[Az-Geocaching] Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta: Consult New Mexico Geocachers forum on Yahoo! Groups

[RopingThe Wind]

>From: Ken Akerman <ken@highpointer.com>
>Reply-To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
>To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
>Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta:  Consult 
>New Mexico Geocachers forum on Yahoo! Groups
>Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 12:59:46 -0700 (PDT)
>
>The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta begins tomorrow and runs 
>through Oct. 12.  For >balloonists like Team RopingTheWind, this Fiesta is 
>the best place in the world to be right now.  >However, I expect that 
>available hotel rooms in the Albuquerque area must be in very short supply 
>at >this time.

Actually, for me... the Fiesta is not the place to be right now. :) That is 
one event I have never had an interest in. I am one of the few balloonist 
who will admit to that. I know several others who used to attend Fiesta and 
dont anymore either. The Fiesta gets 850 balloons! Alot of balloons! A 
little too many IMHO. The event is more of a social/fun flying event than a 
competition. The competition is not sanctioned and the first place price 
last year was a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Now anyone who knows me knows 
that I am not the type to be found on top of a HD motorcycle! Besides, I 
would rather have the cash! :) They used to pay out prize money, but turned 
to prizes instead. Second place last year was two round trip tickets on AA 
airlines. I personally dont care to fly the friendly skies in a jet plane 
these days. :) Third place was a laptop computer. Now that would be a nice 
prize. But, a whole weeks worth of flying and the couple thousand dollars it 
costs me to operate my balloon for a week... well, the laptop just doesnt 
cut it! :) I could stay home and buy one and still come out way ahead! :)  
But, balloon fiesta isnt attended by pilots for the competition, but rather 
the huge get together that it is. I just prefer competition. (not that I am 
a really competitive person or anything) ;)

I need to be here making money with my business this time of year. When I go 
out of town for balloon events, I only attend sanctioned competitions. I 
gain points toward a national ranking at these events. They often times pay 
great prize money. Last summer, I competed in the NABA National 
Championships. 40 balloons and $40,000 prize money. Most events I attend pay 
anywhere from 5k to 60k prize money and anywhere from 20-60 or so balloons. 
Compare that to 850 balloons competing for prizes and no cash. I will be in 
Albuqurque the weekend after Fiesta (18-19) competing in a sanctioned 
competition hosted by the Top Gun competiton club of NM. This event (held 
3rd weekend of each month), is also held at Balloon Fiesta Park.

That is cool to see that there are a couple of geocaches right near Fiesta 
Park. I have never done any caching out of state and prefer to cache in 
AZ... but, if there was a hot air balloon themed cache somewhere in ALBQ, I 
might just be so inclined to seek it out! :)

There, I said the word 'geocache'... rendering this post proper for this 
forum.  :) LOL

Well, it is good to be back in Arizona after 3 months in Washington. I must 
admit, it is freakin' hot out there! I guess I was getting too acclimated to 
the great NW weather. But, I did manage to get 6 caches this afternoon! Back 
to the grind of urban caching. :/

Scott
Team Ropingthewind

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