Day 201

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Posted by Onaxthiel: The Days Inn off Coors Rd. is located amidst a cluster of other hotels near I-40. There are noticeably few expensive motels in the cluster, but the Days Inn provided us with an internet connection, and was much nicer than most of the places we stay at. Under normal circumstances, the extra few dollars of cost would have bothered us, but Albuquerque was a special case. In this town we had decided to drop a pile of money that we generally would have refused to consider parting with, except perhaps at gunpoint. Even then, only if we were pretty sure the trigger man was quite desperate. This morning we were scheduled to spend $320 to go on a hot air balloon ride over the city of Albuquerque. Since usually this would pay for food, gas, and camping for just under a week, we weren't too keen on the price. However, this Milwaukee sized city in the high desert is known as the ballooning capital of the USA and we had never tried a lighter than air vehicle before, so how could we resist? This required us to be underway much earlier than most motel days, about the time that we would while camping. The night before we had checked our route so we knew how long it would take, and then added a few extra minutes for morning traffic. Of course, we had miscalculated. No one goes to work as early as we were driving!

Arriving at the launch site within ten minutes, we found ourselves with plenty of parking space, with the only other automobile being a van belonging to Rainbow Ryders, the company we had booked our flight with. When we approached the van, the driver warily rolled down his window, expecting perhaps that we were intent on balloonjacking him thanks to our shabby clothes and young, unkempt appearances. We later found out that most of their clients are retirement aged and/or affluent enough that the price tag is not even a consideration. We soon calmed his fears and went to wait in our car to avoid being hit by speeding children on their way to school. Having a launch site in the massive dirt lot behind a high school has certain attached hazards. Eventually those more affluent clients that I mentioned earlier arrived. Rainbow Ryders provides a hotel pickup as part of their package, if you can tell them where you will be staying, instead of telling them, as we did, “probably the two sleeping bags in the back of some state park.” Soon three baskets, each larger than the last, with three piles of parachute silk, each larger than the last, were deployed and readied for use. The balloons filled far faster than I had anticipated, which was lucky, since I had volunteered to hold one edge and the gentleman opposite was unable to secure his side in the wind. Very soon we were ready to fill out our hold harmless waivers and next of kin questionnaire, just in case the affluent patrons had high priced lawyers on tap, waiting to pounce at little things like their clients plummeting to their deaths from fifteen hundred feet AGL. Then it was time to load the baskets, and we were herded into our twelve person basket.

Now for Obfuscator and I, this was fine. Climb a stepping stool, step over the side of the wicker basket, and swing into our spot. Again, refer to my first statement about the regular clientel. Once we were aboard, we watched a few older ladies have difficulties in making the step over the edge, and this was not helped by the basket rocking around and trying to break free in the fifteen mile an hour wind that was breezing against our 25,000 cubic foot balloon. Soon enough, we had everyone aboard and we launched. Our route took us above the teenagers that had been trying to assassinate us earlier in the morning, and towards the Rio Grande. The high schoolers didn't seem to notice at all. With launches almost every morning, I suppose you get used to it after a while. The extra mass of some of the more senior riders seemed to have caught our pilot off guard at first. We nearly ran into the trees that border the river as we first approached, and he had to turn on all burners for a few moments to gain the altitude needed so that we only heard the scrape of branches on the bottom of the gondola, and didn't feel the scratch of those branches in our eyes. Soon we were gliding serenely over the Albuquerque nature preserve, and watching as the assorted wildlife went about their daily routines and the local dog population went insane at the massive but silent intruders that dared to drift near their territory.

Ascending to about 1,000 feet, we got excellent views of both the mountains on the edge of town, and the downtown. We drifted across the river, the zoo, and old route 66 before getting into the airport's controlled zone. A call to the tower made sure that no planes would come too close to us, and soon thereafter we prepared to land. The chosen landing spot was an empty field on the south end of town, and our first approach had to be aborted due to power lines that inconsiderately placed themselves across the middle of the field. We did land soon after, and it was a pretty good landing, with barely a jostle felt. After an unloading process that was slightly more complex but significantly less time consuming than the loading, everyone pitched in on stowing the air bag, and it was back to the launch site. There the owner of the company served us a continental breakfast and mimosas, based on an old hot air ballooning tradition. According to his story, the first test balloon launched in France was destroyed by peasants that had no idea what the thing was that was landing on their fields and destroying their crops. King Louis the 16th, displaying the keen insight into the mind of the common man that he was famous for, began giving his test pilots bottles of champagne that could be shared with peasants when their expensive toys landed on their foodstuffs.

Our hunger and thirst slaked for the moment, we drove to the nearby Petroglyph National Monument. It's not that we haven't seen enough Petroglyphs at this point in the trip, it's just that more are always popping up, and we never know it they will have something new. At this national monument, there are two main hiking areas that can be explored, each with 500+ of the carvings, all close enough to touch if one were inclined to break the posted rules. We took the shorter of the two hikes, due to our afternoon plans, and were not disappointed. Along with the many fairly standard carvings that we have gotten used to, there were quite a few that we haven't seen on other parts of the drive. A kokopelee dances on one rock, while a logo for the earth mother gives birth on another. A masked serpent figure watches from a very high rock and near the bottom, one that looks for all the world like a frowny face 😞 glares as you approach. We were right behind a former park ranger from this very park, and he was leading two guests around and explaining the symbolism of each of the shapes, so all in all it was quite an edifying visit. Not that I would expect former rangers being there to all the time, so experiences may vary.

Obfuscator and I had debated the merits of the many Albuquerque museums we had the option to visit after the petroglyphs, and eventually had settled on one of two: the Ballooning hall of fame if we couldn't get enough hot air in flight, and the National Atomic Museum otherwise, because hey, it's the National Atomic Museum! Deciding that animals made giant by radiation were cooler than models of giant gas bags, we opted to go nuclear. The museum is a monument to all things mad science-y, those being some of our favorite subjects. Inside we got to see the power company's pro-nuclear propaganda, the crazy hippies' anti-nuclear propaganda, and an exhibit that explained propaganda techniques to anyone who was wondering how the game of persuasion is played. I am not really clear on what that had to do with atom smashing, but it was a pretty good exhibit. This was all in just the first third of the museum. Other exhibits examined the Manhattan project, different facilities for nuclear research in the US and Russia, Nuclear medicine exhibits, the story of Madam Currie, cold war info, early 20th century radiological quackery, and an exhibit about the use of the first atom bombs against Japan. In this one, as in many, people are free to leave their own comments in a small notebook. Some people are willing to commit the most ill-informed opinions to paper. Of course, I post all of my rants on the internet, so thats a pot/kettle situation.

From the Atomic museum, we traveled to Santa Fe, the state capitol. By this time it was to late to see much of the town, so we drove through and headed into the mountains beyond the city limits. The first few camping areas we came to in the national forest and the adjacent state forest were closed for the season. Just when we were beginning to think we were out of luck, and discussing finding lodging in the city, we finally spotted an open area. So in we went, to brave a night of 50 MPH winds and below freezing temperatures. It's a good thing the bivies really do hold up.

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