Farewell Balloon Fiesta!

I promised to wrap up our stay at the Balloon Fiesta (and I will!) but I need to back track a little. After striking out on the stand-by list on Friday, 10/11, we attended the morning session which included the Special Shapes Rodeo. It is so much fun hanging out on field and watching the specials inflate. Some of them are just huge and we always seemed to see new ones each time. Riley was intrigued too, although he watched from the comfort of the RV.

Riley is a fan of the special shape balloons too!

Cops and Robbers. Lol.

A Lion King. 

This looks like a balloon smack-down. 

We hadn't seen the pirate before...

...or this awesome Beagle.

A few more to add to our collection. Lol.

Friday afternoon we connected with our friends Bob and Carole. We attended the evening session together, the Special Shape Glowdeo. As thrilling as the specials are during the day, double that in the evening when they’re all lit up. And it was even more fun to share it with friends. And speaking of friends, Bob and Carole did a portion of Hwy 395 that we love before coming to the Fiesta. We told them about some of our favorite stops, rhapsodizing about the hard soda from Indian Wells Brewery, and they agreed to pick some up for us. They’d read our blog and when they stopped in Bishop they also picked up some of our favorite Great Basin Bakery Rosemary Shortbread cookies AND a Porter Brownie from Mountain Rambler Brewery. I had a birthday Porter Brownie!! How sweet is that??!!

Hugs and a giant robot.

Darth Vader and Yoda.
They were accompanied by several human storm troopers
to the delight of all the Star Wars fans. 

The glow has begun!

I think the fishy looks a little worried. Lol.

What a fun line-up, Sylvester and Tweety are on the end.

As much as we love the special shapes, it wouldn’t be at all fair to shortchange what we call the “pretties”. So many of the balloons are just gorgeous rainbow geometric designs. Against the brilliant blue New Mexico sky, they are truly an amazing sight. There were hundreds, so this is just a small handful. Can you pick a favorite?

Another thing we learned about is the different sizes and shapes of the more traditional balloons. The smallest are called cloud hoppers, they’re shaped like a regular balloon but instead of a basket they have a chair frame with a propane tank attached. The pilot and maybe one passenger are strapped into the frame and fly the balloon from a sitting position.  We saw one pilot transfer from his wheelchair to the cloud hopper seat. Brilliant. Cloud hoppers range from 21,000 to 31,000 cubic feet.

This cloud hopper is dropping his marker
at the fly-in competition.

Another variation is the racer balloon. It is more streamlined and taller than it is wide, the shape helps it ascend and descend faster. Racers are medium sized and range from 56,000 to 77,000 cubic feet.

Race balloon.

Regular balloons are the most common shape and are used for both private and commercial flying. They range in size from 55,000 to 150,000 with the larger passenger balloons over 300,000 cubic feet. The largest balloon in the world is 750,000 cubic feet and is able to carry 32-35 people. That is about twice the size of the one we rode in!

Yep, that's the balloon we flew in!

Saturday evening Bob and Carole came over to the north RV lot (they were staying in the south RV lot) to get a ringside seat for the fireworks. It was an extraordinary show, since it was the last night for fireworks they threw everything in for the grand finale. Riley had his CBD treats, thunder jacket, cotton balls stuffed in his ears (yes, that helped!) and one of us stayed in the RV with him. He did fine. He was a brave boy, the mortars were flying so fast and furious and so close we could feel the whole rig shake. The Fourth of July should be a piece of cake after this. Lol.

Quite the fireworks show right in our backyard!

What a display!

Sunday was the last day of the Fiesta and we were there for the Farewell Mass Ascension. I was afraid a lot of the balloonists would have already departed, but the launch field was full and it was a beautiful ending to a spectacular event.

Farewell Mass Ascension.

The Stagecoach drifts over the vendor tents. 

Rainbow overhead. :) 

Farewell pano.

We pulled out Sunday, 10/13, after the balloons were gone with plans to stay near Cortez, Co. Rog wants to get a few days of mountain biking in on the way home. We’re still watching the weather and trying to decide on a route home. We'll keep you posted.