Oct 12–13 -- Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

We met up with the Tom and Barbara Hughes’ girls (Tom is Gerry’s cousin) in the deep dark of the morning.  We had connected with our balloon crew, but after watching the Dawn Patrol struggle to get the balloons up in the face of weird winds that kept smashing the envelopes down, Todd decided not to put ours up at all, so we just watched the other, bold and daring ones try to launch.

 

 

 

 

This is our crew, Scot and his brother Todd, who flies the First Responder.  Heather and Richard, from Australia, who flew the Fire Hydrant.  Dave, one of the Monohan crew from New York, and Ron, one of the RV volunteers.  They took off for New York and England the next day, so this was our last get-together.

 

 

 

Here we are with the cousins: Garrett and Kristen, McKenzie, and Kelsey and Jerad.  We had such a good time visiting with them!

 

They might not have gotten a balloon ride, but the girls at least got to try out the basket!

Later, after we’d all had a nap and got warm again, we enjoyed a great dinner and stories with the girls and their guys.

The next morning we actually slept in until 7!  How sinful!  Then we fixed our coffee, set up our chairs, and relaxed in the sun, watching the balloons that decided to fly on the last day of the fiesta.  It was the perfect morning, of course, with hardly a breath of air, so they hung in the sky for a long time before coming down, many of them right in our front yard.  It was the perfect way to end the Balloon Fiesta experience.