Through September, we visited nine states, and entered New Mexico on Friday, making camp in Santa Fe, N.M. for four nights. This city is 1,000 feet higher than Denver and we love the clean, dry, air!
On the way we saw a sign for Union Fort National Monument and decided to take a peak. We had no idea about it’s history, and oh my, what a treat! This was the largest fort in the late 1800s, with thousands of occupants, and it served as a supply hub for all other forts in the west. Prior to that it even participated in one key battle against the Confederate Army during the Civil War, stopping them from trying to win the west and gain all its gold.
Friday night we visited “The Shed“, restaurant in old town Santa Fe, and enjoyed the enchiladas very much, and it is now on Sue’s “best of” list. Native Americans sold jewelry and items on the sidewalks all around the old town square until 5:00 pm, prior to our dinner.
On Saturday morning, we got up at 4:30 to drive an hour to see the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (the world’s premier balloon event). At 5:45, we arrived seven-tenths of a mile from the freeway exit to find a long line of cars backed up in the right-most lane. We took our place – it took us a full hour to go the last two-miles! But we walked onto the field at 7 am to find tens of thousands of people all waiting for the yellow flag (windy conditions) to change to green, which allowed balloon owners fire up the propane and lift their balloons into the air.
We enjoyed walking all around the balloons laid-out flat on the ground, awaiting air. Bill, from Phoenix, was particularly fun to talk to, and he informed us of the basics of hot air balloons, how the festivals work, what they provide to the balloonists (room, propane, and a gift card to pay for gas to get here) and how much a modest new balloon might cost to get started ($45k).
At 8:30 they began their ascent! Please enjoy these additional pictures Sue took on our dedicated page for the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival (click here).
