Are you tired of reading about the Balloon Fiesta yet? I hope not…there’s more!
Gas Balloons
One afternoon a special class called “Gas Balloons” were filled. These are balloons filled with Hydrogen instead of hot air. It takes a whole afternoon to fill them. These balloons were participating in America’s Challenge. This is a race to see which balloon can go the furthest in distance. We are talking thousands of miles!!! Each balloon has two pilots in a basket that has food, warm clothing, a toilet, etc. I’m not going to pretend to know all the facts, but you can read more about the race here. We watched the balloons take off one evening and sail over the Sandia Mountains to the east.

Gas Balloons inflating. Photo from the ABQ Journal.
After the balloons took, off, we followed their progress via the Balloon Fiesta app on our phones. The team from Switzerland (balloon 6) went the furthest, 2278 miles in 59 hours and 35 minutes. Each balloon had a chase crew that followed them across the country. I suspect those guys didn’t get ANY sleep! All the crews made it back to Albuquerque for the awards luncheon on the last day of the Fiesta.

This is the final landing point for each of the eight balloons. The only thing that stopped team 6, the Swiss team, was the Atlantic Ocean!
Tethering
On another day, we finished up our crewing and went back to the RVs. We were sitting in outside soaking in the sun and resting our weary bones, when this balloon started coming down in the viewing box right next to our RVs.
So we took off at a run (or as much of a run as we can manage these days) and helped the balloon on the ground by putting “Weight On” to hold the balloon down. Typically, this is done until the ball chase crew can arrive and deflate the balloon. But not this time!

The pilot invited one of the kids watching him land into the basket. He wanted the extra weight to keep the balloon on the ground.
The pilot then yelled to his chase crew that shortly showed up, “Let’s tether!”. Bam, two tethering lines were brought out and attached to the back of two pick up trucks.

You can see the two tethering lines going off the right. There were attached to the back of the pickup trucks. I wonder if the car insurance companies know this is going on!!!
The pilot then gave a tethered ride to everyone who wanted one. And I mean EVERYONE!!!
The pilot spent over an hour taking groups up. It was just phenomenal that he took the time do do this. Coincidentally, just that morning at the pilot’s briefing I had heard about a crew that got the “Ambassador of the Day” award by giving tethered rides in the cul-de-sac they had landed in. This was no different in my opinion. So after all the rides were done and the balloon was packed up, it was my mission to nominate this balloon for Ambassador of the Day. It took a few phone calls, but I finally found the right person. I sent an email describing what had happened. Sure enough, the next morning at the pilot’s briefing this balloon and crew got Ambassador of the Day! Woot! They won a Canon digital camera, a case of Dos XX beer, and goodness knows what else. They deserved it. They made close to 50 people happy that morning.
Goodies
Did you know the Balloon Fiesta has trade-able goodies? Every balloon has trading cards with their balloon it (see the picture below…on the right). When crewing, you stick a pile of cards in your pocket. Kids come running up and ask “Can I have a card?” Of course! And you hand them out. I’ve never felt so popular! Kids had so many cards they could barely fit in their little hands. I only saved the cards from the balloons we actually interacted with. By the way, our balloon, Big Top, also gave out red clown noses!

Other goodies…starting from the left-top include our crew ticket which got us in every day ($140 value!). Below that are our green crew buttons that got us into the daily free crew breakfast (and access to clean bathrooms). And at the bottom left are pins that crews like to trade. i have two pins for the balloon Mary Ellen and I crewed on, Big Top. I also was gifted a couple of pins that the Zebras hand out.
Special Shapes
And finally, how about some pictures of the Special Shape balloons. These balloons were flown towards the end of the Fiesta week.

Mary Ellen helped inflate Pandy during an evening Glow. This gives you an idea of the size of Pandy’s head!

The Bees! They launched right next to us the first couple of days. No they are joined at the hands. But the did fly this way for a while.
That is just a small sample of the Special Shape balloons. One morning I found a higher vantage point and shot this video of the Special Shapes taking off. Or use this link: https://youtu.be/V24czvc3zNg
The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was truly an experience. Being able to work on a crew made it all the more special. A lot of people can say they attended the Fiesta, but not many got the crew and get rides. Staying in an RV on the grounds is THE way to experience all the Fiesta had to offer. We left Albuquerque tired but VERY HAPPY!
Wow!!!! Wish I could have been there!!! Thanks for sharing.
Yup…you would have enjoyed it!
Not an aardvark- he was an armadillo! Very nice blogs on the fiesta! It was a truly wonderful experience and you captured it well. Nice pics from miss J’s flight & the higher vantage point. Ahhh to relive the moments. ๐
Oops. Armadillo. My bad…the wrong word came out. It’s been fixed. Yup, it was fun!!! We’ll be talking about this one for years.