Up, Up, and Away

Time to head to New Mexico. I have always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon and we learned the largest balloon festival in the world was in Albuquerque during our travel time. We bought tickets to the event and had no idea what we were in for.

The flights all take off first thing in the morning at day break. So we rose at 4:00 am and were at the park by 5:30. There were over 800 balloons at this festival. We knew it was going to be spectacular and didn't want to miss a thing. When we arrived, they were already filling the balloons ... in the dark.

Originally, we had only purchased tickets into the venue, but quickly learned you could also purchase tickets for balloon rides. Randy and Cyndi were with us but Cyndi wanted to stay on the ground. We got in line and put our names on the wait list, expecting to be too late. We were pleasantly surprised when our names were called. How fun was this going to be! We headed out to our respective balloons, Randy in one and Keith and I in another. But it wasn’t a sure thing yet. We had to wait for the ‘green light’ from the officials to launch. If it’s too windy, they can’t fly. If the wind is southerly in the upper jet stream, they can’t fly as it blows them into the local air traffic pattern.

In the meantime, there was a drone light show going on that was so big and beautiful. We had never seen anything quite like it. Then we got the green light and balloons were ready to take off.

We were all at our balloons, and it was finally time to get loaded. The excitement was palpable.

Daylight was quickly approaching and we were all aboard, bubble guns ready ... time for launch. We were all so full of anticipation.

The launch is very well choreographed. All of the officials are in black and white striped shirts and are affectionaly called Zebras. You can’t launch until they tell you to, just like an air traffic controller. As you watch the video, you see us jumping. The basket needed to move forward several feet to get away from another balloon that was filling so we could launch safely. Once we got the ok from the Zebra, we were airborne…. flying. I still tear up and get chills just remembering. It was so magical and a dream come true.

We quickly got up to 3000 feet so we could stay in the northly jet stream. The sun rise was stunning. It was very cold and we needed to bundle up, buying extra sweatshirts at the venue. We also assumed it would get colder the higher we got. Not so.. we are floating with the wind so there is no wind chill factor, and we are standing right below the burners blasting warm air. As soon as the sun crested, it warmed everything up and we were all quickly peeling off the layers.

These images don't do it justice. Look closely because all those little dots in the sky are balloons.... 800 of them.

We floated north for more than an hour and then descended into the southerly jet stream to take us back. The pilot had identified a landing zone in a vacant field and had his chase team waiting and ready to get us. But we weren't there yet.

Everywhere we flew, we noticed random white X's on the ground, in cul-de-sacs, on streets, in fields, parking lots, etc. The X is an invitation for ballons to land and are usually made out of large strips of white tape that can be seen from the air. This one was in the back yard of a home as we were coming in to land. We were so close, we could talk to families as they came out to watch. This mom told us her kids really wanted a ballon to land in their backyard so they used sheets to make an X big enough to be seen. We all laughed and cheered them on, but of course, the space was just too small. Mom knew no one was going to land but we all encouraged the kids.

If you look closely in the video, you’ll see a spooked coyote, running for his life and not knowing where to go. We were pretty close to the ground, getting ready to land. Before you knew it, everyone had to get into landing posture and we were gently, safely on the ground. What an adventure!!!!