Balloon Fiesta 2022

The next weekend we went to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta with my friend Amy from Tucson, who had spent the week in Taos and then come back down for the fiesta. The biggest challenge with the balloon fiesta is getting there. Albuquerque doubles in population during the balloon fiesta, and thousands of people get up at 4:00 in the morning to get to the park before dawn to see the balloon ascension.

It’s possible to drive to the park but the traffic jams are horrific. There are also city-run shuttle busses – big school busses running from several locations throughout the city. A couple of years in the past we’ve rented an RV slot in one of the miles of gravel RV parking lots to the south of the park, stayed the night in our van, and walked on in the morning. This year we tried something new – a bicycle tour!

There is a bike path that goes by the balloon park so biking is a popular way to get there. Of course you still have to find parking near the path, unless you’re lucky enough to live along it. In addition to riding your own bike in, there are also bicycle tour groups organized along the path.

We decided to sign up for a bike tour that included the rental of electric bikes. We had never tried electric bikes before, and thought that would be fun. The tour we went with was located 6 miles from the park, all of it along the bike path. The electric bikes to made the trip easier, even though the route was relatively flat. At 5:30 am, I’ll take any boost I can get! The bikes and our helmets were decorated with lots of lights and glow sticks so we felt safe and festive.

I have since learned that there is another bike tour that that starts from the Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm, which is 8 miles out. That one looks fun too, but I’m not sure if their bikes are electric or not. Part of the appeal of the tour we took was the chance to try out electric bikes. Here we are, riding to the festival in the pre-dawn darkness.

I would never ride a bike to the festival in the dark without the safety of a bike path. Too many sleepy, grumpy, confused tourists driving around lost and frustrated in the thick traffic jams in the early-morning darkness.

As we got near the park, the bike path started getting congested with other bicyclists and lots of people walking in. We were actually quite the spectacle on our brightly lit bikes, providing entertainment for those around us. I was the third one back in a line of 12 of us, putting me in the perfect position to hear people’s initial surprised and appreciative exclamations as we cycled past them.

This year we didn’t take any pictures of the dawn patrol (where a few balloons go up when it’s still dark). Here’s a photo from a previous year. Dawn patrol is beautiful.

This photo is also from a previous year, so you can see what it looks like right before dawn.

Some years it’s absolutely freezing early in the morning, but luckily this year was warmer than most.

There are hundreds of balloons and even though they have them going up several at a time, it takes a few hours for them all to launch.

Here I’m looking up and smiling at a nearby balloon in front of me, oblivious to the weird looking orange balloon in the distance behind me. Until I was scrolling through our photos for this blog and saw it. Uhhh, what the heck is that?

Turns out it’s a sloth on a branch. Oh, ok.

We mostly stuck to the edges of the fields. The main section of the park was incredibly jam packed with thousands of people. You could barely make your way through the crowds and it was nearly impossible to buy food or drink. Luckily John brought water and breakfast bars in his backpack.

Amy was invited into a balloon basket, but she wasn’t actually going to ride up in it. We were just recruited to help hold the basket steady while the balloon was inflated and the balloonists were waiting for permission to take off.

The balloon was tethered with lines, but the baskets still swing around a lot if not weighted down. The balloons aren’t allowed to take off without a referee, called a zebra, overseeing the lift off. So there’s a lot waiting around with the hot inflated balloons straining at their lines.

When we’d seen enough, we had a leisurely bicycle trip back, and when we arrived, were greeted with breakfast burritos and beer (we passed on the beer). All in all, a great way to see the fiesta.

We were happy Amy was able to go with us, because she had never been to the festival before, and had always wanted to see it. We were lucky too, because it turns out this first day, the day we went, was the best weather for the entire festival. Numerous events were canceled over the next 10 days due to wind and rain.

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Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism – ASD