2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Chris and I had two main things we "had" to do in 2016. One was visit his Aunt Marilyn in DC and the other was camp at the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM.

We had seen some amazing pictures of RVers at the Balloon Fiesta in 2015 and immediately put it on our bucket list. It ended up being as awesome as we hoped it would be. There was also an Xscapers Convergence so we were able to park next to our fellow Xscapers. We are so happy we did because we had a blast hanging out made some great new friends.

Fun times at La Cumbre Brewing Company with the Xscapers

We were originally planning on staying at the Balloon Fiesta for a week but since we were dry camping newbies we decided to get there on a Friday and leave on a Monday. I mean what could go wrong dry camping for a couple days?

For those of you that don't know what "dry camping" is means we wouldn't be able to hook our rig up to water, sewer or electricity. We decided our tanks were large enough that we should be fine not dumping our waste water tanks(black and gray) and wouldn't need additional fresh water in that short of a time frame. Plus, we have a generator.

Saturday- October 1st (Morning Session)

One cool thing about camping at the Balloon Fiesta RV Park was we were within walking distance of the Balloon Fiesta.

The Morning Glow event started at 6:30 am which is way too early for our liking. I'm so glad we went because it was beautiful seeing all the balloons lit up against the dark sky.

Morning Glow

After watching the Morning Glow we went to stand in line to get some coffee and breakfast( I was a grouchy B). Then we walked to the field to wait for the Mass Ascension.

Balloons were being filled up with hot air and taking off all around us

The sun started coming up and more and more balloons and people were filling up the field.

Chris was enjoying the beautiful view

They said there were over 500 balloons released that day.

We were loving the shape balloons. It was fun to look around and watching them fill balloons up and try to guess what they were.

Yoda and Darth Vader

Chris loved the cop and robber

Saturday October 1st- Night Session

When we went back for the night session we met up with our friends Mike and Kat of Rockin' the Road with Mike & Kat. They are fellow RVers and bloggers.

Once again they were filling the balloons up all over the field. As soon as it got dark the magic started to happen...

All the balloons would glow at the same time. It was awesome.

After this we tried to rush out of the Balloon Fiesta to go watch the fireworks from where Mike & Kat were staying. Unfortunately we didn't make it in time and we ended up pulling over and watching the firework show behind a Hobby Lobby.

My dramatic reinactment below:

When we got home I could already tell we were in trouble with our battery. The refrigerator was beeping but we couldn't run our generator because it was too late. We figured whatever was wrong could be fixed in the morning.

Sunday October 2nd

When we woke up things were worse than we thought. It ended up all 3 batteries were dead.

Chris called Auto Zone and they said they would test the batteries for us but he had to figure out how to take them out. We got advice from a fellow Xscaper who suggested we label everything and take pictures of it. It ended up being great advice. It was about $300 for 3 new batteries but they came with warranties. Chris thinks he left the hot water heater on and it drained our batteries. (doh!)

We decided to watch the mass ascension from our RV and worry about the battery later. The problem would still be there after.

Balloons above our rig

Balloons above the campground

The astronaut was one of my favorites

Enjoying the show from the top of our RV

This mass ascension was actually the last event we were able to watch. We pretty much dealt with our battery issue most of that day and left early on Sunday because our batteries looked like they were continuing to drain.

We would love to go to this again sometime and stay longer. It was everything we hoped it would be even with the stress of the battery problem.

Have you been? If so what is your favorite event? Let us know if the comments below.