Enchanting Skies

OK, think of every adjective and expression you can that relates to something beautiful, wondrous, exciting, awesome, and so on and so on and so on. And even then you probably won’t be close to what we felt and saw during our days at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. It was a phenomenal experience.

We stayed in the RV parking area just south of the launch field. This was a huge dirt field with minimal electricity and water (no sewer) – definitely roughing it by our standards. And there was literally no grass for our poor Miss Heidi. She didn’t quite know what to do at first, but when ya gotta go, ya find a way.

At our Good Sam orientation dinner, they told us that the balloons typically drifted to the south, right over our rigs. So on Saturday we stayed at the park and watched. The launching was taking place about a mile from where we sat. But the winds didn’t cooperate with us. The balloons all sailed off to the west and north. So our first photos are all from a distance.

There were approximately 700 balloons invited to the Fiesta this year. It’s impossible to know if they all took off this day, but there sure were a lot of them. That’s Darth Vadar in the center.

The evening event was canceled because of wind conditions, but they still set off the fireworks. We watched this from the RV park. It was a very good display.

On Sunday we got up and took the shuttle bus over to the launch field. Oh my gosh, that was the most exciting thing to be a part of! We were free to roam around at will. You could walk right up to the balloons as they were inflating.

It was really cold, but we really didn’t care. The thrill of the event far outweighed that little discomfort.


Everywhere we looked they were inflating, launching, or sailing over head. When one went up you just moved on to find another to watch. It seemed there was an infinite number of them, too.

Anyone for football?

As you can see there were people everywhere. It was elbow to elbow with thousands of people. But it wasn’t an issue. You could always find a spot where you could see something of interest.

Do you think these two were having any fun at all?

Here’s that same balloon taking off.

Did I mention Darth Vadar was there? Well, he got inflated that morning, but didn’t get off the ground. I think by then the conditions were changing.

The Wells Fargo Stage Coach tried its best as well, but did not get up either.

There was a massive cheer when these guys lifted off. I heard that sometimes they fly hand in hand.

It was almost sad when the launches came to an end. I tell you, I could bore you to tears with photos. We’ve got over 250 to choose from. But read on…

There was another Balloon Glow scheduled for Sunday evening. The program said 5:45, but I guess we didn’t get the memo. Nothing at all happens until after dark. We had gone to the field to see it, but since we hadn’t eaten, we went back to the coach. Our driver said he’d heard it was cancelled again. We found out later that it had gone as scheduled. I’m sure it was fantastic. This event is where they all set off the burners to music and the balloons light up from the inside. I’m sure it would have been fabulous, but we were hungry and the crock pot had been going all day.

Monday morning brought another massive ascension of the balloons. Again, we opted to stay at the RV park(ing lot). This turned out to be a great decision. They all came directly over us! It was SO beautiful. Some of them even landed in the field right next to where we were staying.

Did I mention they flew right over us?

Finally the sun made it over the mountains so that the pictures got better.


Some of the pilots waved and we all shouted “hellos” to each other. It was awesome!

Did you know that pigs CAN fly?

I thought of mom when this one came by.

This guy is one of my (many) favorites.

There were no events scheduled for the weekday evenings. After this fantastic morning, we went to the Acoma Pueblo with our group.

And then Tuesday morning arrived. This was the best day for flying so far. The “Box” was working. This means that the winds were just right for the balloons to fly south (over us) at one altitude, then rise up higher and catch the winds taking them back to the north (over us again). Most days allowed for about an hour to an hour and a half of flying time. They started at 7am on this day and when we drove away at 9:45 they were still in the air. They must have all been in heaven.

Since the “Box” was working, they came over us at a pretty low altitude.

Ever seen a pink elephant?

Even the big balloons got up on that day. Darth Vadar made another appearance. The Wells Fargo Stage Coach came by.

Here’s how close we were to some of the landings.




This might give you an idea of how many balloons were in the skies all at the same time.

As I said, they were still flying when we left for Santa Fe at 9:45. We did a little shopping around the plaza and then had lunch and returned to the RV via Wal-Mart. We spent the evening in Old Town Albuquerque where we also had dinner.

Wednesday’s theme was Parade of Nations. Balloonists come here, by invitation only, from all over the world. About all that meant was that they had their flags hanging from the balloons. It probably had something to do with the order of ascension, too. I didn’t hear if the “Box” was working, but they were sure flying everywhere.

We pulled out with balloons all over the skies of Albuquerque. It was bitter-sweet to leave, but our next major stop is to see the grandkids. That will be yet another wonderful part of this trip of a lifetime.

The Pueblos

Taos Pueblo

While in Taos, we drove out to explore Taos Pueblo, about two miles north of town. It was very flat, very dusty and very brown. We took the tour and learned a lot about their culture, which has continued in this spot for over a thousand years. They still, to this day, have no running water and no electricity. In fact, they are working very hard to retain all of the old ways as well as their language.

We had to pay a fee to be allowed to use our camera. And there were restrictions against photographing the cemetery and inside the church. We were not allowed to take pictures of any of the residents unless we asked them for permission.

Here we are not far from the church, before our tour began.

This is the church, which was reconstructed some time after the Pueblo revolt against the Spanish. I wish we could have taken pictures inside as it was very pretty, retaining much of the Pueblo’s own religion while mixing it with the Spanish Catholicism.

This is a shot across the plaza showing some of the dwellings. The post in the center is used for ceremonial purposes.

Here’s another shot of the dwellings, across the small river which is their only water source.

In their words, it’s a “simplistic” life. I say it’s way too much like camping for my taste!

Acoma Pueblo

One of our tours out of Albuquerque was to the Acoma Pueblo. This village sits on top of a mesa, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. They built their pueblo there because of its defensive position. This is a shot from a couple miles away. If you click on it to blow it up, you can see the buildings.

The same camera rules applied in this Pueblo. This is of their church. It was the only church in the Pueblo Revolt that was not destroyed. It was much larger than the one in Taos and also very pretty inside.

This gives an idea of the views from the top of this mesa. By the way, that is the only tree on top of the mesa and is only about 30 or 40 years old. Yet the people have lived there for over a thousand years.


This is the entrance to a kiva, where the Pueblo people practice their own religious ceremonies.


The architecture here was very similar to Taos. Here is a picture of some of the dwellings.

At the end of the tour, we were allowed to walk down the “steps” of the mesa. Julian and I chose not to do this, however several of our group did. They told us later that it was pretty steep, as we suspected. We enjoyed our mini-bus ride back down to the Visitor Center.

The Acoma people are also trying to keep their old ways and culture alive. The biggest difference we saw was the large number of port-a-potties on the mesa. I don’t think we saw even one in Taos Pueblo. It would sure be a hard life up there without them, though.

Land of Enchantment

We spent the first night back in the coach at a beautiful little campground at the top of Raton Pass. We were so close to the state line that we could have walked back to Colorado. The views were (I’m running out of adjectives here) awesome. We could see for miles and miles. I know these photos don’t fully do it justice, but I still have to share.

When I went outside this morning to take some photos of this wonderful scenery, I heard a very loud noise. Can you say “mooooooo”? Just across the interstate, there appeared to be a cattle drive going on. These gals didn’t seem terribly happy about it either. It has been eons since I’ve been in a position to hear that many cows making that much noise. Here’s a picture, but even if you zoom in, it’s hard to see there black selves.

Later, we saw cowboys – real cowboys on horseback working the herd. Good morning, New Mexico!

The drive to Taos was amazing, too. Once off the interstate, we went through a good 30 miles of grazing pastures. At first it was all cows. Then we started seeing antelope. We saw a few in Nebraska and Wyoming, but there were way more of them here. And then, just before Cimarron, we saw buffalo – a lot of buffalo. We saw elk crossing signs, but no live elk.

From there we drove into the mountains. Gorgeous mountains! Amazing scenery!


After clearing Palo Flechada Pass at an elevation of 9116 feet, we descended into this valley.

The trees are starting to turn on the hillsides and it was beautiful.

If you've never driven US-64 between Raton and Taos, I highly recommend it. It is a totally fabulous experience.

Colorful Colorado

After leaving the Rapid City area, we headed straight south through the panhandle of Nebraska. This is fairly bleak country – we saw some cows and a few windmills, but little else, not even houses. We wondered who owned the cows and where they lived.

We spent one night in Cheyenne, WY, and then arrived in the Denver area on Thursday, 9/20. We parked the RV in the driveway next door, a vacant house in foreclosure. Then we moved into Neil’s for a few days. It was a little weird to move out of the coach temporarily.

On Friday, I went to Loveland to see my BFF Judy. We don’t get to see each other often, so we really enjoyed this time together. She took me to the Sculpture Gardens, which I really enjoyed. These are all done by local artists, mostly in bronze, but some in stone. Here’s Judy with one of them.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to ride an alligator (or is this a crocodile?).


As you can see, we get a little bit silly when we are out together. This is the same woman who once convinced me to go up the down escalator in a prominent Denver department store one evening. I think we had a couple too many glasses of wine that night, but we always have a great time together!

We spent three nights in Cripple Creek. The drive up there was both sad and fabulous. The first part of the drive through the mountains took us through areas that had been hit pretty hard by forest fires. Having driven those roads often, it was especially sad to see what had happened. The last half of the mountain drive was spectacular. The aspen trees were turning and the greens and golds were so beautiful.



We had a Jr. suite at the Double Eagle, one of our favorite casinos. We were on the fifth floor, in a corner room. This is the view out one window.


The train that runs between Cripple Creek and Victor was just leaving the station when I got that photo. This photo is out the other window on the following morning. The fog was so cool, I thought.


One of the days we drove to Victor in search of lunch. We didn’t find any restaurants, so we just took pictures on the way back and had lunch at one of the casinos.


This looks to the south and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. It was far prettier than the picture shows, but you get the idea.

We spent a lot of time gambling. (Duh!) But we left town with more money than we had when we came in. Julian hit four aces three or four time in one morning and that helped a bunch.

Small World Department: We needed to pick something up at a grocery store on the first day in Cripple Creek. We got directions, but they didn’t make sense and we wound up at the store in an RV park in town. When we walked in, I overheard a gentleman saying something to the clerk about living in Nebraska. A few seconds later I heard “David City” in the conversation. Well, I couldn’t let that pass. So I jumped in and said that I had grown up there. He asked my name and I told him. Then I said Ray & Gwen were my parents. Get this: he said he had bought lots of fuel from my dad! His name was Mel Vrbka and I can’t say I remember him or is name, but I know there were plenty of Vrbkas in the area. How do two people from the same small town run into each other in another small town 500 miles away in which neither of them currently resides!?!? It’s definitely a small world we live in.

After Cripple Creek, we stayed with Julian’s sister. Joyce and Ron have a new home in Cherry Creek and it was really fun staying with them. We walked everywhere and it was fun. One evening we saw an acapella group who did mostly oldies. They were VERY good. You’d have sworn there was a drummer on stage, but it was all the “beat boxing” of one of their guys. He even did a drum solo which was amazing.

Julian had lunches with old friends from his Rocky Mountain News days. We both had dinner with another friend from the News and his new lady. I spent some time at Tri-State and got to see many of my old buddies, too. We really had a great time over the 10 days in Colorado.

We managed to snag a few photos of the Cole Clan before we left. Here’s one with everybody.

Left to right are Louise and Neil (Julian’s brother), Joyce (his sister) and Ron, Julian, Heidi and Donna. This was taken after the Broncos got soundly beaten by Indianapolis. Oh, well, we’re still in a tie for first place in our division. (Yeah, I’m an optimist.)

Next stop will be New Mexico. We won’t have internet during the Balloon Fiesta, so you’ll all have to be patient for the next installment.

Until then, Happy Trails!