Balloon Festival tour.....

[KBMWRS]

On our way to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.....first stop and one that someone here will recognize....Calico Ghosttown CA...evening and morning

 

[KBMWRS]

Second night out....again at a spot that other guy will remember...Holbrook,AZ...dark clouds but a nice night.

 

[B67FSTB]

NICE !!! Enjoy the travel but next time you have to let me know in time to come along and pick me up.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-A605FN met Tapatalk

 

[kb3]

Those locations look familiar.....

Looking forward to more pictures from you travels. If you pass through Williams, pick me up a piece of pie!

 

[KBMWRS]

No WiFi so no reporting while at the Balloon Fiesta

Arrival and our spot. Our area of rigs probably had 400 trailers and motorhomes

Our little spot.

 

[KBMWRS]

Friday morning about 5:45 am.....had to be about 50,000 people there....that EARLY. Of course we just hopped on a shuttle and crossed the street. About 5 minutes from our trailer. Only about 200 were inflated this morning. Only a few did not fly. As the sun rose there were balloons all over the sky. Albuquerque is unique be it has a box wind shear. Low level has a southern flow and at altitude it goes north. So a few balloon pilots actually came back.
Friday morning was the Special Shape Rodeo at 6am....this is where all the balloons inflate and use their burners to show off the balloons colors at in the dark and then take off. Watching so many balloons in the air and then more inflating is overwhelming.
.

 

[KBMWRS]

Later Friday morning was the Special Shape Rodeo. This was ALL the special shaped balloons.
Most all took off for a nice flight.

 

[KBMWRS]

 

[KBMWRS]

 

[KBMWRS]

 

[KBMWRS]

 

[KBMWRS]

Friday night was to be a Glow for the special shaped balloons. Some did as expected then a storm approached with lightening and heavy rain. All were quickly deflated. Thousands of people were told to shelter from this 56 football field acreage. Yeah right. The rain came down big time. We got soaked and walked 2 miles back because we took a wrong turn while walking with many others. We were told it had rained and cancelled the activities the last 9 days.

Saturday morning again at 6am we went for the Morning Glow. Here all 600 balloons were to inflate and take off. The at 7am all were to take off. Again a weather situation cancelled it all. Crazy that thousands of people still show up and then nothing.

Saturday night was to be another Balloon Glow but again the weather. No inflations. But after dark they did offer up a very nice fireworks display and then an awesome drone show. Those are amazing.

 

[KBMWRS]

Sunday morning was to be the final Glow but the winds were too high. About 9am the winds died down and they started a Farewell Ascension. Only about 50 balloons came out for this. Some inflated but did not take-off.

 

[KBMWRS]

It was all still very impressive but every day was impacted by weather. Monday we woke up to blue skies and about 20 balloons overhead. We packed up the trailer and headed to Monument Valley
.

 

[kb3]

I had no idea that hot air balloons came in so many shapes and sizes. Very cool to see all the different looks. Thanks for sharing Mike!

 

[KBMWRS]

Morning departure from Balloon Fiesta

 

[KBMWRS]

At Gouldings in Monument Valley. This is the motel/trading post where John Wayne made many a western.

 

[KBMWRS]

Tuesday we are taking a MV tour later so we decided to drive around a bit.
First visit to the scene from Forrest Gump. Lots of tourists.


Then on to Gooseneck State Park. Camping right along the edge. Looks like a spot Ken.

 

[KBMWRS]

Then to Valley of the Gods...BLM land and free camping. Another good choice.

 

[kb3]

Finally Stangfix is back up and running and we can continue our virtual vacation through Mike's pictures and narrative. It appears I have some more locations to add to my camping bucket list!