Birthday Balloons

Posted February 22, 2022 – Narrated by Carmen
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Jim wanted balloons.

Experience the magic of Fiesta, click the video above

As if anything can embellish an idyllic New Mexico sky, every year on Jim’s birthday week, hundreds of hot-air balloons punctuate the stunning Albuquerque landscape.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

In 2020 we had loose plans to attend the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, but the pandemic grounded the event for the first time since it began in 1972, Jim’s High School graduation year.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

Time Flies, the official theme for 2021, peaked Jim’s enthusiasm. He would celebrate his 67th birthday at Fiesta regardless of travel hurdles and reservation complications and the risk of infection as the new variant released its latest offspring into the population. But the major hurdle, was me.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

It’s unusual for Jim to latch onto something he knows I won’t attend. I don’t do big events. It has nothing to do with Covid. Ever since Mary Decker fell at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, right in front of us, and the crowd erupted into a frenzied mob, I haven’t been able to shake the fear of being trampled.

Olympics 1984 Zola Budd Mary Decker
Olympics 1984 – Our photo of Mary Decker and Zola Budd running past us seconds before Decker fell. Years later the pair rose above the controversy and found friendship.

But if my man wants balloons, balloons he will have.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

He was overdue for a break from my hang-up. And, this last year took a heavy emotional toll with the loss of his dear sister Patty, and brother-in-law, Richard, as well as many old friends.

He needed this.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

Unfortunately, he didn’t win the lottery.

The lottery for Fiesta begins by applying in January. If you want to park your Airstream on the lot between The Field where they launch the balloons and The Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum (the best seats in “the house”) you must be a part of the The Balloon Fiesta National Airstream Rally.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

The lottery is designed to fairly manage the high number of applicants for a few available spaces (Kenneth does an amazing job organizing and running this Airstream rally). Unfortunately, chances of getting into the winner’s club on the first try is like winning The Lottery, or being struck by lightening.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

But this was Jim’s year. Undeterred by pie-in-the-sky odds, he submitted the application and immediately began working on Plan Deux. Every day he shook the internet trees for tips about available spaces. Months went by with no leads.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

Then, one day, a miraculous wind stirred the branches of Facebook and a glimmer of hope landed in Jim’s message box. Nan Leverett from Airstream Addicts forwarded a post from Albuquerque residents, Marcia and Jim. The couple were offering the community a free space (with hook-ups!) on their property near the Fiesta.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

The “firsts” were adding up. First Fiesta, first time in Albuquerque, first big crowd event, and first time yard surfing in a complete stranger’s yard.

Jim reached out. These were nice people. Did they mind if a feral chihuahua and a woman with a crowd-fear thingie hung out in their yard for five days while Jim attended Fiesta?

Spoiler: the story ends well.

Jim with Marcia and Jim and their Airstream

We made wonderful new Airstream friends …

Marcia and Carmen

We hung out with fabulous old Airstream friends …

Our dear friends Amy and John

and Pico didn’t bite any of our friends, old or new (another first!).

We fell for Albuquerque …

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

Jim got his balloons, and so did I!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021
Our campsite in Marcia and Jim’s backyard

Early one morning, in Marcia and Jim’s backyard, I was dreaming of fire-spewing dragons and woke wide-eyed to see a Fiesta fly-by from my skylight!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021
Balloons landed in a field a hundred yards from where we were parked in Marcia and Jim’s yard.

A balloon blessing. It was meant to be.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021
Sunrise and a sky full of balloons

A single balloon is a statement, but a flotilla of balloons is a universal message.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

The world’s most powerful language is composed of nothing but zeros and ones. Similarly, hot-air balloons (depending on one’s perspective) look like a period or an exclamation mark.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

This sky language when expressed in multitudes is especially moving, a declaration of sorts, The Secret of Everything, suspended in time and space under the New Mexico sun.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

Soaring baskets filled with unhelmeted souls pilot across the heavens, looking down and bearing witness to the utter insignificance of our earthly toils and possessions.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

At Fiesta, primeval tech eclipses the spectacle of rocket launches. Subverting science, politics and religion, hot-air balloons go their whimsical and jolly way, scooping up armloads of believers.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

They elegantly skirt the evanescent boundaries between heaven and earth, inoculating us from the plagues of negativity, sadness and cynicism.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

Without sermonizing or taking sides, hot-air balloons address the question, “What is important right now, and what is mere distraction?” and the answers seem to flow out of the silence and into your heart.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

Atmosphere is important.

As I grieve loved ones who have transitioned, I often look to the clouds for something – connection, comfort, distraction, memories, answers, all of the above – even my heart presses gently against my chest, ready and willing to go aloft. 

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

“Heaven knows” Mama sighed when I asked too many questions about death and the afterlife. My heart seems to know that’s not just something people say.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

Fiesta was a healing time.

Every day Jim came home with inspiring images.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

As we journey wholeheartedly into old age, our elevated years bring the horizon into clearer focus. As youths we longed for all the wonderful things – things both within and beyond our grasp – exposing us to anxiety, pessimism and chaos.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

It wasn’t all bad. Some things you take on bring you down to earth in a good way, other things just weigh you down. Everything has strings attached and the biggest stuff demands chains.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

One day we realized our acquisitions were a burden on our time and long-term travel plans, so we began to lighten up. That felt good, real good, so we kept tossing ballast until we felt as light as goose down.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

At first it was wobbly and a bit scary. Six years later, it’s still wobbly and a bit scary, but not as horrifying as never achieving lift.

The flotilla of gorgeous, voluminous and sumptuous contraptions parading overhead inspired us to renew our vows to continue this simple life of living in Beauty.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2021

If you want to see our exact route, click here.

*photos in this post (unless otherwise noted) were taken and copyrighted by Living In Beauty.