Albuquerque Balloon Fest - Day 2

October 11, 2008 - Saturday

Well. After yesterday, it was going to be difficult to live up to the excitement, but the actual result was even-more disappointing. We were wary of cancellation of the Launch because of rain and winds, so when the alarm went off at 5AM, we quickly turned on the TV to watch the weather and the coverage of the Festival. It was not encouraging news - but the reporters were pumping it and trying to make the best case they could to "come on out - because we MIGHT still have a launch". Hmmm... We've experienced this kind of thing with Rocket launches in Florida: nobody KNOWS whether a launch will happen or not - and it's a bit of effort to get up, go to the site, and wait - only to perhaps have it cancelled at literally the last second - so we decided that since we'd driven all of the way to be here, it would be stupid to just go back to sleep and perhaps miss a launch.


So we went to the grounds (using the *northern* exit from I25 this time), paid our $10 to park, paid our $12 to get in, set up our chairs - and waited.


Ultimately, one of the balloonists set up his propane burner and fired it off - which was impressive to watch, but the sun came up and nobody was even setting up, so we got the message that there would be no launch. I don't think they ever even formally announced that there would be no launch. Now... I understand that they can't control the weather, but it *felt* like "they" had gone out of their way to try to get everybody to come out and pay their $22 (parking plus entry) - because they needed the money and because they needed the vendors to be supported in selling their Fair food - not because they actually thought there would be a launch. The "Dawn Patrol" never went up - which says to me that they knew it was too windy at 5:45, but they still encouraged people to come out and pay up. Rather felt like a dirty trick.

So we packed up and worked our way with the rest of the crowd - out of the Balloon Fiesta Park - no refunds - and back to the hotel to Blog (I *do* need time to do that sometimes), email, nap, and try to burn backup DVD's of all of the photo's we've taken. I had a lot of trouble and ultimately found out that DVD-R's really don't work for me, so we drove out to Target - in the overcast, drizzly day - to buy DVD+R's and those finally seemed to do the trick - so the day wasn't a loss: I learned something.

We tried to participate in the Social Hour in our hotel lobby, but it seemed like everybody was pointedly staying to their groups rather than mingling, so we got back into Monroe and drove back to the Balloon Fest for the evening activities - and found that they had, indeed, formally cancelled them, but a helpful gate-attendant told us which radio station to listen to for official updates. It was really quite an extra shame that the evening activities were cancelled since the Chain Saw Carvers were supposed to auction off their big-work creations - donating the proceeds to charity - and that had to be postponed - so we never even got to see the finished works.

We ended the day with a really-good seafood dinner at Pappadeaux's - and found out that "going out to dinner on a Saturday night" was a very-popular thing to do in Albuquerque: we visited 4 restaurants and confirmed that they *all* had an hour wait. But the meal was worth the wait.

Then back to the hotel to go to bed - because we had to set the alarm for 5AM again - to see if Sunday's launch was going to happen.

Hey. Sometimes you *need* a laid-back day to catch up on the "errands" of life - and today was it.

3651 miles.