Saturday Morning Balloons

Saturday morning, I am sitting on my sisters back porch in my braggarts’ “I flew in a hot air balloon” sweatshirt, sipping the last of my Chinese tea and watching the 700 plus balloons in the air in front of the Sandia Mountains – I am lucky again the winds are favorable and they are floating west of the balloon field right past Barb’s neighborhood. Wow!

Corn Maze

59 years old and I had never seen or done a corn maze. Well I got to see one from the air and do one on the ground. I photographed the Albuquerque/Corrales corn maze while in my hot air balloon ride and was pleased to learn that it was located only a couple of miles from Barb's house. The field was sort of past its prime with it dried, tan stalks and with the wind blowing it made it quite noisy. Fun, but hard to get lost cause you could always see the mountains for reference.

Special Shapes

hey started as advertising but they sure are interesting. There was a balloon shaped like a truck, Darth Vader, a pepsi can, a cow, a monkey, a witch, a haunted house, a pitcher, and many, many more…..

See the rest of the photos of the Balloon Fiesta here

Appropriate...

There was a red balloon with a gold star on it that of course reminded me of China. The wind pushed it over into our balloon so far that we had to deflate ours balloon and start again -- we got up a little later than the other balloons but we got to see all of the special shapes get inflated and start on their way so it was well worth the wait. Thanks China!

Hot Air Balloon Ride

It wasn’t an exciting-scary ride it was exciting-awe inspiring ride. Surprisingly there was not much feeling of height. The ride had couple of thrilling moments when our balloon went really, really close to the Rio Grande’s water and then really close to the trees as we climbed out of the river bank. They call it “splash and dash”. It is amazing these guys can predict where they are going and where they going to end up. It seemed that the minute our pilot got us up he was looking for places he could put us down. He ended up putting us down (with 3 good bounces) in the backyard of Mrs. Anderson whose husband was very famous in the ballooning world. Max Anderson and two of his friends made the first successful crossing of the Atlantic in a gas balloon in 1978.

Our ride was also successful but only 90 minutes. The rest of time was spent watching the balloons get filled and then at the end get emptied and packed up. The ‘chase’ crew and pilot were kept in real good shape from all the tugging, lugging and lifting. Speaking of tugging, lugging, and lifting, Rosie my neighbor requested a picture of me climbing into the basket so make sure you see the embarrassing photo of my big butt climbing over the side. I kept my promise…..It is in this photo album

Christmas Stomach - in October..

When I got up at 4 am Friday morning to go on my hot air balloon ride, I felt something I hadn’t felt in about 50 odd years. – a Christmas stomach. Early Christmas mornings when my sister and I were young enough to “believe” or wanted to “believe” my stomach always felt horrible. Of course our mom wanted us to eat a good breakfast before opening presents but food was not something I could get past all that curdling excitement. So this morning, even though they had my favorite funnel cakes at the fair I couldn’t get one past my Christmas stomach. But I did manage a couple of bites of mini cinnamon rolls in a cone.

Nathan's Blog

Nathan and his wife Elizabeth are presently teaching in Nanjing China.They were the young couple that were great to me during my whole stay in Hangzhou. He has a blog which I read regularly. He posted two entries that you MUST read if you really want to understand what it is like living in China as a Lao wai (foreigner). Both of them are dated Sept 13 2007 -Our Bike and You Know You Have Lived in China too Long...... They are soooo true -

His comment on driving in China is right on the mark. The Chinese are the best defensive drivers I have ever seen. Once I got used to it, I actually felt very safe RIDING (not driving) around in the speeding, weaving and lurching cars. Even though I probably have more than a million USA driving miles experience I would never voluntarily drive in China, I don't have their skills.

His You Know you Have Been in China Too Long list is a scream! Make sure you take the time to read them! He forgot a couple though --
89. When you think its perfectly normal to wear the same set of clothes for a week straight
90. You get so used to warm drinks you don't even bother putting your sodas in the fridge
91. You NEVER turn on the faucet when brushing your teeth
92. You start thinking the English don't have such bad teeth
93. You open your umbrella on sunny days
94. You don't think it is strange to walk by underwear hanging on trees to dry
http://www.whereisnathan.com