Balloon Fiesta 2012

Well, the morning I left for the baby shower in Salt Lake was the start of Balloon Fiesta.  They always start on Friday with Albuquerque Aloft, where a balloon is launched from most of the elementary schools in the city.  We are so lucky at our school to have a resident teacher who is a pilot and has her own balloon. (Harriet's former kindergarten teacher, who has become a fun friend now.)   Her husband has his own too.  We get two balloons :)

I headed to the school with David and the kids on my way to the airport.  I had JUST enough time to squeeze it all in.  The SkyTrek balloon went up first.  (Yes, the balloons are all named.  We are just starting to learn so much about ballooning.)  The wind was up just a tiny bit this morning.  We thought it would be fine.  Totally gorgeous morning.

 We were wrong.  When they tried to get the "Mary Alice in Wonderland" balloon up (only mere minutes after SkyTrek,) it was decided that the weather was too unsafe and so they didn't even inflate it all the way before collapsing it and putting it away.  We are really starting to understand how fickle balloons can be and how absolutely PERFECT the conditions have to be to get one up without risking the balloon or the crew.

 Here is the crew with the crown line.  It took 4 people to hold it down, which, I think is the reason they ended up throwing in the towel.

That was the first weekend.  I wasn't around for the mass ascensions and David decided to take the kids to Tent Rocks (post please?) for hiking instead.  So, the next weekend, the girls and I decided to try to see some balloons at Fiesta Park.  The kids don't have school on Friday during fiesta, so we rounded up some friends and tried to make it to the special shapes ascension.  We got up at 5am, hooked up with our friends at 6am, had a police escort (courtesy of friends) into the park, got VIP parking and free admission... only to hit the field and have the sky split open and start POURING rain.  I mean, the kind of rain that looks like you got into the shower with your clothes on.  Not only was it raining, but lightning started to crack all over the field - very close.  I've never seen people put equipment away so fast.  Within about a minute, the field was clear and the balloon trailers were leaving in droves.  The weather only lasted about 20 minutes, but by then, no one was left to try for an ascension, so the whole thing was canceled.  We went home with tired, soaked, and disappointed kids.  Our friends couldn't go the next morning.

We thought about trying for Saturdays' mass ascension, but were just way too tired to try to get up at 4am (which you have to do on Saturday.)  As we opened our eyes, in bed, at 7am, we saw a glorious, clear, blue sky outside.  We flipped on the TV and watched an absolutely perfect mass ascension take off for about 2 hours.  BUMMER!!!

Since we have never been to a "glow" we thought that might be fun for a change.  At least we wouldn't have to get up early.  All of the glows during the week had already been canceled, so this was the only chance.  The "glow" is when they put the balloons up at night .  They don't take off, but they inflate them and light the burners every so often, which keeps the balloons up, and makes them glow like some sort of awesome Christmas decoration.

The glow starts at sundown, but we got to the park early to enjoy the atmosphere and get around to try to collect some pilot cards.  The pilots each have their own trading card with a photo of their balloon on it and where they are from.  It's really fun.  We learned the Darth Vader balloon is from Belgium.  Some of these balloons come from far far away.  We also saw some other neat things around the park, like the mounted search and rescue officers!  (of course, we like any horse, anywhere, anytime.)

One of the horses was a Belgian Draft horse, 18.1 hands tall!  Such a handsome boy.

We got to meet one of the "Zebra."  The Zebra are official balloon fiesta volunteers in charge of making sure that all balloons safely inflate and take off.  They have their own trading cards, so we got one of those too, for sure.

Then, we went to find Mrs. Johnson!  Our beloved kindergarten teacher is easy to find on the field.  Her balloon trailer is painted so pretty.  She was half-asleep in her truck, trying to get some rest and stay warm after a full day at the park.  She was more than happy to see Harriet though.  She invited us over to her husband's truck where, in the back seat, snuggled down into a soft coat was her new black lab puppy!!!  Oh my gosh, is there anything cuter than a black lab puppy?  I challenge anyone to come up with it.  Well, there IS one thing... a girl black lab puppy, owned by 2 balloon pilots, named BURNER.    She was incredibly adorable.  I tried my best not to eat her or steal her.

 I mean, really?  Harriet was ecstatic.  She loves Mrs. Johnson to pieces and now she loves her even more!

Mrs. Johnson said there was no way she was going to do the glow that night.  There was just enough wind that she feared burning her balloon.  She said everyone inflating was either entirely crazy, or corporate sponsored (meaning that if they ruined their balloon with a wind-blown burner, the business would pay to fix it and they didn't have to personally suffer the cost.)  We learned that the balloons range in cost from about $20,000 to over $1,000,000.  If you are in it out of your own pocket, I can totally see why you would err on the side of caution.  Fixing a balloon that has been damaged is a huge amount of money.  Plus, it can be very dangerous to light a balloon in the wind.  We thought she was pretty smart.  Still we were glad there were a few crazy people and enough sponsored balloons that we got a chance to see the glow!!

Then sun went down, and the (a few) balloons went up!

This photo is so over-exposed, but it totally shows what it feels like to be next to one of those burners when they light it.  It's a huge gust of heat and light.

What was really fun, is that the MC would get on the loudspeaker and count down from 10 and on zero, all the balloons would try to light their burners at the same time so that you could see all the balloons at once.  They did it several times during the night.  SO FUN.  How many times have I said "fun" in this post?  I need a thesaurus.  But, "fun" kind of says it all.

"Spider pig, spider pig, does whatever a spider pig does.  Does he swing, from a web?  No he can't, he's a pig.  Look out, here comes spider pig."  You can only really appreciate this balloon if you've seen the Simpson's Movie a hundred times.

We finished up the evening (after a stressful moment choosing balloon pins in one of the tents) snuggled down with a couple of bags of hot sugared donuts to watch the fireworks.  Excellent fireworks.  Thanks balloons!  We can't wait to see you again.