They Flew

Albuquerque, New Mexico        High 88 Low 61

We got up early in anticipation of helping our pilot test his balloon. When I picked up my phone, there was a message from our crew chief that today’s flight had been cancelled. So we had a free day.

We were eating breakfast, when Cindy noticed that there were balloons flying, so we rushed outside with our cameras. There were around twenty balloons in the air. A lot of them flew right over the place the RVs are parked. A lot of them were commercial balloons with lots of passengers, but there were a lot of other balloons. With only 20 balloons going overhead, it is still hard to imagine the sky filled with over 500 balloons.

 

This one looked to only be a little way above our fiver.

We spent part of the day going to different quilt shops, and yes, we bought some balloon material and some patterns.

When we went to the second quilt shop, the owner showed us a balloon that was a raffle quilt in 1995. It represents some of the balloons that flew in 1994. He told us that when it was raffled off, the total money from tickets was over $19,000. He said that he had borrowed it a few times and knew where it was. He decided to try to buy it from the lady that owned it and was going to offer her $1,000 to $1,500, but when he got there, he decided he had to have it and offered her $5,000, which she accepted. He told us that it appraised at $10,000 in 1995.

He was a nice man and spent some time with us.

This was his wife's contribution the the quilt. The flowers are 3-D.

As we were about to leave, I asked him if he was the owner of the shop. He said he was and then he broke down in tears. He told us his wife had died in June and it was her shop along with his. We could tell that he misses her greatly. He pointed out the part of the Quilt she had made, the Yucca.

When we got back, it was so hot in the trailer, that we had to run the generator for a couple of hours to cool thing off. Next week is supposed to be cooler.

This afternoon at Happy Hour, there was another pilot that talked to us and answered some of our questions. As far as I know right now the thing at the elementary school is still on for tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting.