October 6
We left Winslow, heading for Albuquerque. The drive was interesting. It started quite flat and we were worried that we were not going to see more mountains. But an hour later we started to see different formations, different colours as well as mountains. When we arrived in Albuquerque it was very busy. We went straight to the Balloon Fiesta location to join every other Baby Boomer from the continent. This was the first year in history that they didn't have enough space for all of the RV's.

After a circuitous route, we found a great campsite - in the parking lot of the casino....sloped both front to back and side to side, no services, and no ability to use the pool, for the bargain basement price of $59 per night.

After watching the Jay's win game one against Texas, we parked at the roadside for the laser light show and fireworks.

October 7
We got up early today to watch from the casino parking lot, as the balloons took off. Not only were there a huge number of balloons of typical shapes and colors, there were a number of very unusual "shaped" balloons including a dog a fire hydrant a beaver , A single balloon made up of two parents, and octopus, a witch, Darth Vader and Yoda, a heart shaped balloon and many more.

After watching the balloons we headed into townto a local sports pub, as the Jays game started at 11 o'clockour time. In a thrilling game, they won two now lead the series against Texas two nothing.

After the game we headed into historic downtown Albuquerque, and area made up of buildings that were constructed in the late 1700s, very Mexican in design, with all kinds of shops and alleys with a huge variety of souvenirs, native jewelry, spices, and different artist playing music.

October 8
We got up very early today to walk over to balloon fiesta park. It was a 5 km walk one way, including a hike through a private area full of scrub brush and a big drainage ditch. And a few Barbwire fences.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't in our favour. When we got to the park none of the balloons were in fleeting. It was too windy. They needed to make a decision by 830 whether they would fly or not, and at about 820 there was an announcement that said we're going green, we're ready to fly. What an organized chaos. About 100 balloons went op, and as they were inflating many of them were in fighting up against each other. It was really cool to watch, and also to be able to see them take off so close to us. It was very neat to watch the process of getting the balloon ready to take off. The balloon itself was rolled out onto the field, completely opened; the basket was turned on its side though, the hole in the balloon was opened and a huge fan was used to blow some cold area and in order to start the inflation process. Once it was partly inflated they used the heat from the propane tanks to fill the rest of the balloon. There is a guy at the top end of the balloon, holding a rope to ensure that the balloon doesn't collapse on itself, or take off too soon. As the balloon started to rise, it lifted the cockpit up on its side up from its side so that it became upright, and then finish the rest of the inflation process.

We walked back to the campground and ended up walking through some pretty significant rain, which lasted for a couple of hours. After lunch we headed back down to the park, driving this time. For the music festival. It was mostly country music, we saw the Parmalee's and Chris Young. We quite enjoyed the music, but it was pretty cool temperature wise. After the show, we saw the most incredible firework show we think we've ever seen. All in all it was a great day even though the weather didn't cooperate.