AIBF - Day 7

Friday -Today was the my last early morning. Once the balloons start launching at sunrise (7:09am), we get very few volunteers stopping by the booth. So we get to watch. It seemed much colder today than earlier in the week. Especially once you get onto the field. 

There were a number of special shaped balloons this morning but not all them launched as it was a bit breezy. 

Seeing all the balloons in the air is still pretty cool. 

AIBF - Day 6

Wednesday - I volunteered for the morning shift again. It was pretty nice weather and most of the balloons took off. It couple of the larger shaped balloons opted not to fly. 

A lot of balloons were in the air. Almost too many to count. The “Albuquerque box” was evident as all of the balloons took off towards the south (to the left in the picture) and are now moving north after gaining some altitude. 

For lunch, they had a pilot and volunteer picnic at the Albuquerque zoo. Good barbecue with all the normal fixings. And the zoo was pretty nice as well. Though I didn’t take any pictures. 

AIBF - Day 5

Tuesday - My volunteer shift was early morning again. I talked a group of high school students to volunteer and they were excited to participate. The balloon of the day was sponsored by Coca Cola and it carried the American flag during the National Anthem. 

By this time, I was already on the field as part of a chase team for a small team from Spain. They were competing after the mass ascension and we left the field to launch from off the field. 

We found a spot in a cul-de-sac. We set it up quickly and was launched in about 15 minutes. Before the residents needed to leave their driveways. 

This is the view while the envelope was being filled. After they took off, we brought their truck back to the field. They made a two passes at the target. I’m not sure how they scored.

This was an enjoyable adventure. 

AIBF - Day 2

Saturday - Today was the official opening day of the Balloon Fiesta. My shift started at 4am so I caught the 3:15 shuttle from the parking area. There was quite a bit of traffic on the road even at this time of day. The shuttle dropped me off within a hundred yards from the “booth”, which a small container with a roll-up door. 

After a wind delay, balloons started launching. The prevailing wind was towards the NW instead of the normal southerly direction. The first balloons launching were the commercial ones with paying customers. Then the ones to the south end of the field. 

There was a drone show earlier in the morning. It was hard to photograph as the phone used a long exposure. As you can see, there was quite a crowd. 

The booth I’m volunteering at had a decent view of the launches. The wind picked up but it was low enough to continue launching. After my shift, there was a welcome lunch at the pilots building. Nothing fancy but decent food. 

AIBF - Day 1

Friday - There were a few balloons up this morning. Tomorrow is the first day of the Balloon Fiesta. I suspect that tomorrow’s mass ascension should be spectacular.

Yesterday, I went and picked up my volunteer packet. Besides my lanyard, passes, party tickets, and promotional books, I got a fleece vest and a jacket. The picture is the back of the jacket. 

My first shift is tomorrow morning at 4:30am. I met with the group leaders today to find out where to go and what I’ll be doing. 

Albuquerque, NM

Wednesday - We arrived at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (AIBF) around mid-morning. They found our registration but couldn’t locate the packet of parking passes. Probably as I registered for the RV parking separate from volunteering. They gave us a nice elevated location so we would have a nice view of the landing area. 

As an experiment, I just placed the StarLink antenna on top of our slide under the slide topper. So far, it seems to work fine with download speeds of over 300 Mbps. I was thinking of setting it up on the roof but this is easier as I don’t need to climb up on the roof. 

All of the parking is N-S so the solar panels can’t be tilted. They are peaking at under 400watts so not very good. We will be running the generator quite a bit while we are here. Dry camping. No power, water, or sewer for the next 11 days. 

Travel Day 4 - Heading Back to Texas

Wednesday - Last day on the road for this trip. We left around 9 and got caught up in the Dallas morning traffic. We stopped for lunch at Buc-ee’s south of Waco for lunch and had a delicious brisket sandwich. It has been windy with gusts over 30mph right on our nose. Needless to say, gas mileage has been dismal. Especially with the 75mph speed limit. 

While in the Dallas traffic, I managed to score an RV reservation request for the 2024 Balloon Fiesta. We want to arrive two days before it starts and leave on the last day. The RV spots are usually gone within 30 minutes of the site going live. I already had the site loaded and refreshed the browser one second after the hour. And got right in. The last time, I couldn’t even open the website until 20 minutes after the hour. And, most of the sites were gone. We’ll see. I haven’t received confirmation yet…

It was 70°F while we drove through San Antonio! And 69°F at 4:30 back at the RV. It was a fantastic visit but also nice to be back. Roughly 2800 miles. Time to relax…

Day 15, 16 - Albuquerque, NM

Tuesday (15) - This is but a fraction of the balloons in the sky as seen from our parking space aka “Box View, South RV park”. Our front windshield faces a large field where some choose to land. No utilities at all but it’s a great location. The sections of the park with utilities are really cramped. Slide to slide. 

This morning after the balloons were done, I moved our frozen items back to the RV refrigerator as it has been running fine. I powered off the basement freezer to see if we could get more out of our batteries and solar setup. I also cleaned the panels as they were pretty dirty from sitting for four months. 

Later - Due to the low sun angle of 45° and some scattered clouds, the peak wattage that I saw was around 320 watts. This is about half the rated output. So the generator will come on around sunset. Plus I want to make some chocolate chip cookies and our only oven is the power hungry convection-microwave. 

Full-time friends, Ken and Lynne, who we’ve met in AZ and AK, stopped by to visit. They had a 5th wheel before and now have an older diesel pusher. Their tow vehicle is a RAM 1500 and it has a lot of storage capacity. And the 6.7 Cummins has no problem pulling it all. 

Wednesday (16) - We caught the 6:15AM shuttle this morning in a light drizzle. They had the yellow flag out which meant that the mass ascent wasn’t cancelled but they were watching the weather. I picked up a green chili breakfast burrito at one of the many food stands and we waited to see what was going to happen. Around 7:30, they changed to a green flag and the first group of balloons started to blow up.

The first group seemed to be mostly commercial tours with paying passengers though there were a few international balloons. After that, balloons started to inflate all around us. This went on for a couple of hours. I almost had enough coffee but  my phone needed to be charged. Too many short video clips.

I’m not sure why but this seemed to be my favorite balloon. The patchwork pattern was definitely unique from the mostly geometric patterns. I’m not sure watching the mass ascent was any better than our view from the RV park but it was different. I wish I had brought a folding chair. The grass was still kind of damp from the early morning drizzle.

Another favorite was this African savannah themed balloon. Nice colors and it also stood our from the commercial tour groups. There were a lot of commercial tour balloons. And a number of balloons sponsored by businesses. Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly the special shaped balloons. 

Late morning, I went to a YouTube meetup with Phil, Stacy, and Matt. Two different channels. It was entertaining as they were very personable. 

Afterwards, we went to the balloon museum. Admission was only $10 for both of us and there was a lot of history that I was not aware of. Such the use of balloons during WWII. They had the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic gondolas and the all important smashed penny machine. 

Day 14 - Albuquerque, NM

Monday (13) - This morning, while waiting for the shuttle bus, we saw a lot of balloons heading our way. We are parked next to an open field that some choose to land on. It was kind of breezy at lower altitudes so some were moving pretty fast. Those higher up were almost stationary. This is just a sample of the hundred or so of the hot air balloons that went over our RV parking space. 

Around 9:30, we went to the launch field and RV Life and Lippert sponsored a corporate tent with free donuts and coffee. There were a number of presentations on a variety of RV related topics. At 11am, there was a meet and greet with several YouTube couples. Marc and Julie of RV Love, Nate and Marisa of Less Junk, More Journey, Phil and Stacy of You Me and the RV plus one more that I didn’t recognize. It was fun to meet them. 

Around 2pm, I started the generator so I could cook up a batch of rice in our fuzzy-logic rice cooker and hard boil some eggs in the Instant Pot. I also wanted to top up our batteries. While I was at it, I ran both A/C units to cool down the interior during the warmest time of day. After an hour the cooking was mostly done and the batteries were at only 91%. But it was still 81°F so I left the generator and A/C running.

The video below is a landing right in front of our rig.

Day 13 - Albuquerque, NM

Sunday (13) - A very short driving day today from the rest area south of Santa Fe to the Balloon Fiesta north of Albuquerque. I spent some time this morning messing around with the igniter on the refrigerator as it stopped working a little after midnight. After cleaning it and repositioning it, the burner would light again. I did move most of the freezer contents to the portable unit just in case. But, at least for now, it’s working again.

We walked over to the launch field after lunch. It’s further than I thought. We are returning around 6 for some events but we will take the shuttle bus.