We were excited to be able to park for a few nights in the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta RV “campground”, which was basically just a large parking lot with no hookups. We were also psyched that we met a couple during our travels who knew the Morning Manna balloon pilot and would be on his chase crew during the fiesta. They asked him if we could join the crew and he said yes. Very cool!
We got to the parking lot Friday morning and got a nice, level spot that was fortunately pretty easy to back into. Since our RV spot was about a mile from the field, we were glad we had the electric bikes to get around. After getting set up, we rode our bikes to the museum and spent a couple of hours learning the history of balloon flight and the fiesta. Then we walked around the field to learn where we’d be meeting the Morning Manna crew the next morning. (We thought it’d be easier to do in the daylight than in the dark the next morning.) The field was divided into a grid, with pvc pipes in the ground to mark the four corners of each spot. The entrance was at A-1 and we were in T-11; so pretty much the furtherest distance from the RV that it could be, all the way on the opposite end of the huge field.
We woke up around 4:30am the next morning, dressed warmly for the mid-40 degree temperature, then rode our bikes to the bike valet area, dropped them off, then walked the short distance to the field entrance. (A valet worker said there were about 1000 bikes parked there at one point during the day — so many people!) We were surprised at how long the line was that early, but we got through the entrance within about 10-15 minutes, then walked about 10 minutes to Morning Manna’s assigned spot on the field. Randy and I were the first ones of our crew to arrive, since the others were stuck in crazy traffic — so many people!) While we waited, we had an awesome view of a super cool drone / light show they did. (There’s a video of it below.) I’d never seen anything like it and was impressed by the coordination of around 300 drones.
We got to watch a lot of balloons inflating and ascending before it was our turn to get ready for take off. It’s hard to explain the beauty and enormity of it all, with about 650 huge balloons during the Mass Ascension (and so many people!) — definitely something to experience at least once in your lifetime. As balloons filled the air, we were impressed by how many there were; but then a few minutes later, it was even more impressive; then a few minutes later, it was even MORE impressive! It was especially fun to see the shaped balloons. There are pictures of some of my favorites below.
There are also pictures below showing the process of laying the balloon out, then inflating it before take off. Once the balloon was in flight, we jumped in the back of the pickup truck towing the trailer and started following the balloon. (Evidently, traffic laws are relaxed for chase crews during the fiesta!) In many cases, the truck and crew can get to the spot that the pilot will attempt to land before the landing, but this time, they landed before we got there. So we just helped load the balloon into the trailer then drove back to the field and setup for tailgating. By this time, the temperature had risen to 70s, so we were shedding layers and putting clothes in our backpacks.
On Sunday, we decided to be regular attendees of the fiesta instead of chasing, so we could walk around and see more. We got a later start and watched some of the balloons floating over our RV as we were leaving. Once we were on the field, we immersed ourselves in the experience and walked amongst all the balloons as they were inflating. Super cool! But even cooler was when we noticed some of the balloons heading back toward the field for their landing. Albuquerque is famous for their “box”, where balloons take off towards the south, rise in altitude to catch the wind blowing them to the north, then descend to the southerly wind bringing them back to the take-off field. We noticed that anyone near the landing site of a balloon could grab hold to help stop it and weight it down. So Randy had fun running around and helping several stop, along with about a dozen other people for each balloon. He also hung around to help load up one of the balloons whose crew was a bit shorthanded.
The Saturday and Sunday evenings’ Glow events and the Monday morning competition were cancelled due to high winds, so we didn’t see quite as much as we wanted, but it was still worth going for the two Mass Ascensions! If we ever go back, I’m pretty sure we’ll stay in the RV again, since it helped avoid most of the traffic and crowd headaches. And we’ll probably stay longer, in order to have a better chance of seeing some of the competitions, which we heard were fun to watch. Still an awesome first-time experience, though!
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