Episode 12: RVing The ABQ Balloon Fiesta 2023!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I'm thinking this is my first chase
event and we get tacos in tequila.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
You know, I've thought about it since then.
I think that's like it's because it's way
cheaper than repairing the house, or like a
bottle of tequila and some tacos, like
Thank you for not crashing into my home.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hi, you've reached the Cogwells.
Please leave a message and we will get back
with you.
Just a suit.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Welcome to the RV Work Life Balance podcast
with your traveling nomadic hosts, Sherry
and Russ Caldwell.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hey, that's us.
We're living the dream, working from home,
baby.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
No matter where home is.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
And you can too.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
OMG, we're back again.
We are, I know, and actually it's it's
actually more surprising for me, so I'm
glad you went.
That's good, that's real good.
Because, well, you know so.
So, anyways, everyone you know it's I'm on
parole now so it turns out there's like
podcast police, who knew who knew, like.

(01:10):
So I can't quite figure out who our good
listeners are and our bad listeners.
First, we had, exactly, we had some
fantastic feedback, right?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
We did.
It was great.
Yeah, what are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, and then we had some other feedback
that kind of got me in trouble with the
podcast police it's.
I know, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
So if you've been an avid listener, I mean
he is a troublemaker, so I'm on parole for
the podcast police.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
So I'm only here under special pretenses
here and then I drag me away again.
So, if you don't know, go back and listen
to a couple of podcasts before.
So apparently some of our podcast listeners
call me out on our magic a ball and what I
know, right.

(02:02):
So if you remember, I was asking all sorts
of questions of magic a ball and I would go,
ok, magic a ball, x, y, z, what's happening?
Right, and I would give the answer Well,
some people were calling me out on that.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Why.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, because apparently I was just using a
water bottle and I wasn't using we have a
magic, a ball.
That's the part that you know.
I didn't realize till after we recorded the
episode that we actually had our magic a
ball.
I know, I know, I know.
So I'm here to apologize Anyone who's
listening.
I didn't have my actual magic a ball at the

(02:40):
time and I'm in trouble.
So, but you know what I'm going to.
I've got this because, you know, as an avid
Star Wars fan, I brought in, you know, my
favorite character, r2d2, to kind of you
know, confirm that it's all good.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
So OK.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, so R2,.
Am I good to go?
I'm like, yeah, I am so good job, r2d2.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, I don't know if this can work, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well, I think that's R2.
So, anyways.
So my special effects I'm still working on.
So, anyways, but we do have a magic, a ball,
I know, I just didn't have it that night.
So so you know in the future, listen to
that.
It's kind of a magic a ball Full disclosure

(03:34):
yeah.
You know giving away the magic trick, you
know so anyways, ok, so I'll start with
let's start with cheers that I'm here on
parole Cheers, everybody Cheers.
But anyways, again thanks for the feedback.
It's been awesome, you know so.
It's been friends and people.

(03:54):
We're brand new friends yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
It's been great that I've been reaching out.
Fantastic, I love it.
I'm not here about the podcast police or
whatever, so yeah, embarrassing.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Thanks for all the positive comments so
yeah, so all right, take away this, this
bad dirt.
I started this with.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
What are we doing?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
This is like.
Normally I get to ask the question like
where are we?

Speaker 1 (04:19):
But like there's been a lot going on.
What are we?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
doing?
What are we been doing?

Speaker 1 (04:24):
This is the R special Hot air balloon
episode.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Is that a special effect?
It is.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Am I supposed to do something with that?

Speaker 2 (04:38):
I'm going to fix that in post.
Is that what that means?

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Because we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Is that air coming out or is that?
That's the fire going in, right?

Speaker 1 (04:46):
The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Whatever?

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Like we recently told stories where we had
air come out of our tires.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
And we were like, oh my God, which special
effect is that so?
Okay, anyway, the Albuquerque Balloon
Fiesta.
It's the largest hot air balloon festival
in the world, world, world world world.
That's my, that's my special effect.
Okay, and we were there.

(05:21):
We were right there.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
We were.
It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
For a week.
Well done, thank you for the great
introduction.
Oh okay, so the proper intro from a quaint
launch of 13 balloons in 1972 to the
massive nine day celebration it has become
today.
This was the 51st Albuquerque Balloon

(05:46):
Fiesta and there were more than 500 hot air
balloons from all over the world.
Can I do it again this?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
is even hotter.
Okay, it's expanded.
I like.
I like that.
Special effects are getting better.
I like that yeah which is interesting.
Like you said it, like it's nine days, we
didn't do all nine days.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
That's exhaust.
We did like less than half of that and it
was exhausting.
Like we did five, six days, four.
You're putting me on the spot again.
We were there for seven days.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
No way.
Yeah, I was not, you were.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
We missed the beginning weekend, ok, but
then, yes, we started on.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Monday we were still driving there.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
OK, cool it's.
I didn't know it was nine days till.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
You just said that, yeah Well yeah, cool,
but, but the funny thing is like this was
another one of the things that wasn't
really on our bucket list.
In fact, I didn't know much about it.
In fact, I used to call it, like the, the
Oba Kierke Balloon Festival.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
But it's a yes, yes, yes, that's right.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Which is much more fun to say, and, and it
turns out, other people actually like
pulled us into this right.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, yep, our friends Kim and Pete got us
into this and it started back in January of
2023.
And the event is actually in October, so
where were we in January?
I don't remember.
Oh, we were in Florida.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Oh, ok, where.
Dcbc, maybe, yeah, ecbc is East Coast Base
Camp, just so you know.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah yeah, our B property out.
Yeah, it's going to have base camps
everybody.
Yeah, yeah.
So Kim and Pete, yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
They're like getting us in trouble all the
time.
Good job, guys.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Love that, but it was awesome.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
It was one of their better calls.
Good job guys.
That was cool.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
So they have an in, because Pete is from
New Mexico or went to high school in New
Mexico and he still has family there.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, they just call up one morning in
January saying, hey, what are you doing in
October?
I'm like I don't know.
Let's get online and register for the
balloon fiesta.
The what?

Speaker 2 (08:11):
How hard could that be?
You know?
Click order now.
Oh my God, yeah, one click ordering.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
It was a thing.
So, okay, I forget exactly what day it was
in January, but we had this whole thing
worked out, kim and Pete, and I, while Russ
was working.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
I think I was working because I remember,
yeah, I wasn't really paying attention.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
We had to be online at a certain very early
time of the morning and on the phone and
texting back and forth, and you know, this
is the part of the festival park that we
want to be in the South lot, the East lot,
the North lot and if we don't get that,
let's do this and this and that.
Oh my God, total fail.

(08:57):
It was sold out within 45 minutes.
It was total chaos online.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
That was like 8,000 old people pushed order
now before you did.
It was crazy.
You lost it was absolutely crazy.
We were the old people that didn't get it
Too slow, Too slow.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
So yeah, that was the first time we tried
to get in through the front door right.
With apparently 2 million other people at
the same time.
It did sell out quickly and the internet's
froze.

(09:37):
We did make it on a wait list.
I don't even remember where, when, what
days, but we made it on a wait list.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Those should be called loser lists not wait
lists.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
But you know, the interesting thing is,
eventually we did get in.
I did get an email saying you know, months
later months later they sent an email and
said you're in, send your big bucks and
take your space.
But by then we had already made other plans

(10:09):
for the balloon fiesta.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
We paid somebody else off to get us in.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
That's right.
We went in a group caravan with the Integra
Coach Owners Association, which is one of
those FMCA chapters that we talked about in
the FMCA podcast.
So we had made other plans to camp with
Integra Coach.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, and that was where we got to.
So where we ended up was at a casino.
That's where we've stayed them.
Yes, but the casino we stayed on was the
Route 66 Casino RV Resort and we were with,
like Sherry mentioned, here we were with
our Integra Coach Association and it was

(10:55):
actually a really nice park.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
It was amazing.
Sometimes it's just a big parking lot, but
this was a nice park.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
And we didn't get to use because we were
spending all our time at the balloon fest,
Big casino resort style pool and hot tub.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
So if you were just staying there, it was
amazing.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
But we were going to stay there so we could
go to the Albuquerque balloon fest, which
was 30 miles away.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, so which, if you're going there once?

Speaker 2 (11:25):
if it's like a one day thing, it is awesome,
go do it.
We were doing it because we were going to
work there with the crew there, and so we
did it.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
You were, you went four times I went three
days right, something like that.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Maybe it was five for you, for me, so that
30 miles adds up, and when it's four in the
morning it adds up, so it's painful.
There's a lot of traffic, so yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
And what it was, because we couldn't get
into the balloon fiesta, where they do have
RV campgrounds around the balloon fiesta
park.
Couldn't get into that.
Another way to go is to go in a group
caravan where these different groups have.

(12:13):
You know, every year they come in as a
group and park together and there are some
groups on the balloon fiesta grounds like
fantasy, rv tours, adventure caravans, some
of the brand manufacturers we had friends
with, new more that were right up in the

(12:34):
fiesta park campgrounds.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Lucky, good job.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
And we heard about the monaco group.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, open.
We heard that like the day before we got
here.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Right.
And then they called us the next day to say
hey guys, come park with us on the fence.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Oh, it felt so bad.
They had a great spot and we were already
locked in.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah, but it was a lot of fun to park with
the Integra Coach Owners Association and
they always had.
So it's a group parking experience and
there's events and dinners and all kinds of
things, and then they generally have times
where in our case with Integra, because
we're so far away- they hired a coach, a

(13:16):
bus, to take people into.
I think there was a morning event and then
an afternoon event, yeah, but then there
were other activities at the casino RV
resort.
So it was really fun, but it was kind of a
distance.
So now we know what to do and we're going

(13:39):
to try again next time to be in the balloon
fiesta park.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
That's right Campgrounds right there in the
middle of the action.
I want to reiterate what you said, which is
we did have a great time with the Integra.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Group right.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
We served fantastic meals there in the
conference center there.
So we had catered awesome meals in the
conference center there and it was great to
meet other people we had met before and
other things.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
So we did have a great time.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Old friends we had seen in other events so
I do not want to put down that event was
awesome, so fun.
And in fact, if we were not working one of
the balloons like we were right, it would
have been perfect.
It really was.
It was kind of the odd team out because we
were having to drive a lot.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
We didn't end up going in the bus with the
Integra coach of the association.
We had some other things going on which
we'll get to.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
I've given away a little bit.
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
This is why I'm on parole, so yeah, but now
that we know what to do, we'll be next time
in the balloon fiesta park up close.
We'll see balloons landing amongst the RVs.
There was even a crash landing.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
I don't think they said crash.
I think you said crash, any landing where
everybody walks away, not a crash.
That is good.
I should be more sensitive.
I nailed it.
That's what he said.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
But there is video evidence of a balloon
taking out a flagpole pole on top of an RV,
I mean it happened.
And goodness they did not land on the RV.
They kind of skid.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
You still want to have us park there?
You're like crash into it.
Let's go there next year.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
We don't have a flagpole, not yet Now.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
I want one Apparently it's a balloon
collection device is what it sounds like.
This sounds awesome.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
We'll help you down poke.
Yeah, all right.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
I want one of those now.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
So anyway, in the months from when we tried
to get in and then we did get in with the
Integra Coach Owners Association group, we
had a little help, we had an incentive a
push from our friends Mark and Sue with our

(16:05):
journey in miles.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
YouTube channel.
They have a.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
YouTube channel and they had gotten in
touch with us and said you guys need to
apply for media credentials with the
balloon fiesta and I'm like, okay.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Well, you're used to that.
You've had media credentials in the past
doing articles and stuff like that.
But if you haven't seen their YouTube
videos of this, they have a fantastic
YouTube video about.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Albuquerque yes, their experience it was
great, it was great.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
It was great.
I love the look of that.
So they encouraged because of their
experience.
We loved that.
But yes, it was a smart call for pushing
you on that.
That was great.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
And I just hadn't thought about it.
But yeah, they reached out and said you do
this, and I said okay, and so we applied
for the media credentials and, with an
assist from NIRVC, who will be writing an
article for and we'll include that in the
show notes when it comes out or on Facebook

(17:07):
or whatever we were approved for media
passes, which included free parking for the
event all sessions, free passes into the
balloon fiesta all sessions.
There was a media tent and accommodations

(17:28):
not sleeping accommodations, but media
accommodations or the hospitality tent
where they had food, internet access and
the potential we could have signed up for a
balloon ride as media, with our week there,
timing and circumstance, the weather and

(17:50):
all.
We were having such a great time being on
the chase crew for our balloon, which we'll
talk about in a minute, that we didn't end
up going up this year and that's fine.
We had such a great time.
So that's still on our bucket list for next
time.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, and that was a good call I think it
was.
You got to go an extra day before me, which
is great.
And we'll get to that story, because you
had an awesome day that day, but we ended
up at the, you know, to get that whole
thing started, we ended up at the again the
Route 66 Casino with our Integra friends
and we basically got to be locked in there

(18:31):
for a few days, which is great and the
group event actually started on Wednesday,
but because of our work schedule, we needed
to be in place Sunday, right?
Right.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
So called ahead and we were able to get
into the Route 66 Casino RV Resort three
days early to be in place.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, I decided like so.
Sometimes we go and I just work the entire
week and we do things what we call the
sunset adventures.
We do stuff after hours.
But if you don't know about the balloon
festival or the fiesta, there's two phases.
There's early, early morning, which we'll
get into, and then there's night stuff, and

(19:16):
then there's this gap in the middle and
that's not really Night stuff Okay.
I'm not trying to be dirty or anything but
what is going on here?

Speaker 1 (19:26):
I'm going back to jail.
What's going on here?

Speaker 2 (19:28):
So anyways, but so it didn't really fit
well with my work schedule.
So I worked the Monday and Tuesday of the
week.
We rolled in here, I packed in all this
work and I told everybody I'm taking
Wednesday through Friday off and I took
that time off, which is such a smart move.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Vacation time, vacation Yay.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
So, and that was a good call, because some
places we go, it doesn't matter, we do it
after hours, but boy, this place needed all
day off.
So I did it and it was a smart call.
So, yeah, it was great.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, yeah, it was amazing.
So while Russ worked and furiously got
caught up in a position where he could take
a couple days off, I went into the balloon
fiesta on Monday from the Casino RV Resort,

(20:22):
route 66, casino RV Resort.
So I went in Monday.
I did not go in at four o'clock in the
morning, I went in about 9, 9.30 in the
morning just to check it out and just, oh
my gosh, walking in to the balloon fiesta,
wow.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, oh, my goodness, I love that sound.
I have so much editing I got to do on this
thing.
But yeah, I was jealous because you know I
still had to work.
But you get in going.
It was normally that's what you do when we
go somewhere Right, scouting it out.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
right, you really scout.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, and so it was one of those, and I
knew you were going to come back with some
cool stories already.
So tell me what you found on that first day.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Okay, so this was Monday morning.
I went in, I checked in at the media tent
to see what was going on and learn all the
scoop there.
That was fun, made friends, got all the
info and then yeah, you went shopping.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Come on now, I did, you went shopping.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
I did.
There's a big, there's a lot of vendors at
the balloon fiesta, and so that was really
cool.
And yeah, I did because I wanted to get the
official t-shirts and hats and all the
things.

(21:51):
So I had a very specific purpose in that.
Last year when we were in, or earlier this
year, we were actually in Albuquerque for a
week on our way across country we stand at
Enchanted Trails, met Bob and Lisa.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
They were shooting a Disney movie there All
of that.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
We've talked about that before.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
I think, so I think.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
But anyway, when we were in Albuquerque
last year, we went to Old Town, bought some
things for the RV decor and also bought a
balloon, a little balloon kind of a fabric
thing that you put up outside on your
mirror and it spins.

(22:37):
So it's a balloon spinner and so, yeah,
that was really cool.
I was already for the Albuquerque Balloon
Festival because we did know that we were
coming back around for that.
Unfortunately, we were in Devil's Tower and

(22:57):
we lost the balloon.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
It was a super windy day.
Beat the crap out of the balloon.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
It just exploded yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
And the worst part is that balloon had a
big bead, like a one or two inch bead, that
was beading on the rig.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah.
So it was like tap, tap, tap, tap it on the
rig.
Remind us that the wind is high out here
and some of its little balloon sides flew
off and we couldn't find it Never to be
found again.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
It could have been.
It could have been it was Devil's Tower, so
you never know.
So we had that balloon spinner.
For what a couple of months it was cool.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
We had it Throw it away.
Rip rest in peace balloon.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
So one of my priorities was to go find a
new balloon spinner, and I did, and it's
very cool.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
And bags of other stuff.
Come on now.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, you got to have your magnets, you got
to have your.
Oh, they had alpaca wool.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
I didn't even know how alpaca fits into
this whole story, because it was cold in
the morning.
So you're telling me every cold place you
go we're going to bring back alpaca stuff.
Yeah sure.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
I don't know, but anyway so yes, I went
shopping.
The interesting thing I learned on Monday
is that throughout the balloon fiesta week
they have an AM and a PM schedule, not
every day, but like on the weekends,
thursday, friday, saturday and Sunday they

(24:29):
have no, not Sunday.
I'm going to be the Sunday before.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
You're just waiting in it right now.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
And the AM and PM sessions.
The AM session opens up like at five
o'clock in the morning, which we'll talk
about, and the PM session, the night
session, starts about five o'clock PM.
I think they open up.
Sure, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
That's why Google is your friend, I'm
guessing.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Yeah, I didn't realize that between the two
sessions, or if there's not an evening
session, monday, tuesday, wednesday that
whole park shuts down.
Yeah, I mean 1030 in the morning the
vendors close up.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Slam those tents closed.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
The balloons are gone.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Funnel cake no Over.
Yeah, you're out of there.
Right, yeah, right.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
You'd be there before 1030 if you want the
funnel cake.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Don't be messing around with the balloon,
because you're not going to get a funnel
cake.
So anyway, that Monday that I went in, I
got there about 930, and then everything
was shutting down like by 1030.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's why the credit card didn't burn up,
because they were like get out, ladies.
I only had limited time.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
so I got what I got and then I got kicked
out and I went on errands.
I found the total wine in Albuquerque.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
That's a sponsor alert right there.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
So we hate total wine.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
If you're listening, feel free.
We'd love that sponsor because we do a lot
of business there.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Love total wine, cross country.
Where's the total wine?
That's right, and the grocery store.
So that was Monday morning.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
So it got real serious on Tuesday, though,
right.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
I was still at work there Monday and
Tuesday.
I'm usually the first one to get up every
morning very early making the coffee, blah,
blah, blah.
But Tuesday I warned her.
I was like when you get up early, do not
wake me up.
This is my one joyous day that you got to
get up before me and go to the balloon
festival and I'm going to sleep in an extra
30 or 40 minutes, whatever it was.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
It was still dark.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
You've never seen that.
It seems like you were like what the it's
dark outside.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
I'm not really a morning person, but Monday
we kind of caught up with Kim and Pete and
got the marching orders as far as the
balloon that we were crewing for this week,
this amazing week and yeah, I was supposed
to be there like at five o'clock in the
morning.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Did you make it?

Speaker 1 (27:03):
I did.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Okay, I did.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, traffic was not such a thing on
Tuesday, as it ended up being later in the
week.
So Tuesday I went in super early, still
dark, and I met up with our friends Kim and
Pete at the balloon.
And the balloon reveal was Hamlet the

(27:29):
world's largest flying pig.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yay, the pink pig is awesome.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
So I met up with Kim and Pete and the
Hamlet captain and crew to chase this big
pink pig hot air balloon.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Check out the show notes if you want to see
pictures of this.
It's incredible.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
It was amazing.
I had no idea what I was getting myself
into.
I was still half asleep.
It was very cold.
I did get a cup of coffee at the media town.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Well, that's good.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
And then I showed up on the field for
Hamlet to meet Hamlet the flying pig.
Our friend Pete actually, and another new
friend, raul, got to fly in the pig that
morning.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Wait, I knew Pete got to fly.
Did Raul got to fly?
Yep, oh my God, pete.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Raul and Doug the captain.
How did I not know this?
We spent all this time with Raul.
Oh, because you weren't there oh that's
sick burn.
That's not cool.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
I knew Pete got to go, but wow, that's cool.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
So for that, starting from Tuesday I think,
we had the daily posting of pictures and
the story of Hamlet the pig and chasing on
Facebook.
Check that out.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it was just amazing.
So we get Hamlet all rolled out and aired

(29:02):
up and they set off and then we get in the
chase vehicles there's two and follow the
pig, set out and you got to keep an eye on
the pig and figure out where it's going
down and and um, oh, you guys, it was just
really exciting, really intense and just a

(29:24):
whole lot of fun.
So anyway, the landing on Tuesday, which
was my first chase and and rescue mission,
that pink pig flew outside and followed the
air currents and then the pig is going to
land.
Where a pig is going to land narrowly

(29:45):
missed a beautiful adobe home outside of
Albuquerque and landed in the center of
this dirt road.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
And it wasn't an accident Like our pilot,
doug, is amazing.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Doug, yeah, he nailed it Like.
That was not like oh my goodness it was
like he's got this.
Yep, there's a dirt road, let's land there.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
But I heard the story like 10 times from
the 10 different people the day.
I didn't get to go.
So I know, and after watching Doug do this,
it was like, okay, this is this guy's the
best master he's been flying this pig for
20 years.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, so he missed the adobe house and
landed nicely in the dirt road.
We managed to find him and get there and
pull up just in time and save them.
And then what.
The owner of that house that we, that
they've narrowly missed, came out and they

(30:44):
were so wonderful, so excited about the
balloon landing basically in their backyard
and there were two kids about middle school
age and they just had a great time.
The kids helped us roll up the balloon and
put it away, put Hamlet away, and the
homeowner, the lady of the house, brought

(31:08):
out tacos and tequila shots for the entire
crew.
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Like that's how you want every flight to go.
It was amazing Tequila and tacos.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
And then the school bus came along at one
point, came along the road and we're all
like waving them off.
Oh, they're not.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
They're not ready to come in.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
We need them, we need their help.
That's right.
So the kids went to school a little bit
late.
I offered to write them a note because I am
a school note master.
And they had the pictures and it was just
so cool.
But yeah, so I'm thinking this is my first
chase event and we get tacos and tequila.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
You know, I've thought about it since then.
I think that's like it's because it's way
cheaper than repairing the house, or like a
bottle of tequila and some tacos, like
thank you for not crashing into my home,
but no, that's, that's awesome.
In fact, we heard a little bit more of that
story, like a day or two later, right,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
That's right.
They actually have awards because the whole
Albuquerque thing, you know, with the
balloon Fiesta and 500 balloons lighting
off and landing all over the city, the
local residents are really involved and
you're hoping to catch balloons or help

(32:23):
balloons or whatever.
So our homeowner where we landed that day
with tacos and tequila lady and the kids,
they, she is.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
One and a, one and a ward for being the
most hospitable homeowner.
That story was incredible amongst all the
other balloons, because you know there's
something.
It turns out that in the fields around
there they put like white markers, if it's
okay to land and things like that.
So there's like color indicators of like
it's okay to land here and other places
where it's not, either for safety or

(32:56):
whatever reasons right, but not everybody's
eye zones, or no landing zones, yeah and
sometimes it's just like it's okay to land
here.
But but when somebody brings you tequila
tacos, that's like you can land here and,
by the way, there's a taco truck with
tequila.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
It's awesome.
Yeah, no, that was just out of her kitchen
and she was like you all come back, you
jump in the pool when you're, when you're
done it's like oh that's awesome, it was
fun.
It was awesome, so they did get awarded or
thanked the entire balloon festival.
At the pilot's meeting the next morning

(33:29):
they announced and showed the picture and
it was just so fun.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
So imagine sherry coming back that first
day on tuesday saying tacos in tequila.
This is great, I'm sitting here finishing
my job, going.
That sounds awesome.
So we roll to wednesday, which is my first
vacation day, and I get to get up at three
thirty in the morning and drive with you.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Vacation time, honey, that's right so we
did the.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
It was vacation, which is always nice and I
was excited about that.
And then we get there and you were
explaining park here and let's go in this
game you had it all worked out because
you'd already done it all, which is cool
and we had that media parking pass which
was magic.
That was cool, very cool.
And then we get in the gate and then the
first thing you want to do is like let's go
stand in this line.

(34:20):
Why were we standing in that line?

Speaker 1 (34:23):
oh, this is another secret of the balloon
fiesta yeah there are it's.
It's a huge thing to collect pins p ins
little.
You know, those little pins that you, yeah,
just put on hats or t-shirts or whatever.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
We'd seen that at the olympics.
By the way, that that was a pin collecting
for the olympics, like that, just like that
collectors pins.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
So the 2023 abacurkey balloon fiesta had a
series of special limited edition pins and
they only gave out.
There were two this year.
One was the overall event pin for the 2023
balloon fiesta, the other was a special uh

(35:10):
oh, it was the eclipse pin yep, which we'll
talk about in a minute, but the eclipse
pins.
So these were limited edition collectors
pins, which okay.
But then kim and p kim wanted the pins but
couldn't leave anyway, so we stood in line.
Okay, we'll stand in line and get the pins.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, and that's what we did this is kind
of a bonus because it turns out from the
integral group we actually got the pins for
the event already, yeah, and so we actually
stood in line and they ran out of those.
They said we have the eclipse pins.
Luckily that worked out great because it
was the two we didn't have.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
So we actually ended up getting all the
right pins and for for us and shared it
with their friends, yeah and it is a big
thing because they only, they only put out
so many of these special pins and you have
to be at the tent in line the official
balloon fiesta merch tent in line by the

(36:12):
time it opens.
It opens at five o'clock am painful so we
had to get there like four, I think we got
there four, forty five, yeah, and you stand
in line, they come out at five and give you
a number, they count out how many pins are
available and what you want, and we got the,

(36:32):
the ticket yep, the golden ticket, exactly
for the event pins but not the eclipse pins,
and that worked out later so we got the
pins and you got to take me to the media
tent, which was super cool for breakfast.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
That's my favorite part when you get up so
early.
We didn't get time to make coffee, we
didn't get time to have breakfast, we just
got in the car and just drove like hell to
the event.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah the media tent served hot breakfast,
so that was cool breakfast burrito and we
get to meet cool people.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Every time we were there, which was neat,
we got to meet, uh, other media people that
were doing different kinds of photography
and interviews and things like that was
great.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, it was so interesting talking to the
different media people, um, and I have a
fact, I have a fact okay, fast fact the
breakfast burrito is said to have
originated at the albuquerque international
balloon fiesta in the 1970s okay, does that

(37:33):
not just rock your world I love the
breakfast burrito.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
It's okay, I'll go with that okay this is
this is off, uh, off the cuff little facts
there I like it, yep okay, okay so.
So we did that, and then we immediately had
to rush out and go meet the crew yep, like
about 5, 30, yeah, and I had no idea what
it was doing.
I had to sign all the paperwork you had
signed the day before it says that if I
hurt myself, it's it's my fault, all that
kind of stuff, right?

Speaker 1 (37:58):
rest was thrown right in to the chase crew
yeah dude, take this rope.
Dude, do this, do that well, and the crew
chief was this woman named sherry, and her
middle name is the same in my, my wife's,
middle name too, so I was like, okay, this
is super confusing when people yell sherry.
So I'm like, yeah, what the heck?
So, yeah, there was a lot of confusion for

(38:19):
me.
Yes, I can see that, that your wife was not
in charge.
Yeah, it was the other share I know and she
was awesome, but uh, okay.
So wednesday we had um.
The people that went up in the balloon in
hamlet were nasa media people yeah, space

(38:41):
agency people, it was cool yes, so all of
their journey and everything is going to be
on nasa website, nasagov yeah, they were
doing research.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
They they're actually a group that does a
lot of research around different kinds of
balloons not just kind of the balloons that
we were at for the festival, a lot of, uh,
high altitude balloons, things like that.
But they were doing this research and so,
yeah, they did the the write-ups and photos
and stuff and they said that all of this is
going to be put on nasagov, so when we have
those links, we'll share those as well.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Absolutely, yeah it was very cool and, oh
my gosh, okay.
So wednesday, the second day, was not
landing by a friendly adobe home and tacos
and tequila.
Wednesday, things went a little different
and hamlet the pig and crew had a rough

(39:36):
landing on a well.
Well, it skillfully set down by captain
gill.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
That's because some people landed in the
street.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
So Doug did not land in the street, which
is good it was a crazy day yeah but uh,
hamlet the pig ended up landing on this
little dirt path amidst brambles and
sticker bushes and probably like snakes,
and lizards and snakes everywhere and right
on the edge of this empty riverbed.

(40:08):
So there was a precipice, uh, and it was.
It was crazy.
So, poor hamlet and crew.
We did get there, the chase vehicles, we
got there, but they were in such a state
because we couldn't lay the balloon down in
all those brambles and mess.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
So, yeah, normally so I had missed the
tacos and tequila wonderful land on the
street day.
My first day was oh my god, we're in a hot
mess here and the media people like welcome
to day one.
And so normally you, you know, you deflate,
you let it down and you lay the whole
balloon down and and then you have to do

(40:50):
this complicated rolling procedure.
Where we were, it was not possible to do
that, so the the pilot, uh Doug, had kept
it inflated but kept the balloon sitting on
the ground, and we as a team had to figure
out what to do.
Some of the teams we had just passed on the
street.
We're trying to do it on the street which
closed the road and it takes an easy 30

(41:10):
minutes minimum to roll this balloon even
if it took us more because our balloon's
big but a small balloon.
It takes a lot long time so we realized it
was a farm um open field, probably half a
football field away yeah so Doug decided
hey, I'm gonna inflate, you guys are gonna
hold on to the basket, we're gonna navigate
this over there manually and, like you said,

(41:32):
we had to get across.
I don't know if it was a river bed, but it
was like definitely a channel where the
runoff waters ran.
It was deep, it was easy fortunately it was
dry it was dry and but you had to get
through, like you said, serious brambles
and sticker bushes.
It was very difficult and we had to get it
not only across those two things.
Then it was a fence to get it over and so

(41:53):
it was complicated.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
We had like 10 people navigating this thing
on the ground right and then, uh, we got it
to the fence, got them over and I just want
to say I got to the ravine and then I'm
like, oh, and everybody's climbing down
this 10 foot drop and going across the
river, holding on to the balloon and going

(42:14):
up the other side, yeah, and I'm like, um,
somebody's got to come back to this side to
get the vehicles and get around there, so
I'm just gonna stay over here and mental
excuse I'm gonna stay over here.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
So yeah, that was a good call actually.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Yeah, very good it was.
I got great pictures.
You'll see them on the facebook.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah, so we get it across that.
We get it across that fence.
And, uh, we had like eight or ten people to
get over the fence.
We got the balloon over there and luckily
there's some other people to help us over
there and pull it down and and get it
sitting over there again, still inflated,
and so we started to help people over and I
took the role of trying to help people over,
and that's where I kind of got injured

(42:54):
first day yeah, first day was exciting and
then I did something to my shoulder.
I helped everyone get over, except I
couldn't get over because I hurt my
shoulder at that point.
So lifting.
Yeah, I had to do the long walk all the way
around, but anyways it was.
It was interesting because it was kind of
cool about how you have to figure out.
I never knew you could steer these things
and there is some steering there is a
little bit of it right, not just the up and

(43:15):
down but it is still very limited.
I mean, mother nature controls that.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Blue more than anyone.
Right, pig's gonna land where pigs are
gonna land, that's right, that's right.
But when she, even as skillful as dug down,
that's right.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
So once it's on the ground, though.
You got to like figure out a strategy, and
the team did a great job figuring it out.
We got it over there, but it was.
It was my first day, was not tacos and
tequila awesome, but it was still really
fun.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
It was throwing people over this fence in
this field, that's right.
And then the guys, the drivers, came back
and we jumped into the chase, vehicles and
and went around and found you.
We ended up on this dead end road and all
the neighbors came out and said okay, this
is what you do.
Go down here, go.
They've opened the gate for you to get on

(43:59):
to that field.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
By the time we get out there, you talk to
the farmer there because I had the long
walk around because I could not get over
the fence because I pulled something in my
shoulder.
I met the farmer or the the landowner there
and he let me in the in the gate on the far
end and he told me the story is like my
wife was very like bummed because the first
couple of days they normally like to have

(44:21):
the balloons use their fields, but none had
landed over there having tacos and tequila,
the other side of the, and I said oh,
really, is it any better?
because we had just put our balloon there
and there was one other balloon over there.
He's like yeah, we went from zero to 12 so
he had.
They caught a dozen balloons in their field,
him and his wife were loving it, so they
thought it was great the balloons were
coming down there.

(44:41):
So it's it's exciting for the, the people
that live there as well.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
So just so cool, the whole community gets
into it, yeah, so okay, so I'm injured.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
We go home which was.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
It was still fun, you know, and I didn't
complain like I always complain a little
bit.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
I want a little bit looking for some
sympathy there.
But um, you know it was.
It was still fun, even though it was, uh,
injured.
And then so thursday, another super early
day, and we roll in there and it's super
windy that day yeah, so what happened?

Speaker 1 (45:15):
and well, I'd also mentioned that on about
by thursday, which was the first night for
us where there was gonna be an evening
session, the traffic was crazy, crazy.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
Just getting to the balloon fiesta park at
five o'clock in the morning for the opening
ceremonies and everything.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
So yeah, it was windy.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, really windy, and that caused us to
not be able to actually take off that day.
Right, we did the static stuff, so I got to
see a launch on Wednesday, but Thursday was
super windy, so they do what's called
static, which means they just keep them on
the ground but they inflate them, which is
actually pretty fun too.
I mean, obviously you wanna fly when you
can, but it turned out because there's so

(46:03):
many people come to this event.
When you're holding the lines or holding
the balloon, you become this like semi rock
star for a little while, because everybody
wants to come.
One you know it's really exciting to do
that.
But two, I don't know if we talked about
this, but it turns out we didn't know this,
but every one of the balloons have trading

(46:23):
cards and you get to.
When we first got there, they said by the
way, here's a whole bunch of trade.
Get a handful of trading guards and you
know 50 or 100 of them and you're supposed
to be handing them out.
And so the kids and the adults collect
these things.
And so we had a Hamlet the flying pig.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Trading guard.
You were wrangling the pig.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah, while handing out cards, yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
It was amazing.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
It was great Because the excitement when
people come up and said, do you have a card?
And then you could see they've got a
fistful of these other cards for all the
other balloons, yeah.
It's so cool and they're trading them and
it's really really cool.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
So that was neat, Well, and that's
something we didn't realize when we first.
When I first entered the balloon fiesta
that first day, I wasn't prepared for the
fact that you walk through the gate, pass
the vendor's row and you are right on the
field and you know there's tens of

(47:22):
thousands of people, 100,000 people I need
to look that up.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
But just walking all around the balloons
and you can walk right up to these balloons
and there's certain points we were having
to get people to not walk on the balloons.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
There's certain points, when the balloons
are ready, when the balloon is ready to
launch, that you kind of have to do crowd
control and park the part, the crowd and
you know, have people watching for the
ropes and the basket can slide forward and
very heavy and so it.
It's just amazing to be on the field and

(47:57):
you walk right up to these balloons and,
yeah, they have the whole balloon trading
card thing, for every balloon has its own
card and they're really cute.
We'll put them in the show notes for Hamlet
and yeah, and the kids are so excited and a
lot of times people don't even realize.

(48:18):
So that's one of the things we're gonna
point out to people.
You go, get your balloon, your trading
cards, cause they have the picture.
It has some info about the balloon itself
and it's, it's just fiesta, oh, it's crazy
and fun, and holding on to that pig, so he

(48:38):
doesn't go anywhere and and just so fun.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
So Thursday it was very windy.
We did the static balloons where they stand
there.
It was super fun, but because of the wind
they canceled the evening stuff.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
So we got to sneak home and-.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Which really worked out.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
I mean, I was there one day and I was
already exhausted, right.
So we're exhausted because we had to get up
again at 3 30 in the morning, which is like
that shouldn't be a time.
It's just not real, you know, but it's
balloon time maybe, and then we also had a
dinner.
Like is that Thursday night?

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Thursday night, because we didn't have an
evening session that we needed to be at.
We were able to stay at the RV resort and
attend the catered dinner with Integra at
the casino.
Yeah, so that was it was really fun.
That was good luck for us, yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Okay so.
Friday again-.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Up at 3 30.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Up at 3 30 and this is where we started to
realize the traffic just gets worse as you
get closer to the weekend, leaving early.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Yeah, yeah, yep.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
So we roll in.
I make sure we hit the breakfast, because
I'm a big breakfast fan and at 3 30 in the
morning you got to get me something, so we
hit that up.
And then what happened?

Speaker 1 (49:56):
The crew chief, the other Sherry, went up
in the balloon with Captain Doug.
It was kind of a quick morning.
We set out in the fire truck.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
So the fire truck, I don't think we've
mentioned it.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
yet we have not talked about chase vehicles
the chase vehicles are really cool.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
These are the vehicles that you go around
and you got to track the balloon, and you
got to because you don't know where they're
going.
They're not really driving it too much.
Our chase vehicle is an old fire truck
right A 70s fire truck named Clifford, the
big red fire truck kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
Owned by Pete's brother who lives in New
Mexico, and bought this old 1975 fire truck,
specifically to be a balloon chase vehicle.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
It's super cool.
So Steve and you and who else was up up
front?

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Oh, Christopher, Christopher, that's right.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
The nephew Steven they were living the high
life in the front.
The rest of us were in the back in the cold
wind as we hit speed bumps at high speed
launching around, but the whole back end of
the truck was benches and stuff.
It was fun.
Yeah, so we drive around in this truck and
the bells and the horns are going.
It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
And you got to keep an eye on that pig and
they're chasing around figuring out where
it might land and how to get there and the
New Mexico or the Albuquerque traffic and
roads and everything.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
It was amazing.
So it turns out kind of cutting to the
chase a little bit In that day.
We didn't go very far that day.
It was actually a beautiful day, the wind
was very low, and so the rides for everyone
that day was phenomenal.
So the other Sherry had a amazing ride with

(51:39):
Doug in the balloon.
But they didn't actually go as far as the
first couple of days and they landed in a
parking lot of a technical college there
and it was actually right near the balloon
festival.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
And first we went and we stopped in the RV
park Because Steven thought that Doug was
going to bring the pig down in the RV park,
which was a thing that happened all week
long.
We got to be in that park next year or next
time, so we stopped in the RV park.

(52:13):
There were other balloons that landed right
in the right between the RVs.
It was very exciting.
And then, yeah, they caught a little shift
in the wind and ended up a couple blocks
over at the technical college.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
So we got there and the reason was I
mentioned this in previous one, I'll go
quickly through this there's a concept,
it's a term called the Albuquerque Box and
it's really the ability for the way, the
mountains and, I think, in the valley there
in.
Albuquerque, the way the wind works,
typically not all the time, but typically
at a certain low altitude the wind will go

(52:49):
one direction and then if you go higher up
it goes the opposite direction.
So if you're piloting this, you can go up
to the first level and you'll go, say, to
the right in this case, and then as you
then rise up, you'll end up going back to
the left and then you go back down and you
end up coming back to where you were.
So it's just being able to control that.
I guess many times that's true I don't know

(53:10):
the proportion, whether it's most times,
but many times that's true when it did
happen on one of the days we were there and
so that gives some confidence of where you
think you can land.
So the idea of I want to land in RV park is
not because randomly the balloon goes
anywhere.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
There is a pattern to the wind and skill.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
That's right, that's right and you're right.
And you've got to get to the altitude,
you've got to hold it, you've got to know
when to go down and there is some ability
to control the direction of the balloon a
little bit.
With some of the ropes that he would pull
down, it would open up vents and stuff like
that.
But it's still nothing like an airplane,
right, you're not really controlling
everything, but there is a little bit of
control, and so that Albuquerque box is

(53:49):
famous.
That's why it's such a big festival,
because there is a lot more control than
most places, so it's really cool.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
We landed in that technical college.
It was very cool that Captain Doug Gantt, a
bunch of students, technical students came
out and he gave an impromptu balloon hot
air balloon class to these future pilots or
technical guys While we rolled up the pig,

(54:20):
put the pig away, put Hamlet away.
So that was just amazing.
So then we packed up the balloon and headed
back to the balloon fiesta park.
Russ and Peter Raul or anyway two of the
guys went back to fill the propane for the

(54:40):
next day's ballooning.
Well, I hung out in the field.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
That was pretty cool.
So it turns out, because it's such a big
balloon festival, they actually have almost
45 stalls.
Could be more, but there's quite a few
stalls that the balloonists take their
tanks over to inside their baskets to
refill the propane so they can take 45
teams at a time loading them up.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
It's crazy.
Well, because there were 500 balloons.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
And it takes a while to load that propane
into each one of them.
So they have fire trucks over there and
there's music playing all the time.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
It's a whole process.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Yeah, it was really fun and they can only
take a couple of people.
There's a limited number of people can be
there for safety reasons and it was.
It was neat.
I got to do that like three times, so I was
coming in expert kind of thing.
It was neat.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
So yeah, after that we went out for lunch
with Pete and Kim.
We went back to the silver ranch and met
Mama Silver, the matriarch.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
So yeah, Mama Silver, especially known as
the.
Clifford, the big red truck sponsor,
because it's all about her sewing center.
She does all sorts of sewing.
So, yeah, and she was fantastic to meet.
We got a chance to meet her and she's
amazing.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
So the whole family.
There is incredible, just amazing.
Pete has two brothers in New Mexico, and
then the kids and Mama.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Yeah, great family.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
So yeah, and then after all of that we went
back to Charlie to try to get a nap,
because Friday PM.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Lots of traffic, it was even worse.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
So yeah, and on the PM sessions they didn't
launch the balloons, but they had a whole
evening program where we put up the
balloons and they glowed.
It was the balloon glow which means they
light them up.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Yeah, all in patterns and all at the same
time.
So it's amazing to see all the balloons
light up at night.
It was, it was really cool.
And again, we got to do the handing out of
the cards and all that fun stuff, ringlings
of kids, crowd control it was almost more
special at night because it because they
were lighting up for the kids to see them
get so excited.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
It was neat and because the balloons
weren't going anywhere.
It was just.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
It was a forest of balloons.
If you were walking around, it must have
been incredible, because we didn't get to
do that.
We were basically crewing that one, but it
was so cool, like a forest of balloons, it
was so cool.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
At sunset.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
It's beautiful.
So that was followed by a drone show While
we were packing up Hamlet, a big drone show.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
That was actually very cool, it was.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
We got some pictures of that, but the pig
was our primary occupation.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
We were trying to put the pig away while
the drone show was going on Because when
you're a crew, you do the job, but we did
get some video and some pictures.
We'll try to share a lot of that in the
show notes, so take a look at that.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
And after that there were fireworks, which
normally we think fireworks are pretty good.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
This was a great show and they did
something.
We'd never seen it a fireworks show so it
was incredible.
So they did this great show.
Again, we were working while it was
happening, but tells you a lot that we
thought it was cool and we were not even
watching the whole time.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Some of us stepped back and took some
pictures and video Some of us, but they did
some of these huge fire things at the
bottom at the end of the event, which was
so cool.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
So they did a great job.
It wasn't just quote fireworks, this was a
bang up job.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
So good job there.
Fireballs, that's right, that was what that
was so then anyways.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
so we get through that Friday.
That Friday night, that was still cool, and
then Saturday morning again brutal early.
We had to roll in and the traffic.
We couldn't even believe it.
We thought it couldn't get worse.
It got way worse.
And we went in.
We thought we went in even earlier.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
We got in worse traffic.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
And we went in earlier.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Sneaking in different ways, flashing the
media pass.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
We were stuck in so much traffic but go
early.
But we did the same thing.
We hit the media, did the breakfast, got.
Oh, they didn't have coffee that day, did
they?
On the Saturday they ran out of coffee.
How do you run out of coffee at 4 or 3 in
the morning.
But we did all that and then we, basically
we decided that day that we were going.

(59:00):
They had already had extra people, they had
more family members come in, so we didn't
have to be crew and we decided we wanted to
see the rest of the show.
So we checked in on our friends and we
wandered away and got to see a whole bunch
of the other show that we hadn't seen.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
So all the other balloons, right, yeah, the
whole.
There's a schedule of morning events.
There's the dawn patrol with a certain
number of balloons that light up and
actually launch to kind of test the winds
in that Albuquerque box.
There's a pilot's meeting, then they have
the morning glow, which thank God, because

(59:36):
that morning was so freaking cold.
And then when they were lighten off those
big propane fire burners.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
You wanna stand near the balloon?
They got a little warmth, you don't even
have to get too close.
But, boy, that was nice because it was
freezing that morning.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
And it was so beautiful as the sun was
rising to see hundreds of balloon burners
firing off into the dawn.
It was just beautiful.
And we got the balloons up and so the
balloons were starting to glow candle
sticking when they do that with the balloon

(01:00:14):
up, and then the national anthem and
flyover, which is just a stunning moment
every morning.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Mm-hmm, because they had done.
In that day they did a.
It was like a crew of special pilots that
do special tricks.
They had small planes that flew over that
morning.
We didn't mention this, but the previous
day or two before they had a full military
one where they had jets and helicopters.
That was just wow you know, so and then the

(01:00:47):
balloons go up.
It was just like all this aviation stuff in
one place.
It was just really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
In preparation for the morning, the mass
ascension, which they do, have an organized,
scheduled structure on how the balloons go
up.
But you look up and all of a sudden there's
hundreds of balloons out in the air and
it's just incredible.
Incredible yep.
So that Saturday morning a couple of the

(01:01:15):
other events.
As we were walking around we saw the
Rainbow Riders, which are the official
balloons that take guests up you can pay to
go up.
But these baskets you know, our pig basket
had like room for three adults and they're
all very carefully on weight, weight

(01:01:37):
restrictions and all these Rainbow Riders,
balloon gondolas or baskets they were huge.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
It's like a school bus.
They hang balloons.
I've never seen so many people in a basket
before.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
They had to have like 30 people.
I don't know how those balloons were.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
I don't know if it was that many, but it
sure looked like that oh there were a lot
of them, so lots of people got that right.
I think they all had a great time, but
those baskets were huge.
It was like taking a trolley.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
So Rainbow Riders lifted off.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
We went by the Star Wars balloons.
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Darth Vader and Yoda.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
And better than just that is they had a
whole contingent of people that worked on
the crew there, and they were all dressed
in Star Wars regalia right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Stormtroopers Darth Vader, princess Leia
and they were working the crowd.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
It was just very well done.
So we had our team, which were awesome, and
some of them, like Kim, were dressed as
pigs, flying pigs.
So we had, you know, good crew, but boy,
the Star Wars crew, they nailed it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
They were doing a great job Coordinating,
very coordinating.
So that was cool and you had all the zebras
running around.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Yeah, it turns out the controllers, whoever.
There's a group of people that control when
the balloons can and when and where they go
up, and they're all wearing the black and
white outfits you'll see for referees, and
so they.
But they're referred to as zebras because
of that, and they have whistles, and so
when you hear whistles going on around

(01:03:13):
there, it usually means something's about
to happen.
I'm sure you mentioned a second ago that
they clear the crowd when they're doing the
launch.
The zebras actually start that they back up
and they start blowing the whistle,
clearing the crowd, and then our crew would
have to help start to clear the crowd and
then there's a certain number of whistles
that says okay, it's clear to go, and then
the balloon will start to lift off and then,

(01:03:34):
when they lift off, the pilot will hit an
air horn, which a few times they'll
basically say and we're off kind of thing
and everybody cheers and stuff.
But it's cool because you recognize when
you watch one go up, you now know the
pattern.
You'll hear that pattern over and over and
over and zebras are launching balloons over
and over.
It's so cool.
You hear the same whistle blowing, you hear

(01:03:55):
a crowd, you hear the horn, and then you
hear crowds cheering and you know another
one went up and with 500 balloons it's a
lot of that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
It was really cool.
It coordinated and they did a full safety
check before they authorized the balloon to
go the captain, so that was awesome.
But then we did see something.
Yeah, because the wind started to pick up.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Yeah, what happened?

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
Well, we were standing back in the regular
shape balloons.
The special shapes balloons had not gone,
the regular balloons were gone.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Hamlet is a special shape.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Yeah, yeah, with all the appendages and
tails and anyway, anyway.
So the wind kind of started to pick up and
we watched this line of balloons and flay
in front of us and they were all kind of
jostling.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Next to each other, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
And going back and forth.
Well, one balloon went up the one next to
it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
They were too close.
Oh yeah, they were too close.
Yeah, the wind blew one into the other.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
The basket.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
The basket as one was going up and the
basket rubbed along the side of the balloon
fabric of the other one and tore the
balloon.
So yeah, that balloon, just merely just
deflated and collapsed, so luckily everyone
was on the ground of the other balloon, so
nobody was injured.
It wasn't in the air or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
And the other balloon.
They just couldn't push off because of the
wind that was blowing them into the
neighbor balloon.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
And that caused them to basically right
after that they suspended the flights.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
So probably because of that, the special
shapes did not get to go that Saturday
morning, yeah, so drama and all kinds of
things.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
But Saturday wasn't exclusive to the
balloons.
That was a big day.
What else happened on that?

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
It was a super big day that was just until
9 o'clock, because then all those balloons
that went out were trying to get down and
get back to the balloon fiesta park.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
because what happened?

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
Annual solar eclipse.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Annular.
Annular, not once a year, oh sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
OK.
Annular solar eclipse Yep.
Russ says it's not once in a lifetime, but
I'm going to say for us for us, it is my.
God, it was a once in a lifetime event.
So we went back over to the field where a
Hamlet had launched and they had got it all
put away and we all sat out there I mean

(01:06:22):
tens of thousands of people and watched
this eclipse where the moon shadow came
down over the sun.
It wasn't a total eclipse, which would have
been really weird, but it was a partial
eclipse enough that there was still a ring
of fire where you saw the solid moon shadow

(01:06:43):
in front of the sun, but you could still
see the flames, the solar things, flares
ring of fire.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
We're at the technical show that you come
here for, so if you're looking for that, we
got all the words for it Science.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Where's Bill Nye when you need him?

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
That's right, well, and why this is cool is
like the actual path.
Albuquerque was in the perfect path for
this, so not all the states got to see a
full annular eclipse, but where we were in
Albuquerque was one of those, and that's
why it was a double whammy.
We were at this show and we launched the
balloon and basically we laid back and

(01:07:21):
watched the eclipse.
Right after that I was like this is just
amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
It was incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
And who handed out the glasses Namsah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Of course, on my shopping day I had already
picked up two pairs of official balloon
fiesta.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Paid money.
Eclipse glasses $3 a piece.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
Never used them and then that last day,
Saturday, going into the balloon fiesta,
Namsah was handing out 80,000 pairs of
eclipse glasses for everyone in the park.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
It was cool.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
So it was and it was so cool.
But one of the things was, when the moon
shadowed the sun, it got cold.
It didn't get totally dark because it
wasn't a full eclipse.
But, it did get darker and then it was so

(01:08:13):
cold and you could see it, and through a
cameras we had the photographer there.
Through the cameras you could see it.
It was just amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Yeah, it wasn't a full eclipse, because I
think the moon was further away and so
that's why it looked smaller, so it
couldn't cover the moon.
And next year, when it's a full eclipse,
the moon will actually be in a different
light orbit and so it'll be closer, so it
will actually cover the full sun.
So that was the difference, yeah, so that's
why it was an annular solar eclipse, so
that was an awesome day and that was

(01:08:44):
Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
Yeah, that was truly once in a lifetime.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
Yeah, it was really cool and so we got to
then, after that, go have lunch with the
entire crew and that was a lot of fun.
It blakes lot of burger which is like a
specialty burger place around Albuquerque
New.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Mexico's finest appearance.
Apparently, that's what we're told.
That's right.
It was actually pretty good.
It was good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Some burger joints.
People say it's the best, it was like it's
not.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
But this one was actually pretty good so.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Pete good job.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
You actually called it was good.
We actually went there twice over there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
So then we get to say all our goodbyes.
It was a lot of fun, but by then Sunday, it
was just like all over.
I was exhausted from Wednesday whatever but
then it was like, oh, it's over, and we
were back on our own right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
We were on our own again and we drove I
think Sunday about four hours to Holbrook,
arizona and the adventure continued.
I was very worried about rest of shoulder
and driving it still kind of messed up.
Yeah, we're going to have that looked at,
Because we're at an age where it doesn't
you don't just shake it off anymore now.

(01:09:49):
Little things like that require surgery.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
I'm going to go for amputation.
I want a robot arm.
We'll go get you some bionic parts.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, it'll be OK, it'll be fine.
What could go wrong?

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
OK.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
All right.
Ok, this has been a little bit longer than
usual, so I'm going to try to wrap this up.
If anyone's still listening, we appreciate
you, we love you.
Yeah, thank you.
You've tolerated us, thank you.
So I'm going to try to tie it back to the
work-life balance.
So part of this was, if you remember, my
week started with work and then turned into
this fun, so it wasn't all that.

(01:10:23):
You got to figure out how to make that work
and what we did and to make this work was,
no, when to work and when you need to
actually take vacations.
So sometimes we just work through it and we
fit life into after hours or in weekends,
but this was such a special event that had
very early morning and very late.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
It was not possible, right, not possible,
such an opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
So I didn't want to go away and be
somewhere else going.
Man, I wish I would have taken time off.
So we did a good job.
We picked the days I should take off
Wednesday through Friday and we did those
vacation days and that was a very smart
call.
Looking back, looking the pictures, it was
just the best call.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
So that was really just three vacation days
for you.
Yeah, it wasn't a week off.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
It was just three days and it felt like a
week because it was so exhausting.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
But it was just three days.
God knows what would have happened to you
if you'd gone five-fold.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
If you came back with tacos and tequila
every day and I was working.
I'd be so angry, ok?
So the second thing is trying to get ready
for this big event.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
Sometimes we just roll in and do our thing,
but this time you had us come in so we were
ready in place by Sunday before this right,
because our event, our Integra event,
actually started on Wednesday, but with
FMCA, with AIM, with these different events
that we do, we need to be in place Sunday.

(01:11:48):
So we were able to make the reservation and
get there Sunday to be all set up, and that
is important A lot of people roll in just
for their event but because we're working.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
We're like, no, we're going to roll in
early.
I did some work, and then we met people at
that event, and then we immediately didn't
see them for a while because we worked the
Albuquerque event.
So, yeah, that was important, and the last
thing is kind of our classic thing.
It was really important on this one, though,
which is the flexibility that's required to
make something like this happen, so we had

(01:12:19):
sometimes, when we thought we were going to
do an event at night, we didn't.
We came back, we got to power nap before we
did dinner and stuff.
So we were flexible to kind of make sure we
spent time with our Integra friends and
family, that at the event there we made
sure we showed up when we were supposed to
be a crew.
It was like plan it out but be flexible
when there was change, because weather

(01:12:41):
really controls the Bloom Festival.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
It's in charge, not us.
Yes, it does.
Yeah, so, wow, our goal with the RV Work
Life Balance Podcast is to share what we're
learning to help anyone interested in this
crazy adventure of working full time and
traveling and exploring and doing all these

(01:13:06):
wonderful things.
So we're glad you're here, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
And I want to kind of wrap up with I really
want to thank all the listeners I made the
joke of.
If you're still listening, thank you but
seriously.
Thank you, we really appreciate you
listening.
We hope this is being helpful and again,
we're going to try to put a lot of these
pictures and these other links in the show
notes.
Take a look at that.
We include those show notes for a big

(01:13:33):
reason because some of the stuff we talk
about it's hard to imagine until you see it.
So check that out, those links there.
And if you're brand new here, this is your
first podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Subscribe.
You're probably amazed by my wife's special
effects.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
I knew that, so it just gets better from
here.
Go ahead and subscribe.
We really appreciate it.
We want to thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
And to our existing subscribers.
We love you.
Thank you so much for being part of our
journey, part of the adventure.
Please be in touch on email or on Facebook
or by email and, the most important thing,
plan your escape.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
Get out here.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
Come on out here and join us.
Yep, this is a lot of fun.
Are you ready?

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
I am ready, let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
Let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:14:18):
Bye, bye, bye, bye.

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