July 12 – Albuquerque

July 12, 2016 – Albuquerque, New Mexico
I woke up at 4:30. Eleven of us met in the lobby at 5am to wait for the van to pick us up for the hot air balloon ride. On board the van, we signed the waiver that said we knew it was dangerous and we were okay with that. We arrived at the takeoff spot and they unloaded the basket, fans, and the balloon. There were 8 other balloons in the same area preparing to fly. They used the fans to inflate the balloon most of the way and then turned on the burners to get it to stand up. We climbed into the basket, had our picture taken, and then, started to slowly rise.
We floated over the Rio Grande River and dipped down to touch the water before quickly rising again. We were supposed to be up for an hour but the pilot had difficulty finding a landing spot. We ended up being afloat for 1 hour 45 minutes. We finally landed in a quarry. The landing was a little rough. As the crew put the balloon away, we were given champagne and pastries. We got back to the hotel at 9am and had breakfast.
The whole group set out at 10am for the Petroglyph Park. We watched a 24 minute movie about the Petroglyphs. Actually some of us nodded off during the movie. We did a quick hike through part of the park to see a few Petroglyphs.
The last official stop for the day was the Hot Air Balloon Museum. They had many flying machines and exhibits about the history of hot air flying.
After lunch, a few of us took the hotel shuttle to the Biopark Aquarium and Botanic Garden. The aquarium was very well done and nicely air conditioned. The botanic gardens were beautiful but very hot.
Tomorrow we got to Santa Fe.