Looking toward the back of the tent.

There were some speeches and lots of conversations with our new found friends and fellow rally participants.  Perhaps we will run into them again on a future Adventure Caravans trip.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 10/10/13

Adventure Caravans Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Rally Day 7
Thursday, October 10, 2013

It was very windy and rain was predicted for this morning, so the mass ascension was cancelled for today.  This was a very busy tour day with the Adventure Caravaners.  We left early to take a walking tour of Old Town Albuquerque.  The town was founded in 1706, so many of the buildings in this area are well over 300 years old and have been restored and repurposed for modern times.  There is a central Plaza as there is in most cities in the Southwest and areas with Spanish/Mexican heritage. 

Old Town Albuquerque Plaza

Life revolves around this Plaza anchored by the San Filipe de Neri Church on one side.  This church is the oldest church in Albuquerque and has been serving its parishioners continuously since 1706.

San Felipe de Neri Church

Behind the church, there is an old tree trunk that was carved by a parishioner in 1970.  It is known by several names - Virgin de Guadalupe in the Cottonwood tree, Cottonwood Madonna, Virgin of the Tree, to name a couple.  We would never have seen this if our guide had not told us that it was there, because it faces a courtyard at the back of the church and not the street side where the sidewalk is.  (note the street and store behind the tree trunk on the right)

  Cottonwood Madonna, Virgin of the Tree

Here are some buildings that are located on two of the other three sides of the Plaza.

Hacienda del Rio Restaurant

Covered Wagon Store

We walked around the Old Town after the formal tour and saw this statue of Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdes, the founder of Albuquerque, in a small park at the entrance to Old Town.

Don Francisco Cuervas y Valdes

Our tour continued to the Turquoise Museum, where we learned about how turquoise was mined and its contribution to the southwestern and Native American cultural heritage.  We were told that it is easy to imitate turquoise and we should always ask if it is "natural turquoise" not if it is "real" because anything that is in front of you is real.  Well, of course we had to get some "natural turquoise" earrings.  No photos were allowed in this museum.  While we were inside, the rain began to pour!!!

Our last stop, for the tour, was the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center  in Albuquerque.  It is dedicated to preserving and perpetuating the Pueblo Indian culture, history and art and provides education about the indigenous people of New Mexico.  No photos were allowed here either, however, the dance demonstration did allow pictures to be taken, if we acknowledged the center with a link, so I did.  The dance had to be inside because of the rain, but normally it is outside in a courtyard.

Buffalo Dance

Drummers and Singers for the Buffalo Dance

After we got back to camp, there was still too much wind for the huge special shapes balloon glow, so we stayed in for the evening.