On the launch field...

As you can see, every one goes out on the launch field and get really, really close to the action.

The balloon transports come in all sizes.

 

These guys were testing and demonstrating the burner system for the crowd.

Finally, they begin laying the balloon out on the ground ready to begin the process of blowing up the craft for launch.

Dawn Patrol...

At O:dark thirty a few balloons go up to test the winds. They check the strength and direction to determine if there will be a mass ascension or not.

If the "Albuquerque Box" is in effect almost everyone will go up.  The box is a wind condition peculiar to Albuquerque where the winds literally make a box so they rise from the landing field, float down the valley, then rise or drop and float back toward the landing field. 

Even if they decide not to have a mass ascension, the pilots can decide to 

go up anyway.  Many do.

We missed out on the mass ascension the first day, so the Chaser's Club gave us each a rain check for another morning's session.  We were still able to have breakfast and watch some of the balloons launch.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta...

We all got settled in at the Fiesta Grounds which the City of Albuquerque owns and operates.  The Fiesta runs 10 days, but we are only here for the first 5.  We bought tickets to the Chaser's Club Tent which allows us a comfortable seat and good viewing along with food and drink.

The small stage you see on the left had live entertainment for us in the afternoon and evening.  The tents on the right are where they served our food.  We also had hot coffee, tea and cocoa in the mornings at O dark thirty with donuts to tide us over until the Dawn Patrol was up and they served our breakfast.  

This is where they cooked our food, as you can see the group appreciated the warmth and made friends with the cooks.

Our table stayed ours the whole time we were there, people seemed to stake out a place and returned to it each session.  We could go out on the field as much as we wanted to see the balloons up close and personal or sit in comfort out of the madding crowd.  I wore a hat and scarf so Tom could  find me if I wandered too
far.

Santa Fe

We're almost to the Balloon Fiesta, but first we stopped for a couple of days at a Corps of Engineers park in Pena Blanca, New Mexico.  It's about 20 miles from Albuquerque and half way between that city and Santa Fe.  We are all going to the festival camp area together so we'll be parked as a group.  This gives us a chance to do some sight seeing in Santa Fe.  The COE park only has power and water so we did laundry at a laundromat for the first time in I don't know how long.  Needed to do that since the festival camp is dry.

We went for lunch and window shopping in Old Town Santa Fe...

Above is  the central square around which most towns in this area are built.


Next is Tom by the covered  walkways which surround the Governor's Palace.  It is now a museum and shops for tourists.







The main attraction here is the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, it is open and they allow photos of the inside.

It is simply gorgeous,

The stained glass windows were breath taking.

And this is the round window you see from the outside in the first picture.  The 

tubes are pipes for the organ.

Sun Temple

This is the last stop for Mesa Verde National Park.  We'll be leaving Colorado for New Mexico.

 Sun Temple is built on top of the cliff above all the other pueblos.  The picture above is Sun Temple from across the valley standing above Cliff Palace.  The cliff face below it over there and us over here is filled with all the cliff dwellings we've looked at so far.

This is a close up with the telephoto lens from across the valley.









This is what the walls look like in all the cliff dwellings.

They have little alcoves marked so you can see inside the pueblo without doing any damage to the ruins.

This was the water cistern (above).  Below shows one of the ways they conserve the ruins by sealing the tops of the walls.  This prevents the weather from wearing the bricks down any more than necessary.  Remember, we are at 8,000 feet elevation and there is a lot of snow on top of the mesa.

This is the valley from one end.  Inside those walls are dozens of ruins of cliff dwellings.

Next stop:  New Mexico.

Pit House

Before they built into the cliffs, the Ancient Puebloans built what we now call Pit Houses, like this one at the Step House.  We've seen other pit house ruins at Verde Valley, but none as extensive and well preserved as these.

This one is being partially reconstructed to demonstrate how it was made and make assumptions about how they lived.  You can see similarity to the other pueblos in the shape of the rooms and the troughs and grinding stones.

The park has put this site under a roof to protect and preserve it, but also to allow a partial reconstruction of the roof  like the Ancestral Puebloans would have put over part of the buildings.  The roof will be constructed of logs from the spruce and juniper trees native to the area and mud like the bricks.  

This is what it looks like outside the building at the other original foundations of the pit house site.  These walls are all original.