42nd Annual Balloon Festival (Day 1) — Albuquerque, NM

Day 1 @ Balloon Fest (click on pic to enlarge)

DAY 1 — Started at 5 am this morning. Quick shower, quick breakfast, quick dog walking, and out into the 40-degree day.

Then off to the park and ride so we could catch a shuttle bus — a 1-hour ride on a yellow BlueBird bus. Just like the school bus I never rode (thank god). By the way, you cannot take your skateboard on the bus.

As we pulled into Balloon Park, the first hot air balloons were just heading skyward. They’re incredibly beautiful in the morning because when a balloonist fires his balloon up to gain height, the whole balloon lights up in the sky.

However, we were concerned that we’d miss the show, so when our bus stopped, we rushed onto the fair grounds, and towards a couple of balloons that were just inflating.

After then balloons went up into the dawn sky, we thought “Is that it?”

We we wrong. Suddenly balloons were inflating all over the park . . .

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Two short movies of Day 1 . . .