Oct 7th to 9th - Albuquerque

Oct 7th – Fri – Albuquerque
We caught the bus at 6:30 this morning but again there was too much wind for the balloons to fly. They are all special shapes today which makes them harder to pilot and affected more by windy conditions. Five Navy parachutists put on a nice little show with smoke and stacked parachutes.
We went back to the Sandia casino where I broke even but Terry lost his allowance. The night glow was cancelled due to rain so we had happy hour at Dave & Margo’s and then we all went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. The traffic was terrible to get there and we found out later that a power line had come down across all lanes of I25.
Dave & Margo came over to visit after dinner. When they opened the door to leave about 9, we discovered a lake beside our rig. Just a corner of the mat was showing and the generator was sitting in water. Terry went out in the still pouring rain and put the generator up on a small table.

Oct 8th – Sat – Albuquerque
The mass ascension this morning was iffy because of the wet launch field. It is all grass and soaked from the rain yesterday and last night. They finally got permission to fly so quite a few took off.
We had breakfast when we got back and then went with Dave & Margo to an Art & Craft sale. We weren’t impressed with the $7 entrance fee but decided it was worth it as there were many beautiful and unique items there. Then we went to the Hard Rock casino where Dave & Margo got $25 free play on their new players’ cards. I showed Margo a slot machine that I like to play and darned if she didn’t win over $80 on it without even spending all her free play. Just before we met up to leave, I won back most of my allowance and Terry didn’t even spend all of his. Dave turned his $25 free play into $7 to take home!
Happy hour was at David & Phyllis’ at 4 and then we all caught a bus to the launch field where there was a very successful night glow and a great fireworks display. The line for the buses to come back was huge so Dave & Margo and we walked back. David is having knee replacement surgery this winter so they waited for a bus. It was a long, busy day so it didn’t take us long to hit the sack.

Oct 9th – Sun – Albuquerque
We decided this morning that we will stay here tonight and drive all the way back to Mesa tomorrow rather than rush packing up to get on the road after the morning session.
When we went out to catch the bus, we saw about a dozen balloons that had joined the “Morning Show” balloons that go up to check the winds at different altitudes. It was still quite dark and the glowing balloons were spectacular. It was a beautiful sunny morning (but cool so we wore our layers and heavy coats) and the mass ascension was amazing. It took over an hour to get all the balloons launched. When we got back, a few balloons were landing in a field in the middle of where all the RVs are parked.
Terry put the bikes back on the rack and started the generator to charge the batteries so I took advantage of the power and vacuumed. We and Phyllis went to the Hard Rock casino as she didn’t use all her free play on her first visit. We all lost!! I made brownies when we got back and we all got together for a pot luck steak dinner. The weather was beautiful so we sat out for drinks and enjoyed a buddy burner after dinner.