The Albuquerque Balloon Fiestas

Before the official start of the Balloon Fiesta, we took the Seven Day Rally guests to Sky City, home of the Acoma Pueblo. I love it there. There are still about 8 full time residents within the 300+ homes with no water, electricity or sewer, however, we did spot propane and a community restroom! !  LOL  They mainly hold big family and Pueblo celebrations there. These wild horses were just grazing along the roadside on the way out to the village.

The last window of this type left in the village

 A communal oven that is still used.

They used to use these ponds for household water.

Today was the first official day of the Balloon Fiesta. It started for us at 4:00am to get up, get dressed and head to the Fantasy RV Tours tent to get ready for all the early guests.  Everyone was grabbing coffee, fruit and pastries before heading to the balloon grounds for the Morning Glow... We stayed near our tent and the show was amazing, again. ! !  Ooops, Ken slept in this morning and I only took pics on my camera. They actually came out pretty good.  We did get lots of the daylight balloons.  See the glow in the some of the pic??  

Look at that face.  LOL

So close to our rigs ! !   Love that we don't have to go to the Balloon Grounds and fight the crowds..

Now for the nighttime show.  This is taken from right by our RV.  Love not having to fight the crowds at the balloon grounds.

OMG, today, October 8th the early morning was the perfect "box" weather for ballooning, but..... some of the balloons look like they are suspended in air as there wasn't much wind. One landed three rigs from ours just into the road. That pilot worked hard not to land on the rig. Wells Fargo never ceases to amaze, just wish the bank was as great as the balloon ! !   LOL  See the guy in just a chair??  Also, we hear that there were about 500-600 balloons this year.

Oh whoops ! ! 

Fantasy provided a huge brunch of potatoes, eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy, fruit salad and mimosa's so we had a very late dinner and didn't watch the fireworks tonight. We heard them, they were spectacular again. 

Tomorrow is another early morning for us, 5:00am, we greet the guests and get them to the shuttle. Then we are busing them, on their own schedules to Old Town Albuquerque. Will be a fun day...

Just plain amazing sites every day ! !  The five day Rally was very similar except that I was sick most of it and therefore didn't get many pictures taken.  The Balloon Fiesta held a concert which was included in the fee for our five day guests. Phil Vasser and Billy Currington were the headliners. Fun times ! ! 


During these Rally's we also learned of our next assignment offers with Fantasy RV Tours. We will be working the Rose Parade this year, the second 33 day Rockies National Parks of the North starting July 19th and then we are working both of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta's next fall.  Exciting times !!