Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - Sunday - Elvis is in the house.

The weather forecast last night called for high winds and miserable conditions for the morning mass ascension.  I woke up around 5:30AM and noticed there wasn't any wind at all.  I turned on the TV to the local station that has the best balloon fiesta coverage and the broadcaster said he believed that there would be an ascension this morning.

I made a quick call to Gloria & Doug and we all headed down to the field in a hurry.  We arrived after the Dawn Patrol went up and we saw those balloons as we entered the parking lot.  By the time we got there we wound up in a lot so far away from the field that they were busing people down to the gate.  No problem for us since we didn't feel up to a 12 block walk to the field.  We actually had to walk less this way rather than being closer to the field.

We walked out onto the field and joined in the festivities and took almost 250 photos and most of them turned out very good.  They had a new balloon of Elvis at this years event.  Rather than publish a lot of photos I am including a collage of some of them.  We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the lift off.

I wound up sitting on a bench and the broadcaster who I saw on the TV earlier was setting up a camera to do some interviews.  I was taking a lot of photos and he walked by and spoke to the two young girls next to me and then talked to me for a minute or so.  I don't know if I will make the cut, but most likely not.  

We had picked up some freebies yesterday including some from the Sandia Casino which were $25 coupons for playing the slots.  Doug and I picked up our coupons today and gave them to Gerry and Gloria.  They commenced to gamble and we left them at the casino and headed back to the campground.  Doug and I did stop and picked up some Tacos for a late lunch and then headed back to the campground to work on our photos and other interesting things associated with computers.

Later on we picked up the girls and went out to dinner at the County Line restaurant near the Sandia Peak cable car ride.  Gerry and I enjoyed our meals very much and always like to make a stop there for dinner.  After dinner we drove down the mountain side toward the fiesta park and saw some of the evening balloon glow.

We are both worn out and going to bed early.  These long hours and all the walking is taking it's toll on our bodies.  Gerry's right arm is sore from pulling the slot machine arm for 3 1/2 hours.  At least she didn't gamble all the money away and actually came home with some of it left.