Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - anyone else going?

[ependydad]

Fiesta, Opening Weekend, continued

Many people worry about the socialization aspect of fulltime life as a family on behalf of my kids. We have times where we get lonely but we have many more times that we have as much or more socialization than we can handle. My daughter had been running low on connections but was able to reconnect with a few friends and make new friendships with others.



Anyway, more balloons - it just never stops being cool:


Sunday afternoon, we stayed in and hung out with the Fulltime Families group as the rally wrapped up. We did get to catch the tops of the fireworks.

[ependydad]

Moved Campsites & Work-week

On Monday, we started the day with my daughter crewing and the rest of us watching the balloons from the south lot. I had to work Monday-Friday and it was hard to ignore the sweet siren's song of the propane burners. The life of a working stiff. But, my daughter went over every one and her Grandpa went over most mornings.



As terrifying as it is, my son loves being on the roof with me. And he's starting to fall in love with the camera like his big sister:


After she crewed, we moved over to the VIP North lot over my lunch break. They were beta testing it this year and next year will be charging $100/night for these spots! Our friends who caught up with us at High Desert got to the Fiesta on the first day of camping at the Fiesta (Monday) and got a front-row spot. We somehow sweet talked the parking crew into giving us an open spot only 4 or so down from them. Which means, we lucked into a beautiful front-row spot. From my roof, there were no obstructions between the Fiesta field and me!



I've never been happy with how far my tailpipe stuck out for the generator. And adding an adapter for the Genturi, it stuck out even more. So "we" cut it back so I can leave the adapter permanently installed.




Monday evening, we went over to see the gas "racing" balloons launch. It wasn't a race as much as it was a challenge to see who could go the farthest. The balloons are filled with hydrogen and will fly for 2-4 days typically. The pilots have to let out a bit of hydrogen during the day when the sun heats it up to keep the balloon fabric from bursting and then at night have to lighten their load to keep the balloon aloft. They carry quite a bit of sand and dump it out scoopfuls at a time.

The shortest distance was Albuquerque to Nebraska. The farthest distance was the southwest shore of the Hudson Bay in Ontario, Canada. You can see the map here:
https://balloonfiesta.com/Americas-Challenge-Live

It was really neat to see the setups and watch them launch each of the 9 balloons.

Walking over, my wife exclaimed about the beautiful sunset. Turns out, it was nice but her sunglasses really made it pop!


There were 3 tractor trailers with hydrogen. They took a few hours to fill the balloons.


I talked to these French pilots briefly. Each balloon had a solar panel they hung from the side. I asked this pilot about battery- he said it was a lead acid battery. I asked, "isn't that heavy?" He smiled and said, "yeah, but we couldn't bring out light ones on the airplane."


This balloon had roll-down sides for keeping weather out:


The chase vehicles had 2-3 people and they would change off drivers to try and keep up with the balloons.


Random fiesta gate at night:

[ependydad]

Moved Campsites & Work-week, continued

Tuesday morning, I tried to stay in and ignore the balloons. It didn't work. Here is the view from my bedroom window looking towards the front of my rig:


I stepped out and took a few pictures:




And then I got on the roof:






My mother-in-law:


My home:


I went up to the fence separating the RV lot from the Fiesta field. My wife called for me and pointed that Humpty Dumpty landed in the RV park.


While back there, the Phillips 66 balloon landed nearby:

[ependydad]

Moved Campsites & Work-week, continued

After work, I had to empty tanks as everyone got a shower. Came close to another mess! I didn't fully close the sewer gate valve.


On Wednesday morning, Grandpa caught this beautiful picture of my daughter while they were "weight on" the basket to keep it grounded until it was time to launch:


she was treated to a flight that morning:


Meanwhile, my son and I were on the camper roof again:




We went out to dinner with the owners of Fulltime Families as a thank-you for helping them with the rally. Really it was my wife that worked so hard, I just sort of showed up. Dinner was at Monroe's. Great food and so many laughs. Here are my stuffed carne adovado sopapillas:


One of the downsides of the north lot is that there are no water spigots. So while we dropped our friends off, I topped up with water at 10pm. Good thing, too. We ran totally out that night before I pushed it into the camper the next morning:


I run all of my water through my filter before the freshwater tank so it's sparkly clean.


Apparently Thursday and Friday mornings, I took exactly 0 pictures of balloons. I know I went on Facebook live either on Learn to RV or on our family page: Our Now Or Never. But I did get this picture of my father-in-law trying to diagnose the generator issue:


I did walk over to the field to say hi to a friend who I worked with back in Virginia.

There were no afternoon sessions until Thursday when they started the Glows again. Unfortunately, Thursday was winded-out entirely for the Special Shapes Rodeo.

Friday morning, the cold was in full effect! It was 33 outside at 8am:

[ependydad]

Closing Weekend

And Friday evening, my family went over for the Special Shapes Glow where I got to meet a couple of FROGS. Unfortunately I got there late and it was a short visit. But still great to put a face to the names. Even more unfortunately, no pictures! Here's a shot of the Smurf balloon with sky divers in the background:



Saturday morning, I helped crew again. A special memory for me was helping to rig the basket and being directed by my teenage daughter on the proper way to do it. She has really learned a ton with this and had no problems being assertive (but not rude), "here's how you need to do it." Being the "big boy", I was put out to the crown line (rope from the top of the balloon which helps keep it from rolling and flopping up too quickly).

Before I left, I setup my phone on the roof and started a timelapse video. Unfortunately, the iPhone drops frames to keep the resulting timelapse video to 20-40 seconds. But it still looks pretty cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqvJHAiM36U

My daughter talked me into joining the chase crew. I wasn't going to go as it looked crowded in the truck (F150 with a very short bed). I ended up in the truck bed with a couple of others. But I'm glad I did, it was a "I'd really like to do that one day" kind of things. And, we got treated to breakfast by the pilot + his wife afterwards. Plus, we got to help catch a frog balloon that took some nasty hops (like so bad, I don't know how the people stayed in the basket!).

Saturday afternoon, we ate an early dinner of burgers and dogs on the grill and then headed over to the glow, sky divers, and fireworks.









And, courtesy of my son- my wife watching the skydivers:

[ependydad]

Closing Weekend, continued

On Sunday, my son and I were signed up to crew. I had joked with the crew chief that I volunteer to be on the crown line. She laughed and offered me a spot holding the balloon's mouth open while it gets inflated. This is a bucket-list level thing for me and I was uber excited!

For the cold inflation, it's just 1 or 2 gas powered fans and you hold it open. It's windy but really so cool to see the balloon inflate.

My son even helped once it came time to hot inflation. Your job on the mouth is to hold the ropes back from the flame. He did awesome and stuck with it for most of the time (really until it came time to start standing the basket up).







I left my phone on the roof again and tried a different app for a timelapse video. Sadly, the video was longer but truncated and the exposure was terrible. So it was a loss. I did grab my daughter's phone to take a few pictures.









And then while standing there, we realized that the sun would get eclipsed by balloons periodically. I stood and waited and kept missing the shot until I finally got these two:

[ependydad]

Rolling Out

Back in 2017, we stayed around until Tuesday as it's my standard travel day. That was a sight to see. The campers largely dispersed on Sunday. By Monday, there were just a few stragglers. On Tuesday, it was just us and friends and no one else! For 2018, they made a rule that everyone had to leave on Monday. I like to believe that was inspired by me.

We had to be in Austin by today (Tuesday, the 15th) and that's pert near 700 miles away. So, after crewing in the bright and early morning, and then making 2 dump station runs (mine and my friend's camper), we shoved off and headed eastward. My in-laws headed to a hotel for a long shower and some recovery time.

I'm thankful that my wife drives as she told me to get in the passenger seat and nap. I did- slept for about an hour and a half. I offered to drive and jokingly said I didn't want to. She drove all 250 miles for the day to a free RV park in Muleshoe, TX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLpzTDjo1yM

We did another 390 miles yesterday to a Walmart in Lampasas, TX. $80 is grocery spending.. man, that wasn't cheap!



And today landed in a nice RV park near Austin.

[ependydad]

And lastly, if you've made it this far, here is my album of 200+ photos on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougse...57711126223178

And here is my album from High Desert RV Park:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougse...57711022753186

[5picker]

Thanks Doug!
Excellent!

[dblr]

Thanks Doug and great pictures, sounds like it was a great time, now to try and plan when we can finally get to see it.

[Cowracer]

I don't need to go now. Doug has done it all for me.

Thanks!

Tim

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Cowracer

I don't need to go now. Doug has done it all for me.

Thanks!

Tim

LOL. The pictures and even video just aren't the same as being there. Neat, but man is it cool to walk among the balloons as they're inflating them. (Note, pilots get persnickety if you say 'blowing them up'.)

[tlspencer]

Generally when you have to pay separately for electricity, they will read the meter when you get there and then when you leave, and they figure what you pay based on their charges per kw and you pay before you leave.

[UYAWNT2]

I flew 7 of the 9 days! I buzzed you Doug on one of the last days.

[mshenygo]

Thanks Doug for the pics, they are awsome! Just told the DW we are going there!

[ZBill]

Originally Posted by shelkol

Shot this photo and thought it appropriate for this group. Been in the south lot, have not run into any FROGs

This was the day after Fiesta from the Official's West Lot.

[mdstudey]

That was wonderful Doug. You have some lucky kids to have such adventurous parents. So many experiences to carry them into adulthood.

[ependydad]

Thank you all for the kind words.

[Tigger1]

Originally Posted by ependydad

Thank you all for the kind words.

Great photos!

We were there last year but not in a camper. It’s a must see event and we want to return some day!

[mjones12]

Excellent report. Thanks for taking the time to do it.