Balloon Fiesta 2007

Well, it's that time again this year. Time for the balloons to fill the skies of Albuquerque for 14 days! This year we had some good friends from Kansas come and enjoy it with us for a weekend. Scott & Amy Vogt and their kids, Alyson, Zachary, and Jordyn and Faith Loomis drove 12+ hours just to see us and a couple of balloons. :)

Thursday, 10/4/07 - The trip was fairly uneventful (as uneventful as a 12-hour ride with 3 kids -10, 8, and 6 can be!) until they got into Albuquerque. That's when they didn't quite exit I-25 just right and ended up touring the little village of Corrales...at 25 mph! They later found out they were probably less than a 1/4 mile from the road they wanted, but they didn't realize it, so they went back through the village...at 25 mph...to find where they turned wrong. They arrived safe and sound and ready to eat some of Melissa's Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas...mmmmm!

Friday 10/5/07 - Melissa had to work Friday morning and the kids went to school, so the Vogts, Faith and Jarrod went to Santa Fe for the morning. Scott is a horticulturist at the Arboretum in Hesston, KS and there is a large nursery in SF that he wanted to visit. We spent about an hour there before going down to the plaza. We had a hard time finding a parking spot, but just as we were about to leave, we found one. We went to eat lunch at Tia Sophia's. Yum! Yum!

We went back to Rio Rancho after walking around a bit. That evening we grilled burgers and sat on the patio and visited. What a nice night.

Saturday 10/6/07 - 3:45AM - Everyone is up and dressed, and mostly ready to head to the train for the balloon fiesta. We got to the Railrunner in time for our 5:16 departure and headed down to the balloon fiesta park. Once we got off the train we all loaded onto a school bus (there were hundreds of buses) and got dropped off at the park entrance. Of course, we immediately got in line for breakfast burritos, cinnamon rolls and coffee, or juice. At 6:30 the Dawn Patrol balloons took off to test the weather, wind, etc. About 7 balloons took off. We counted down from 10 and they all lit their flames. It was beautiful in the dark morning.

Shortly after the Dawn Patrol balloons took off, balloons all over the launch field started the inflation process. Now, I should tell you that we are right down on the field, walking amongst all the balloons.

One neat thing for the kids was that most of the balloon teams had balloon "trading cards" that they handed out.

There were many special shape balloons too! At one time, we were right under the "udders" of a giant cow balloon as it was inflating!

Just a few of the balloons we liked...

We were running around trying to see different balloons when all of a sudden we realized we are in the middle of hundreds of balloons! This experience can only be appreciated to the fullest possible extent in person. Words and pictures do not do it justice. Everything goes so fast and before you know it, a balloon you just watched them unfold is soaring away from you! Awesome!!

After being there about 3 hours, it was only 9:00 in the morning, and yet it felt like noon! We decided to head back home via the train and just spend the day doing whatever. Before we left we had to take a pit stop at the port-a-potties, where Anna accidentally left her jacket. We realized this AFTER we had gotten in line for something to drink and were about to leave. She and I (Jarrod) went back to the endless row of stinkypots, and found the jacket right away. Unfortunately, someone had already stolen all of her balloon trading cards out of the pocket.

When we got off the bus to take our train home, we were a bit early when the Southbound train arrived. We decided to take the RailRunner south to see downtown for fun instead of waiting another 30 minutes at the station. I suggested because last year when we were rained out, they sent us back on the train south to downtown and then it went back up to Bernalillo, where our van was. Well, in a year's time, a very efficient RailRunner crew has added several more stops south of Albuquerque downtown, including stops for the Int'l Sunport Airport, Los Lunas, and Belen. Everyone was happy to be back on the comfy train!

While we were riding, Melissa and I started looking at the schedule and realized that we had made a mistake. After talking to the conductor, we confirmed this possibility. He said, "this train does not go back north until later this evening. When we get to Belen there will be a 30 minute layover. I'd suggest you get some lunch at the Rail Cafe there and then we'll figure out what to do with you." He really was quite nice.

Rail Cafe - Martha, owner, was very happy to see us. Beside the 11 of us, there were 5 or 6 of another group that had done the same thing, plus the train crew. Zach was thrilled that he got to grill burgers for everyone. He also had a rookie there to train. They were just about done when they announced they had ran out of buns. Martha said, "Run over to my house, in the bottom drawer of my fridge there's a loaf of panini bread. Get that out and slice it up." So funny! They cooked and we all ate hamburgers in less than 3o minutes. After lunch, we thanked our gracious hosts and they all high-fived each other for a job well done.

Back on the train - again - Conductor Tim came to our car and made sure we all made it back safely and on time. We all felt much better, having eaten, but still had a problem. It's now about 12:00, we would arrive in downtown Abq by 12:30 and the next train to Bernalillo wouldn't leave until 4:50. We called Melissa's sister, Donna, to see if she could come get a couple of us to drive us to our vans, but she just got to her daughter's soccer game and by the time she left, got us, and then we drove back, it would just about be time for the train to leave anyway. So, we all decided to take a bus to Albuquerque Old Town for the rest of the afternoon and we would just wait for the next train.

We browsed the shops, ate ice cream and enjoyed a mariachi band - for nearly 4 hours! It was fun, but we were ready to be home. Finally, it was time to get back on the city bus and head for the train station. We made our train, and back to the station and our vans without anymore incidents. Well, except that I accidentally let our tickets fly out of my hand and 3 or 4 of us ran to stop them from blowing down the tracks. Other than the fact that I twisted my ankle and we didn't need the tickets afterall, the rest of the day was uneventful. We slept well that night.

Sunday 10/7/07 - We all slept in a while, except for Melissa who had a 7am meeting at work. When she got back, we all decided that we wanted to eat out at Sadie's Mexican restaurant and then go on the Sandia Tram. This is the world’s longest aerial tramway that transports you 2.7 miles above deep canyons and the Sandia mountains. There is an observation deck atop the 10,378 foot Sandia Peak with an 11,000 square-mile panoramic view of Albuquerque.

We enjoyed a fine New Mexican feast at Sadie's and then we stopped at a country market for Faith to get a bag of green chile to take home. We drove up Tramway Road to the base of the park that leads to the tram. From there we could see that thousands of other balloon visitors who had the same idea. The guides at the entrance told us that it would take about a 5-hours roundtrip to ride the tram. That's without even taking time to enjoy the view. Since our guests were planning on leaving for Liberal, KS still, we decided against riding the tram. We got out at a scenic stop, took a few pictures and said our goodbyes.

It was a great weekend! I think everyone would like to do it again next year, but I haven't heard whether or not Faith will be flying by herself or traveling with the Vogt family again. I guess they all survived at least!