October 5-9, 2015
What a fun experience this was. The Balloon Fiesta actually began on Saturday, but we didn't have reservations until Monday, which actually worked out well for us. The weekends we found out are just crazy with people and the weather wasn't that great for ballooning on Saturday and Sunday so what they expected to be the biggest group of balloons going up didn't happen on the weekend. We got checked in Monday afternoon (after spending the morning putting a new toilet in or RV! Fun, oh well, it was nice that there was a Camping World just across the freeway from where we were camping the night before and John did a great job of taking out the old electronic one and getting us a new one that is much better and NOT electronic!) and we found out that not much happens at the Fiesta grounds in the afternoon, so we were fine with arriving about 4:00 p.m.
So Tuesday morning, we were up bright and early and down on the launch field. You just can't image how many balloons there were and how big they were. Since there wasn't a mass launch on Sunday, it was good for us because there were a lot of balloons going up Tuesday morning and the weather was cooperating, so we watched for a couple of hours. The first "dawn patrol" group of 8 went up about 6:30 a.m. to check out the weather and if they give the green light, then everyone else can start to launch. So over the next hour or so, a few hundred balloons take off all around you. It was so cool. We went again Wednesday and the crowd wasn't bad, but by Thursday morning, the crowds were starting to come, we were glad we had done the other days.
So, my recommendation for those who may want to do this someday (which I would definitely put on my bucket list again), is to go mid-week so it is not so crowded, and we stayed in the VIP West RV Parking lot. Glad we ended up there, it seemed the best place to park other than staying in the President's Club which is $150 per night, we paid $85 per night and got entry tickets to the Fiesta (otherwise you pay $8 per person to get in). There were to hook ups, but we did fine dry camping. The nice thing is it was just a quick walk down to the launch field. And, for an added bonus on Friday morning we were checking out and so we slept in and when we woke up the balloons were flying right over our motorhome, that was pretty cool, we just watched from our coach. The wind blows the balloons different ways, so we were just lucky they flew over us that morning, it was really run.
I only took about 400 pictures, so I won't bore you with all of them. Here are some the best from our experience along with a few of us and our friends for those who like people in the pictures. :-)
Since the balloons only went in the mornings, we had time to do some exploring in the afternoons. One afternoon we went to the Sandia Tramway which goes to the top of the Sandia Mountains at 10,000 feet and then at the top you can take the ski lift down the other side, so we did this with our friends Barry and Kathy. It was really fun and a beautiful day to do it.
Another afternoon we drive up to Santa Fe which is about 60 miles form Albuquerque. You can drive it yourself, which we did, but you can also take this short train and it drops you right in downtown old town Santa Fe, might have been a fun little ride, but we opted to drive ourselves. We just happened to see the train on our drive up to Santa Fe.
We walked around old town Santa Fe, had some lunch, visited some amazing art galleries and this old church which was built in the mid 1800s. And, you will see in one of the pictures the spiral staircase which they claim to be a miracle, the person who made it showed up, and built it and then disappeared, they didn't really know who he was, it has no nails in it, it only has wooden pegs holding it together and it was a continuous piece of wood. The church is now a museum, but it is rented out for weddings.
