Rain Check

 

(Note: Only the photos that have the LOR watermark in the lower right corner are my personal photos)

Have you ever heard of or attended The Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta?

If you haven’t here’s a little excerpt borrowed from the website: 

“From its modest beginnings in 1972 with 13 balloons launching from a shopping mall parking lot, the Balloon Fiesta has grown to multiple events launching year-round at the custom-designed, 365-acre Balloon Fiesta Park.

Our signature event remains Balloon Fiesta—which, with over 600 hot air balloons, is the largest ballooning event on earth, the most photographed event on earth, and the largest annual international event held in the United States!!

Imagine 54 football fields, all put together. That's the size of Balloon Fiesta Park's 78-acre launch field! And at this Park's "playing field," there are no losing teams and no viewing stands. Guests walk the field and are part of the action, up close and personal!

Hundreds of thousands of smiling, upturned faces, awestruck by the spectacular beauty of hot air balloons filling the big blue New Mexico sky. What you can't hear until you walk our field at nightfall is the thrilling roar of hundreds of burners simultaneously igniting, turning the Park into a huge lighted Christmas tree of colorful balloons. What you can't feel until you join us is the massive joy everywhere around you!!”

Now, doesn’t THAT get you excited to make you want to visit New Mexico in October?

Ranchman John had off work on Friday night, so we made plans to go out to a late lunch and then take the Park and Ride over to the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta where we were hoping to catch one of the very magical Balloon Glows.

(Borrowed from the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta website)

“Balloon Glows were invented in Albuquerque in 1979, when local pilots inflated balloons on Christmas Eve night as a thank you to local residents. The sight of balloons lit from within at night like giant holiday ornaments is breathtaking, and glow events are now held all over the world. Balloon Fiesta launched its Balloon Glow, the world's biggest, in 1987. When all the hot air balloons fire their burners and light up at the same time it’s perhaps the most spectacular single moment in all of Balloon Fiesta.

The Balloon Glows, followed by New Mexico's most spectacular fireworks displays - are now among Balloon Fiesta's most popular events.”

We hadn’t been to a Balloon Glow since we took our twinlings, carried on our backs in backpacks, when they were barely two years old. Hard to believe it’s been over 10 years, but we still remember the moment when Ranchman John turned to me with concern on his face and asked if baby Jax was ok. Apparently John heard some strange noises coming from his back, but when I checked on baby Jax, the voices I heard were mutterings of awe and delight as Jax watched the hot air balloons above our heads, light up with the whoosh of the propane burners. What a thrill!

I wanted my twinlings to experience it again and I wanted my daughter to experience a Balloon Glow for the first time. But alas, a storm was moving in, with lightning in the distance and lots of wind that picked up as the evening wore on. We enjoyed the music and we walked around looking at all the sights, scents and sounds, but we only saw about 5 hot air balloons fill up with air for a short time before deflating again.

                                                  (My photos)

 

Just as we were preparing to leave they did set off some fireworks, but soon afterwards the storm blew in and there was a mass exodus of people trying to leave all at once. I was relieved that we had already jumped on the Park and Ride Bus by that time and were on our way back to our vehicle.

There was only some light rain in Albuquerque, but once we drove up into the canyon on our way home, we hit a much heavier rain storm with flash flooding, and as we drove into the higher elevations we were hit by a hail and snow storm!!

Here are a couple photos I took from inside our vehicle as Ranchman John drove. Crazy, huh?

And when we got closer to home we had to watch out for sections where the ditches were overflowing with water and hail up onto the road. The main gravel road that leads to our house was more like a rushing creek than a road. Whew! What an adventure!

So, it looks like we’ll have to head back to the Balloon Fiesta later in the week. Thank goodness they allow Rain Checks and that the Balloon Fiesta lasts for 9 days. It’s just ironic that we’ve gotten no substantial rain or bad weather for over a month, until the Balloon Fiesta started. Now if only this rain and crazy weather would stop for the rest of the week, so we can use our Rain Checks and go back and try to watch another Balloon Glow. 

        

Isn’t this a beautiful hot air balloon Painted Pony statue? Can you pick out some of the hot air balloons that you saw in the photos above?