The day began at 3:30 or even earlier as I was afraid to sleep I so didn’t sleep well. We quickly got ready, C & W arrived at 4 and we loaded into Celia’s vehicle to head for Albuquerque. The traffic was extremely light, much different than Newtons drive in 40 minutes later yesterday. We arrived with a closest to the gate parking space
the first couple hours were spent wandering as we waited for the dawn patrol and then mass ascension.
I found a sponsor booth: Pandora and bought a hot air balloon bead for my travel collection and then as dawn was approaching wandered into the field. That is truly the coolest thing about this festival, basically no boundaries. You are allowed to wander through the fields amongst the balloons and vehicles. As it got lighter I spotted a few balloons laid out ready and wandered over to see this on the side of the chase vehicle..
I hung around here and texted the others. C&W arrived and I was noticing that a couple guys had Roughriders gear on so I pulled up my BC Lions app and walked over flashing it and said Go
Lions Go. They laughed and came over to talk. One of the guys ended up talking to us for quite a while, even giving a tour of the balloon and how it works. I told him we were booked with Rainbow Ryder’s and he said they were likely to be our ride. I said I wanted to be In the Lions colored one and he said to ask for Eduardo Martinez.
</a
</a
we watched as many test balloons were sent up but the wind was not conducive. First the dawn patrol was cancelled and then the mass ascension. It was a beautiful day though and many decide to inflate for show but stayed tethered
I will admit to being like a child as every which way I turned there was something happening
unfortunately the moments were short as the weather was not cooperating
as we wandered out we stopped by the chainsaw carvers and one was from B C !
the last booth was NASA and I asked if I could get a picture of Louise with the fully inflated astronaut suit. I was told you pose it your way and then I will
she is now an astronaut!
next we went to Plaza Café South and Mike and Colleen from Oregon met us there. What a grand reunion
. We all agreed to go for naps and relaxes and meet at Celia’s for dinner. I got the news that my new grand baby is a boy and took a call from my daughter about all the excitement. After a bit of a relax and a shower, the crew showed up and we had so much fun! We even had the neighbour, Adam come over to take pictures for us
he was so sweet I gave him some of the BBQ smoked salmon I had brought. Everyone said thanks to Arnie and Shannon for their part I the salmon feed!
we spent the next few hours reminiscing about Peru, discussing first impressions and generally laughing like school kids.
triumphgal 