We needed to fly back to my hometown of Roanoke, Virginia to celebrate the life of our cousin, Rowan, so we left the Airstream in Canyon City. There was a service with family and close friends, a running race (that I miraculously placed third overall in), and a celebration of life event at the Salem Redsox’s baseball stadium. All the events were wonderful, but the highlight had to be the celebration of life event. The community came out in full force with lots of people, a candlelight vigil in the outfield, and what could possibly be the largest fireworks display in Salem, Virginia’s history. It was fitting for the size of the Rowan’s personality that far outweighed her four year old body. It was also great getting to see family, despite the circumstances.
After spending time with family, we left Roanoke, flew back into Denver, spent the night in a hotel, and picked the Airstream back up in Canon CIty. We hitched up the Airstream and headed down to New Mexico towards the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We made it to the Walmart in Las Vegas, New Mexico. This was our first experience parking lot camping and we actually sort of enjoyed it. It was super convenient being able to stock up on $400 of groceries and supplies, load them onto the Aristream, walk to get some green chile New Mexican food at a local dive across the street, and then sleep for “free” in the Walmart parking lot. I get the feeling this won’t be our only experience parking lot camping on this trip.
It was a quick trip from Las Vegas to Albuquerque the next day, but the drive through the mountains of New Mexico was beautiful. We were in Albuquerque primarily for the Balloon Fiesta, but we did find some time to explore the area a bit further. Petroglyph National Monument was an interesting place to spend an afternoon. The petroglyphs are symbols that were carved into volcanic rocks by Native Americans and Spanish settlers around 500 years ago. It’s neat how these carvings have lasted so long. We even saw one that looked like the old logo for Virginia Tech – I hope that was done 500 years ago. The park provided a great setting for the kids to learn about the area and earn another Junior Ranger Badge.
The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is the world’s largest balloon festival with attendance of close to 900,000 people over nine days and 600 or more balloons launching on any particular day. The festival has an economic impact of nearly $200 million for the area. Needless to say, it’s kind of a big deal. The Fiesta has multiple events including a “glowdeo” in the evening where the balloons are inflated and lit by the burners, a mass ascension in the morning where around 600 balloons launch together, shapes events where the shaped balloons like Darth Vader and Loony Tunes characters are inflated, concerts, skydivers, fireworks, and more (like skydivers throwing fireworks). Seeing the balloons launch is quite a sight to behold. They fill the sky with a myriad of color in all directions. It’s hard not to stare at the sky and just smile from the beauty of it all.
We had a great campsite for the Fiesta. Each morning, we could watch the balloons rise from the bed of our Airstream. Some even landed in the field right behind us. We would run into the field and help the pilots land the balloons by grabbing onto the baskets when they hit the field. The amount of force the balloons create when the wind is blowing is amazing. I guess I should have known that from sailing, but I was still caught off guard. When Darth Vader came in hot, I grabbed the basket and got dragged a good 30 feet or more before it stopped. Rule number one of a balloon festival is never get in front of a balloon – they will mow you over. At night, we could watch the fireworks from our bedroom in the Airstream as well.
We rode our bikes everywhere when we were in Albuquerque. This is absolutely the way to go if you ever attend the festival. But, if you ride a bike around Albuquerque, you will quickly learn rule number two of the balloon festival – be prepared to fight the evil Goathead plant. Goathead seeds are little thorny seeds that look like small depth charge bombs waiting for your bike tires in the sand. I think they may have been planted in the desert by the Bicycle Tube Manufacturing Entrepreneurs of Albuquerque (BiTe ME Albuquerque). These little buggers left us with five flats over the course of just a few days. Bring plenty of tubes or go tubeless when you are riding out here. If you are planning on riding extensively here, check out this link.
Our time in Albuquerque went by pretty quickly. We had an absolute blast at the Balloon Fiesta. While we are going to miss seeing hot air balloons in the sky every day, I bet we will soon find another area with some other type of beauty to enjoy. We always talk about whether or not we would come back to an area. I think that we will be back to the Balloon Fiesta in the future. Next time, we will volunteer as crew with hopes of getting up in the balloon during one of the mass ascensions. This area is not too bad either – we can’t wait to explore Santa Fe next.
