Back to the balloons!! and onward!

OK, time to try to get caught up. Back to the balloons!

This’ll be mostly pictures, for a couple reasons. Way too much time has passed for chat (that translates as in ‘for me to remember’), and besides, the pictures are more interesting!

The weather was pretty much awful for the entire Fiesta – most of the events were cancelled because of high winds and/or rain.

You may have heard that one balloon burned – tragic accident where one life was lost.

Apparently there is conversation every year about having the annual Fiesta a couple weeks earlier, thereby avoiding the inevitable bad weather, but for some reason they haven’t done it yet!

We did go to a couple events – two evenings in the VIP Gondola Club and a morning breakfast there too for the last final ascension – pretty much all rained out.

The first night show we attended – this one was a bit of a rip-off. The Gondola Club knew that show was cancelled and the fireworks were also cancelled, but they managed not to tell us until it was too late for us to get a raincheck. The dinner was OK, but it was so cold and wet that it wasn’t much fun at all. Sorry, I know I mentioned that earlier – still rankles.

The weather wasn’t much better for our second night show, but at least some balloons showed up and filled, so the show was colorful, and we enjoyed that! Dinner that night was a little better too!

The final morning, we went again to The Gondola Club for the final mass ascension. Unfortunately, the weather was again vile, so there was no launch.

We did get to see the nightly fireworks on the second evening we were at The Gondola Club. At least the weather didn't stop that show, and it was great. I'm a sucker for fireworks - I could watch every night!

Don’t take it that we didn’t have a good time. Weather aside, we had a grand time. We took a gorgeous drive up to Santa Fe one day, and there was a carnival atmosphere in town that day.

Lots of buildings had their "art" displayed on their walls!

The sun was shining and people were laughing and we had a ball. I love old Santa Fe town – art and history and little boutique shops - it was Suzie’s first visit, and I suspect she’ll drop in again!

All in all, it was a delightful two weeks. I was disappointed, of course, with the weather and resulting lack of balloons, but Suzie and I have fun whenever she joins me on the road! Having friends to share an adventure make life fine!! What we saw was heavenly!

Santa Fe Skies RV Park 14 Browncastle Ranch Santa Fe, NM 87508 www.santafeskiesrvpark.com