October 5, 2007

October 5, 2007

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta goes on for nine days with different events scheduled each day. There is a Mass Ascension of all 750 balloons each weekend. On Thursday and Friday all the special shape balloons are going to fly. I want to stay and see all of it but I am torn. This Saturday is also one of the two days that the Trinity atomic bomb site is open and that is two hours south. Aimee and I are not sure if we want to drive back or even if we can get our spot back.

We heard that some balloons are probably going to have a practice lift-off this morning so we rise before dawn and start walking over to the balloon field. If the weather is bad tomorrow this may be our only chance to see some. Halfway there a guy pulls over in his truck and asks us if we are interested in helping crew a balloon. I look at Aimee and then tell him okay. We jump in his truck and drive onto the field where are introduced to a woman from Lubbock, TX who is taking her checkout flight for a Commercial Ballooning License. We help her get the balloon inflated and lifted off. There doesn’t seem to be much to it. Spread open the throat of the balloon, point a fan inside to billow it out, then shoot a flame inside to heat the air. All of a sudden you have to hold it down. While we are helping with the inflation, probably another fifty balloons are doing the same. So far this is already bigger than the balloon rally we attended in the spring outside Phoenix and it hasn’t even started. 

After liftoff, we hop back in the truck for the chase. The driver doesn't have a radio so we have to follow through the city by sight. Fortunately Aimee has an eagle-eye and the balloon is always kept in sight. After about an hour the pilot sets the balloon down in a wide-open new home construction dirt field. We then help the pilot get the balloon deflated, folded up, and back in the trailer. They encourage us to stick around and crew for them again offering the incentive of a free ride eventually. 

Back at the RV, we relax reading a book while RV's stream into the park non-stop all day. By nightfall there are several thousand RV's all around us and we are starting to feel claustrophobic with our tiny rig hemmed in by all these monster motorhomes.