Moving on

The weather turned quite cold and rainy the final day of Fiesta. The alarm went off at 5:30 as it had the past 8 mornings but we suspected that balloon launches were unlikely in the rain.  Within a couple of hours it was announced that due to the inclement weather the morning program and activities were cancelled. And so Balloon Fiesta 2018 came to a wet, abrupt end. 

Balloon Museum

Later that afternoon we went to the Balloon Museum located across the street. The displays and the movies covered the evolution of ballooning from the Montgolfier Brothers to today. There was a lot to learn and see. 
1783 was the year that launched what today has become a popular world-wide hobby. That year, both the gas and hot air balloons were invented, and on September 19th the first "passengers" - a duck, a sheep and a rooster - were launched, proving that a balloon could carry weight and that living creatures can breathe at higher altitude. From that year on, the way was paved for continual experimentation, development, and eventual exploration of the skies and space. 
As ballooning caught on, it paved the way for first  balloon flights all over the world. I particularly enjoyed the displays featuring first balloon launches, either hot air or gas, around the globe:

hot air and gas balloon firsts by country

Austria 1784; Great Britain 1784; Italy 1784; Poland 1790 (gas); Spain 1790 (gas);  USA 1793 (gas); first flight in Africa (Egypt) 1797; Colombia 1799;  Lithuania 1803; Mongolia  Peru 1840; Mexico 1842; Ecuador 1842 (gas); Turkey 1845 (gas); Argentina 1856 (gas); Canada 1856 (gas); South Africa 1885 (gas); Japan 1969;  Malta 1970; Ethiopia 1974; Madagascar 2000 to name a few.

A phenomenon that developed soon after was that balloon launches became an attraction at city festivals and festivals. Many aeronauts took the opportunity to make money performing aerial acrobatic feats and trapeze acts.

By June 1784, daring women joined the balloon fervor and dressed in scanty outfits, they jumped from altitudes of 12,000 feet descending to earth by parachute. 

















Marie Merton's parachute was on display and I was intrigued to see her name embroidered on the envelope as well as what looked like hand stitched decorative stitches.


Several notable names that promoted ballooning include Van Tassel who launched Albuquerque's first balloon (gas) in 1882; Don Piccard, considered to be the Father of Hot Air Ballooning, who organized the first hot air ballooning competition in the world in 1962; Gordon Bennett who established the Gordon Bennett Aeronautic Cup in 1906 and today the race remains the longest standing aviation event in the world; and Sid Cutter, pilot and two-time national champion, who flew the first hot-air balloon in Albuquerque and formed the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association and the World Balloon Corporation. Then in 1971, an inflated balloon for a birthday party at a hangar became the inspiration for Albuquerque's 1972 International Balloon Festival and Rally. 
And the rest, as they say, became history and a world famous international event. This year we had the privilege of participating hands on!

the last Boomers

By the time we returned from the museum, many RVs had left. Despite the cold temperatures, those of us who remained bundled up and still gathered for a final happy hour. 
Most of the Boomers departed the following day, Monday. 
By Tuesday morning, our departure day, there were only two RVs, the Putnam's and ours.

We moved to an RV Park close by for a couple of days. After almost two weeks of dry camping and daily balloon activities, we had chores to catch up with like cleaning, laundry, shopping, blog entries. 
Tomorrow we leave Albuquerque to continue further south towards our ultimate destination in Arizona where we will be for two months beginning November 1st. But first, along the way we plan to visit the Valley of Fires Recreation Area near Carrizozo, then Alamogordo, Tombstone and Bisbee.