It’s Balloon Fiesta Time Again

 

Hot-air ballooning is an all-year-round sport in Albuquerque. We have the landscape, the weather conditions, the sky and the enthusiasts for the sport. It is a rare day that you go for an early morning walk or drive without seeing hot air balloons floating overhead.  But for nine days in October every year the international Balloon Fiesta draws people from all over the world and hot air balloons drift up, up and away over the city.

 

For the past few weeks you could tell the city was gearing up for a big event. The morning skies gradually got busier although nowhere near as busy as they will be for the daily colorful mass ascensions of the coming days. The out-of-town pilots have been arriving and joining the locals in practice runs and testing of the air currents in the run up to the big event.  October 3, tomorrow,  the 38th Annual Balloon Fiesta will start.

 

The balloons are wonderful to watch floating overhead. It is awesome to have one land almost in your backyard. But it is a most exhilarating experience to be on the launch field, up close, and surrounded by the hubbub, color and movement of hundreds of puffing, colorful shapes hovering above comparatively small wicker baskets spouting flames and snorting like many dragons. It is worth waking up at 3:00 in the morning (my preferred show time) to experience the drama.

 

I love the way the balloon fiesta morning shows begin with dawn patrol. The lone, quiet sentinel seen only by its intermittent twinkling light sails off into the pre-dawn darkness to patrol and report back on the state of the ‘box’ (the name given to the near predictable corridor of air that defines the invisible paths balloons drift across the city). The lift off of dawn patrol is like an assurance that ‘yes,’ soon the sun will appear again above Sandia Peak and the promised show will begin.  And what a show it always is for nine full days.

 

 

 

 

Eloise Gift, CRS

Qualifying Broker