Day 11 – Old Town Albuquerque

We plan to spend the morning and early afternoon doing a walking tour of Old Town Albuquerque.  The last time we were here (many years ago); they had a bank robbery show with the sheriff and bank robbers shooting it out in the street.  Not this time.  Instead on San Felipe Street and under the portal of La Placita Restaurant, there are Native American artisans setting up blankets to sell their jewelry and other things.

Walking around the quaint historic downtown and narrow alleyways, there are many nice places to stop, rest, see and smell the flowers.

Carmen was sitting at a table while I was walking around one of the small shopping squares.  I took this picture of her while I was on the other side of the faux well.

Some of the other alleyways in town; this one was for a café.  There are lots of earth and sky colors around town; here blue is prominent.

There are many of the peppers hanging around town.  This is one of the pepper clusters hanging in front of a shop.

Another of the meeting places that are around town; the one here also has an outdoor fire place.

Albuquerque is on the old route 66.  The Mother Road as it was called back in the 40’s and 50’s.  It continues to conger visions of travel that remains today. 

Iglesia de San Felipe de Neri is a historic Catholic church located in the Old Town Plaza.  The original church was started in 1706.  That church collapsed in 1792 during a very rainy summer.  The church you now see was started in the following year 1793.  The church is constructed in the shape of a cross and constructed of adobe with walls 5 feet thick.

Here we are inside of the church looking towards the front. 

There are many large pots in old town with brightly colored flowers in front of shops and restaurants. 

In the historic heart of the old city, the plaza’s central gazebo has live music and dancing artists.  In this case a number of people were gathered to watch Native American dancers.  This young man’s costume has an impressive array of feathers. 

We came across these Navajo Code Talkers who were having a book signing while we were in town. 

Later we met with everyone traveling with us on this RV trip and had lunch at the Square Café.  The food was very good.  Even Carmen who is not a fan of Mexican styled food found something to eat.  From left to right Rick, Shirley, Dick, Lorraine, Van, Gina, Jennet, Don, Carmen, and finally me.

After lunch we continued our walking tour around town.  Here are more of the peppers, these different sizes and colors.

Some of the dream catchers arrayed in front of one of the shops. 

I always wanted to have one of these for my room.  Wouldn’t this be great in your media room or man cave?

Didn’t I say there were nice flowers all around old town? 

Many of the art studios in old town have outside patios leading to their front door and the art inside.  The artistic arrangement of these areas is just as nice to look at.

We finished our walking tour with a picture of one of the small alleyways that we have passed.  As you can see there are many plantings and seats.  Many of the walkways around town have been like this.  Some wider and with a musician or two.  

We are now heading back to the campground as we plan on getting an early start.  Tomorrow we are going to the Petroglyph national Monument.

Day 10 – Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta – Mass Ascension

We got up at 4:30 am to catch a shuttle at 5:00 to the Balloon launch site.  We arrived and found that we were one of the earliest cars in the parking lot and quickly moved to a shuttle.  We are all together, but once at the festival grounds, we'll probably split up.

We are about 15 miles to where the balloons will launch.  It was dark when we get there and before the regular balloons launch, there are some balloons that launch in the dark and then wait until there is enough light to land.  The night launch balloons all in a line ready to launch and are lighting up the night.

The balloons from the dark morning ascension have lights hanging down from the baskets, almost like landing lights.  All of the balloons were firing their burners at the same time when I took this picture.

With the sky lightening, the other balloons begin the launch process.  Oh my!  There are over 200 balloons here.   With some specialty balloons mixed in with the regular balloons, this is an awesome sight.  Here you can see a couple balloons ready, one behind the flame has the head of a bison.

Balloons are beginning to launch.  You can see some balloons are already up in the air while others are still lying down still in the inflation process.  In the bottom right you can see the double bison head balloon.

There are specialty balloons also in the mix and this one is beginning the process to inflate the envelope.

More and more balloons are beginning to lift off and others are beginning to inflate.

The sun is now up and we have good views of the balloons.

Some of the balloons ended up directly overhead.  They are beginning to have many balloons in the sky.  We can even see a couple of balloons with "Farmers" on the envelope.

Balloons are beginning to fill the sky.  Even an ice cream cone balloon can be seen while back on the ground more balloons are being filled.

Here is the inside of one of the balloons from the top of the envelope looking back to the basket.  Looks like a merry-go-round.

When pigs fly; yea right.  Wonder if this is an advertisement for a BBQ place?  Today is mostly for regular envelopes, but I guess some of the special shapes still go up.

Here is the merry-go-round balloon filled along with an elephant standing on its front legs and the flying pig.

Check out the clock just lifting off of the ground.  Hey, its 19 minutes after 8; must be time for breakfast.

Here’s the inside of one of the balloons.  The sun is up and bright so you can see the shadow of people on the inside of the balloon.

Look at all of the balloons.  Other than the ice cream balloon, I don’t see any other special shapes.

I see shadows on the inside of a balloon.

A butterfly is getting ready to soar.  When the balloons are up, they go down range, then rise high into the sky where the winds would reverse their direction and return to just beyond the launch site.  They would then drop back down and follow the process over again.  That is why we are seeing some of the balloons again.

A zebra balloon can be seen in amongst the other balloons.

Elvis is in the sky!  Who loves you baby?

Now we are getting different balloons in the picture and you can see 4 different specialty balloons in flight.

If you can believe it, even more balloons.

Not sure what this balloon was, but she looks like a happy elf.

It looks like the butterfly is going down for the count while a couple of bees are inflating.  Just to the right is “spider pig”.

A close up of the Darth Vader balloon.

Nearly at the end of the balloon flights, this Zebra balloon just snuck by.

A winking cat and I don’t know what that other thing is. 

Put your left hand up. 

Look at everything going on here; a tourist penguin, space man, tweedy bird, and Darth Vader.

Here a panda bear balloon is poking its head out from behind a frog.

As we were leaving the field, we saw the lion king.  As you can see it is much later in the morning and most of the balloons are gone.  Some like the lion king will not fly but are only inflated for show. 

I should point out that the field for the balloon launch was about 4 football fields in size.  You could walk around the balloons if you wanted or stay on the sidelines.  This place is massive and you could be in the middle of the field and look all around at the balloons.  At one point during the morning, there must have been over 100 balloons in the air.

Tomorrow we plan on going to going to Old Town Albuquerque with all of the other people that are on the RV trip with us.  

Day 9 – Heading to Albuquerque and Sandia Peak

We left Santa Fe the morning of Oct 6th and headed to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta.  After checking into the Enchanted Trails RV Park we found Rick and Shirley Hood, and others with us to see the balloons, are already situated in the camp site.  

After we set up the motor home, Shirley, Rick, Carmen and I drove rte 536 to the top of Sandia Crest.  Yes, you can drive to the top of the mountain or take the Sandia Peak Tramway.  On our drive up the road, we saw seven deer in three different groups and was able to get at least one picture.

At 10,650+ feet, the temperature at the top was about 50 degrees with a 25 mph wind.  It was very cold and we did not eat our picnic dinner we brought until we were back in the warm motor home.  We took a picture of the field where balloons will lift off tomorrow.  You can see the oblong field in the center about one-third of the way up from the bottom, just above I-25.

Albuquerque in the valley between Sandia Peak and the range on the other side of the valley and Mt. Taylor.

Looking south, you can see the rim trail on the left heading towards Sandia Peak Tramway which is just around the bend.

Another view of Albuquerque, looking west.  We are in a campground somewhere around the middle of the picture.

Looking south along the range ridge and Meadow Lake.  

Since it is pretty cold out, we head back to the campground.  The temperature is a reminder of what tomorrow morning will be like.  We'll dress appropriately.