Travels with Twinkles: October 2026

Travel to the Albuquerque, NM International Balloon Fiesta

October 7 - 13, 2016

Many months ago, my Daughter who lives in Estero, Florida had told me her family was making plans to go to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and it would be fun if I could join them there. As the time was getting closer and I didn’t hear anything back, I thought maybe it wasn’t happening. Then about 2 weeks before, I get a text wondering if I can make it there. I debated it for a few days and then decided to do it as we don’t get together that often, so off I go in my stealth van.

Tuesday Oct 7 - I leave Tucson traveling on I-10 to Deming, NM and then route 28 to Hatch, NM and then I-25 north to Socorro, NM where I spend the night. I’ve been there many times, it’s a very scenic and historic town, but it’s just a rest stop for me today at their lovely Walmart.

Wednesday Oct 8 - Since it’s only about an hour ride to get to Albuquerque from here, I decide to a local hiking trail in “The Box” for an hour in the morning. A week or two ago there was heavy flooding in the river canyon here and by the looks of things it must have been crazy.

There was a wave of water through here

Beautiful rocks

The drive north from Socorro is very scenic with the Rio Grande River visible far away down in the valley with farm fields all along the valley. I exit I-25 before Albuquerque for a more scenic ride and soon realize that I am driving on the historic El Camino Real or the Royal Road and route 66 through Belen, Los Lunes, Las Lunes with many historic adobe buildings, murals, old canals and colorful artistic buildings. I’m finding this area very interesting when my phone suddenly rings, it’s my daughter Jessica calling, they have arrived in Albuquerque and are heading straight to the Old Town area. I had just stopped to check out this beautifully historic mural panel when she called.

I'm following an address I had entered in my GPS to a visitors center to get tourist information and these directions are taking me directly to the Old Town area, what a coincidence. In a few minutes, I’m riding around the Old Town area trying to find a parking spot, not easy as it’s very crowded and equally frustrating, but I eventually get parked and make contact fairly easily. It’s my daughter Jessica, her husband Jerome and his mother Marilyn, hope my spelling is good ? It’s amazing how much easier it is to find people today with cell phones, how did we ever exist without this technology.

After roaming around Old Town for a while, they have to check into their Hotel. We are taking separate cars and as we get there, I find out that they mistakingly have reserved two Hotels for the same night and I am to stay in this one while they are going to another Hotel, (#2). I was just hopeful that I would be able to park and stay overnight in the parking lot and now I have this giant room, two bedrooms, a full kitchen and three TV’s. This became an issue on the next day, as they didn’t make it clear to me that this just a one night deal, Oops !

Thursday Oct 9 - Jessica calls in the morning to tell me to drive to another Hotel, (# 3) which they have for the balance of their time. I meet them there and we then go for a hike on the petroglyph trail a few miles away. They had never seen petroglyphs before, it's not a Florida thing, and they were quite interested.

Next, it's decided to drive about an hour away to Santa Fe, NM which they have never visited. Half way to Santa Fe, we get a phone call from the Hotel saying that my clothes and other belongings had been left in the hotel room. An embarrassing situation, but no problem, they will remove and secure them for a pickup latter. They never made it clear to me that the Hotel room was for one night only or maybe I wasn't really paying attention ?

We arrive in Santa Fe and wander around for a few hours, visit the central square, check out the sights and browse in a few shops and had a very good lunch.

They were impressed with the trees

It was then back to Albuquerque to the first Hotel to get my stuff that was left behind. I must saw this Hotel run around is kind of crazy ? The third Hotel, Chaco, is really special with architectural elements based on ansetral pueblo cultural. It has an art gallery, a custom shoe store, a great art and jewelry store, a fitness center and large outside pool. Also, best of all, I can overnight in the parking lot across the street. Actually, I would be much more comfortable in the van outside than sharing a hotel room.

Impressive Indian art in the Lobby area

Across the street is a very impressive and popular “Sawmill Market” food court complex. We go there for dinner, it’s quite upscale, many trendy local food concessions, good stuff, many choices and very popular. Interestingly, it is an old industrial building that has housed many companies over the last century and was totally rebuilt and repurposed into this food court. This seems to be the center piece of the new surrounding developed area.

The Sawmill Market

Friday Oct 10 - We go out to explore Albuquerque and start at the self pick Big Jim Farms which grow many types of Chili's, tomatoes, pumpkins and flowers for sale. My Florida continent is not very familiar with this type of thing, unlike my New Jersey farm upbringing, so they are quite thrilled with it.

I was impressed by the Pumkins

Jessica and Jerome pose under the Chili

Various degrees of hot are available

We eventually end up at a hiking / biking trailhead for a short hike on a forest lined trail along the Rio Grande River. The last time I was here, the river was barely flowing, but now it's totally full due to the recent heavy rains.

We then return to the Hotel and hang out for a while at the large pool and hot tub. We return to the Sawmill Market again for dinner.

Saturday October 11 - Finally, today we are going to the Balloon Fiesta in mid afternoon for the "Night Magic Glow" event where the balloons are inflated at dusk, but they do not lift off. We drive to a park and ride bus stop that takes us to the balloon grounds. It seemed like there were about a hundred food vendors there, but it was super crowded and the food lines were huge and long.

When the time came for the Magic Blow event, it basically didn't occur, they only fired up the Balloon burners to display flames. We never heard an explanation for why they didn’t allow the balloons to be inflated as the wind was light, and it was a major disappointment.

We also had tickets for the following Music Fiesta concert featuring a rising country star, Russell Dickerson, who my daughter and husband knew of. I wasn’t impressed to say the least, but the crowd was fun to watch. We didn't stay late as it was going to be avery early morning start on Sunday.

A particularly interesting vendor

I had to take this photo of people posing for the photo

The music concert was weird !

Sunday October 12 - Today is the much anticipated Krispy Creme Balloon Ascension and we are hoping that the weather will cooperate. We get up about 4 AM to arrive at the Park and Ride at 5 AM so we can get to the Fiesta around 6 AM.

Jessica and family have bought special Gondola Club tickets which provide VIP open air patio seating, a premieum buffet, a host bar, a gift bag, private restrooms and golf cart shuttle service to the parking area. I didn't have one of these tickets, they were sold out, but somehow they allow me in free of charge ? It was a very nice set up, but when the action starts on the field, you want to go down amongst the inflating Balloons. It gets pretty exciting when they all start inflating and I thought all was going per plan. All the Balloons eventually were inflated but then there was no ascension and they all slowly started to deflate, it was all over, no ascension, what a bummer !

It's then back to the bus for the ride back to the park and ride and to the hotel. After some time resting at the Hotel, we leave at about 3 PM to drive to the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway for the ride up the mountain to the Ten 3 Restaurant where we have a dinner reservation. At 10,387 foot elevation It has now has become quite windy and as a result the restaurant is half empty and we get seated right away. The waitress explained the menu items with precision, very profession, but then she confided in us that she loves working at this place, but hates the Tram ride especially when it is windy. And it is now very windy, somewhere around 50 MPH which is about the maximum for the Tram. After dinner, we hade quite a long wait in line, about an hour, for the tram ride back down.

View passing another tram coming down

View at the top with rain showers down in the valley.

Monday October 13 - We return to the Sandia Peak Tramway parking lot where take a hike on a trail where we sort of wandered off trail and up into a rocky area. It's a very scenic area and we are practically under the Tramway with great views in all directions.

Great views

Balanced on a rock

The tram is overhead

Climbing into a rock cave

Next was a drive on Central Avenue, (old route 66) to view the Nob Hill Area sights and a stop at an Old Town Mexican restaurant for lunch. Finally, we drive to another Hotel (#4) where they will stay for the night as it is close to the airport.

I then bid farewell and start my drive back to Tucson. It was a great reunion with lots of family updates, all good, but somewhat exhausting. I drive mostly straight on I-25 to Truth or Consequences, NM where I spend the night.

Tuesday October 14 - I'm back on I-25 to Deming where I stop at the Rockhound State Park where we once camped a decade or so ago. I wanted to explore an alternate area that I remember from the past. When I found it, I didn’t remember it at all, the area has been totally redeveloped into beautiful campsites. It was a very photogenic landscape with great wild flowery plants and mountain views. I took a few photo and then went back to downtown Deming for a while to look around, make a stop at a bakery for a few treats and then it's back on the highway.