Today, Saturday, was the opening of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We were up at 4:45am and shortly after 5am we were on a bus to the Fiesta. Ballooning activities were to begin at 5:45am. We got onto the grounds and made our way into the souvenir tent to buy a few things and then were in line for about 30 minutes waiting to purchase breakfast burritos. The line really wasn’t terribly long but the service was extremely slow. There was a gentle wind and about the time for the activities were to begin it was announced that the wind was more than 10mph so the activities were cancelled for this morning. So we paid admission into this fiesta in order to spend money and nothing else- bummer! When we left the motorhome it was 61 degrees but the temperature dropped several degrees and felt much colder. We caught a bus back to the Fiesta campgrounds and snuggled down for a nap. Before noon we got into the Jeep and went down to “Old Town Albuquerque” where we had lunch at “Little Anita’s” and then walked about the shops and by the street vendors. The stores were ready for the Balloon Fiesta crowd and the crowd was there. The Fiesta has sessions in the morning and then on certain days in the evening with each session requiring a new admission of $8.00. We did learn that packets of 5 tickets could be purchased for $35.00 but were unable until this morning to find where to purchase these tickets- the ticket booths did not sell them and said they didn’t know where they were being sold. We did stop to purchase these tickets before going for lunch.
This evening the wind was blowing stronger than this morning. We listened to the local television station to hear about this evenings activities and according to the wind strength we didn’t think it was worth going over to the Fiesta grounds. One activity had been cancelled this morning. At 7:30pm fireworks were set off and we were able to sit outside the motorhome and watch without the loud banging. The wind is to continue through the night and then taper off so it is up in the air what will take place in the morning.
Yesterday when we got into this campground area we noticed a strong aroma of caramel popcorn. We just knew that someone somewhere was making batches of caramel corn. Today we learned that there is a Cocoa Puffs cereal factory nearby that is responsible for that aroma in the air and not caramel corn being made.
