Friday, October 4, 2013

Day 1 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a yearly festival of hot air balloons that takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico during early October. The balloon fiesta is a nine day event, and has around 750 balloons. The event is the largest hot air balloon festival in the world.

 The balloon fiesta began in 1972 as the highlight of a 50th birthday celebration for 770 KOB Radio.

 We are here and ready to begin a fun adventure.  This adventure is different than the others because this one begins in the dark.  Yes, we have to get up and ready by 4:30 in the morning.  Who knew the morning was that early.  LOL

We are going to see if our old bodies can do this.  LOL

We had 6 balloon pilots stop by and give our group a demonstration and talk about ballooning and all the pieces parts involved.  We did not get to see the envelope, balloon because it was too windy.  They gave a neat talk.


This is one of the pilots demonstrating the stuff in the basket.  Stuff is a very technical term I will be using a lot to describe a lot of the things I do not understand or do not have the words to use. LOL   I would just bore you and beside you do not know either.  



 
The balloons have two different flames sizes to power up and to fly.  This the smaller of the flames.  They call it the whisper flame because it is not as loud as the other.  They use it while flying around animals in fields so they not scare them.  They also use it for the glow shows at night.  

We are hoping tomorrow it is better wind wise.  Of course the balloons will not fly if it is windy.  It is going to be very cold, but hey why did we come? 

We were treated to a great dinner tonight, put on by the staff.  They cook it and served it and we got to visit with a lot of new people.  Yum.  

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