MEANDERING MOOSE

A group of "special shapes." The balloons get jammed together on the launch field.       The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is amazing!  Although I have seen heaps of photos showing the balloons at the Fiesta, no photo can do justice to actually being here.  The Fiesta is set on a 360 acre facility and launched approximately 600 balloons this year.  In 2002 they launched 1,000 balloons to set a Guinness Record, but such a massive launching was later determined to be too dangerous to attempt again. The start of a mass ascension. Behind us is the first wave of balloons in the cold inflation stage. The yellow balloon in the background has gone to "hot" inflation and is ready to launch. After a mass ascension the sky would fill with balloons.      The Fiesta is a 9 day event and draws almost 1 million people.  It is the largest balloon event in the world and the Fiesta allows the hoards of spectators to wander on the field amongst the balloons. (Due to

New Mexico state fossil. Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico.      After leaving Colorado we headed south to New Mexico and ended up in the town of Farmington. Farmington is an unremarkable town in the middle of a high desert, but it had the only Honda dealership for a couple of hundred miles and we needed an oil change.  So after finding a campsite in "Mom and Pop's RV Park," we decided to do some touring.  We stumbled upon 2 fantastic scenic areas-Angle's Peak Wilderness and Bisti (Bis-tie) Wilderness. I spotted my 1st Tarantula on a Taos hiking trail. Since I am an aficionado of the "Syfi Channel," I was fully aware that this 2-3" fellow had the ability to jump at least 10 feet in the air,  could quickly devour human flesh, and would instantly turn a body into a giant spider egg-stack!   So after snapping  the photo I quickly ran away from this guy.                                Angle's Peak was an interesting mountain,