KRQE.com Balloon Fiesta Blog

A big crowd at fiesta, and a great flight as usual. Special thanks to Carl Young and his crew Jan, Mike, Ron, Claudia, Lisa, and Cathy. We flew northwest over the Bosque and Sandia Pueblo land where we caught a thin lower layer that carried us south over the Rio Grande for some time. Balloons around us were in close proximity and dipped into the river like children playing in a mud puddle. Despite doom and gloom forecasts that were probably overblown by us media types, the wind was very calm in the air and only has picked-up on the field since 9 am.

In fact the wind was so calm at our landing site that Cal and I just sat in the inflated balloon, on the ground as we waited for the chase crew. The chase crew had to navigate the small farm roads and thin tractor paths to reach us.

The farmer whose land we shared with 5 or 6 other balloons was very accommodating. He only asked that we stay on the road and not drive on the field, a request that another balloon's crew didn't heed--I wish I got their number, it's that kind of stuff that leads land owners to stop accommodating the balloons. So Carl and I spent 15 minutes regathering one row of alfalfa was driven over. Carl is a farmer back in Iowa and was very mindful of the guy's crop.

Well, we're back at Fiesta field. We'll be back out tomorrow.

Source: KRQE News 13 | By: Ryan Wallace