I arrived at the Balloon Fiesta about 4:00pm Thursday Sep 29.  Just as I was going through the entrance to the park I was greeted by many waving Lazy Daze owners.  John showed me to my site and Linda gave me all the registration information.  Once I was parked and set up we all went to dinner at a BBQ joint.  This is an amazing group of people.  I felt as if I had known them for many years after just meeting them.

The next morning at 5:00am I was woken up by the helicopters flying directly over head.  Plus the first balloon came right over our rigs.  Didn’t grab my camera in time for that one.  Then the balloons started coming our way.  What a sight.  I had never before seen balloons so close up as that.  I will show a few pics but will not bore you with the hundreds of pics that I took.

The Dawn Patrol ascend first.  They start to ascend when it is still dark.

There are all shapes and sizes.  There is one day that all the special shapes go up, which is later in the week.

Sometimes the balloons don’t even make it past the RVs.  Luckily I had no problem there.  I would hate to have one come down on top of my rig.  Especially after getting my new solar panels installed.

This is a good shot of the balloons passing all the Lazy Daze RVs.  We were in the 2nd and 3rd row of the RV campground.  We get such  prime site since the group has been coming here for so many years.  I heard it is something like 14 consecutive years.

This is what is called the “Mass Ascension”, where all the balloons go up.  I understand there is over 500 balloonists taking part in this event.

Finally I took a video which will show the “Mass Ascension”.  One balloon did not make it past the road.  However, he was able to keep his balloon upright and was able to take off a few minutes later and continue flying.

This was just my first day of viewing the balloons.  There is more to come so stay tuned.