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.