The bus picked us up right in front of the RV and drove us to the fairgrounds. It was pitch black. We found our spot (R-1), but no one was there. UT Oh, I start to silently panic. What if they didn't show up? Maybe we have the wrong R-1. Is there 2 of them? How can we find out where they are? We only have email address. Oh, Man!!! I want to do this so badly - where are they? Tommy was about besides himself with me!
After standing there - in the dark - for over 30 mins, I put my tail between my legs and went into the tent of crafty stuff. Just to get warm. Two more times I made Tommy walk back with me to R-1 and still no one was there. I was crushed! We went to get breakfast, or at least what ever kind of breakfast you can get from a fair, and when we were done - they were there!!!! YEAH!!! Now I'm jumping inside! We approached them. Hi, were your volunteers! Cool, they say. They introduce us all and we get to work. Tomorrow we will get shirts to look official.
It turns out we have 4 balloons here. The Haunted House, Spongbob, Scarecrow, and the Farm Chicken. The first thing you do is roll out the bundle from the back of a pick up truck. The average weight of the bundle is 650lbs. It takes alot of people. Next you remove the basket. After taking out the balloon from the bundle you spread it out on the ground. It is made of parachute material, but don't let it fool you...it is heavy! spreading it takes over 40 mins.when the pilot is okay with how its laid out (sometimes you have to flip it), he places a fan at the very bottom. He files it with air to form its shape. Once it is filled enough they attach the basket and start putting in propane. Its very tricky because too much will lift you and too little you will collapse. The crowd is allowed everywhere and anywhere the balloons are so people are literally bumping into you. The balloons are so close together when inflated they touch.
There are alot of rules and regulations involved. They have people called Zebras that walk around and give you permission to take off and check things out before you go. You can do nothing until they say so. And trying to keep the balloon on the ground is not an easy task. Everyone hangs on the sides of the basket. There are almost 800 balloons here so everyone takes off in waves. We were in wave 3.
Once off in the air, we all scuttled into the truck, which by the way, was donated by the local dealership. Every single pilot got use of one for an entire week. Beautiful, brand spanking new trucks. We now have to follow them. Easy, right? NOT!!! Thank goodness, Bruce, our driver, has been doing this for 8 years and knows the city well.
Tommy got caught up with the Haunted House people and they asked him to go with them. I stayed with the Farm Chicken. We each had 9 people in our crew. The Farm Chicken landed in an alfalfa field on the other side of town. We, or I, became educated tremendously this morning. The main reason this Fiesta is held in Albuquerque is because it is almost guaranteed to have 'box' winds. What that means is at, just say, at 500 feet above ground the wind will take you North. At 1000 feet the wind will take you East. At 1500 you go West. And at 2000 you go South. This is important because you are totally at the mercy of the wind. If you start to come down too quickly you end up landing where ever you can. We were on private property.
There was a family with little children who were so excited that a balloon landed in their field. They came over and we had a ball with them. We let them jump on the balloon while getting all the air out of it. That, also, is not an easy task. After the air is out, you fold and fold and fold until it is approximately 2 feet wide all the way down the length of it. Then you place it back in the pouch, little by little. Then up goes the basket on the truck and finally the pouch behind that.
We got back to the field around 9:30 and Spongbob, Haunted House and Scarecrow were still up. After about an hour Sponge bob came down followed by Haunted House and Scarecrow. Tommy got back with the biggest smile on his face. This is the coolest thing - ever!!!
We are exhausted but are heading out tonight for a 'glow'. I hope tomorrow (where we will do this again), I get more pictures of different balloons.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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