October 11 - 14: Balloon Fiesta!

Originally we had planned to be here for the Fiesta from the beginning but our plans were changed when Creative World canceled the first half rally. What a blessing that turned out to be! It rained and was too windy most of the time for the first part of the Fiesta and we arrived for the really good days.

It was great to see Joyce's caravan friends who were running the rally. And it was a little odd not to know any of the attendees, but then Joyce's RV friends had been attending the Fiesta in prior years, asking her to come down too but she hadn't made it.


We saw the special shape balloons inflate the first morning we were there and watched them launch. Special shapes are balloons that aren't shaped like balloons but rather are shaped like cows or trees or witches or just about anything else. We cruised the Fiesta grounds which were reminiscent of a fair with lots of (expensive) food and many opportunities to buy things.


We saw the special shape Glowdeo twice: This is when the special shape balloons are inflated at dusk and the burners glow inside lighting them up.


There was also a very nice fireworks display every evening. We saw it once on the field, once while walking toward home, and once from up in the RV parking area.


The coolest day was the morning that we didn't go down to the field but just stayed in the RV for a while in the early hours. When the TV said the special shapes were definitely going to launch (with the iffy weather it was possible they wouldn't go up). When we saw them take off on the TV we looked out the window and here they came! The balloons came right for us! All the special shapes followed a little later by all the regular shapes. About 800 balloons came right over the RVs and some even landed between RVs. The target field for the day started about 50 feet from our RV so we didn't have far to walk to see all the action. It's easy to see why Kodak used to sponsor this event -- they must have sold 10% of their year's film sales right there. But now with digital they have withdrawn. Ron and Joyce took literally hundreds of photos each day!

We had two dinners with the group and also visited the Pueblo Cultural Center with them also. We skipped one of the field trips because we were busy down on the field. We really want to come back for more!