The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is truly an experience of a lifetime! This is the 40th year of the largest gathering of hot air balloons in the world. Because of their outstanding safety record, it is the only gathering where the spectators are allowed to walk freely on the field as the balloons are being laid out, inflated, and launched. 
We were camped about 1/2 mile from the balloon launch field, an easy 15 minute walk. There were thousands of RVs and we were fortunate to be there with two other RV friends. 
Along with thousands of other spectators, we arrived on the balloon launch field at 5 a.m. on Saturday as we didn't want to miss a minute of the excitement. And what an exciting experience it was! It was absolutely a "sensory overload" experience, as we were surrounded by the colors and shapes of the balloons, the noise of the crowd mingled with the shouted instructions from the balloonists and roar of the fans as the balloons were inflated, all the activity, action, and commotion as over 550 hot-air balloons were set up and launched!
A new world's record was achieved with the launch of 348 balloons in just one hour. By 10 a.m., all the balloons had been launched and the chase crews had set out all around the area to recover the balloons when they landed. It was a fantastic morning.
In the evening, we returned to walk through the exhibits, check out the many vendors, grab something to eat, watch
performances, and experience the 'balloon glow'. We were quite tired so we went back to the RV and watched the fireworks from the RV park. The next day we did it all over again. Wow!!
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