5 AM is EARLY!!!!!

October 9 – What a long day!  Literally!  We got up at 5:00 and Uber picked us up at 5:30 for the Balloon Fiesta.  It was a pretty cold morning and we hoped we dressed for it but my feet got really cold!  We were stuck in traffic and lucked out that a parking place allowed our driver to drive us through and drop us on the sidewalk to the fiesta grounds.  Then a courtesy shuttle came and we got a nice ride to the gate.

A team getting ready in the dusk

Once inside we hit the concession booth for some breakfast.  While Kam went with a cinnamon roll and hot chocolate, Bill and I had breakfast burritos.  It was pitch dark out and due to some wind things were delayed.  We took our chairs and sat along the edge of the balloon area.  There were tons of trucks with their baskets and balloons but no one was unloading with the weather.  Once it hit

Things starting to happen

daylight the flag went from yellow (caution) to green (go) and balloons were blowing up left and right!  Bill stayed with the chairs while Kam and I walked to the far end and where we watched so many balloons blow up and took so many photos!  We were thrilled that the ascension happened so we didn’t have to get up again tomorrow at 5!  Bill had already told us he wasn’t going again so I was glad he got to see how awesome the whole event is.

I can’t begin to name them, but there were lots of sponsored balloons like Bimbo Bakery, Wells Fargo, Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper and the list of them goes on and on and then there were shaped balloons and then the normal shaped balloons in all colors and color combinations.  The wind had died to about nothing so many of the balloons didn’t go very far and we could see them until they

Waiting their turn

descended.  We checked out some of the booths and spinned some wheels for samples of several products.  We were lucky to catch another shuttle to the Balloon Museum where Kam made the call for another pickup and we waited a whole 2 minutes. Check the photo link for lots of balloon photos.

We were all tired and just took a break and warmed up for a while.  We decided to have lunch out at Frontier, which is a very popular place that serves a variety of foods but the main focus is Mexican.  You place your order across a long counter at whichever register is

Bimbo Bakery

open and they give you a number.  You watch the monitor for your number to come up and pick up your food.  Bill saved us a table as we didn’t know there were 3 dining rooms and by the time we were eating the line was 20 deep.  I had taco salad, Bill had a burrito and Kam had posole and a carne adovada burrito.  We took our time and enjoyed our lunch before making a stop at the University of NM so Bill and Kam could see “The Pit”.  They managed to get into the building but were not allowed in “The Pit” but to see it from the door.

We decided to visit Old Town and we did a lot of walking.  Eventually Bill went back to the car once he was “shopped out”.  He did get a beautiful inlaid ring.  We’ve been looking a lot everywhere and finally found one that fit and was what he really wanted.  I think after that he was really to call it a day!  Kam was on a mission to find a piece of Talavera but it wasn’t to be in “Old Town”.  We did buy a bottle of Ginger Honey White Balsamic vinegar to split.  Of course she won’t get it until we get home.  I only got a patch of the fiesta to sew on my lighthouse jacket.

We dropped Bill off at the RV and went back out to a nursery that had a lot of Talavera pottery but the piece she wanted was more than it was in Old Town.  They didn’t have much in the way of succulents so we visited a big nursery that had a lot of plants including succulents, but not in the color that Kam wanted.  We got a couple of leads from the clerk there on a nursery and a pottery place.  We checked out the pottery place but they were closed.  Maybe tomorrow we’ll stop at them after our other plans.

Bill was beginning to think we were lost by the time we got home.  Kam had a huckleberry lemonade while I finished a bottle of wine.  Eventually I made grilled cheese sandwiches and beef soup.  Nothing fancy!  For dessert we had huckleberry ice cream sandwiches.  I think Kam wants to stay till the huckleberry ice cream is gone!

I typed my blog and we watched some TV.