Greetings from the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque – Part 2

The Fiesta began in the early '70's, and Clara and I were there a couple times in the mid '80's when we were living here. It was, of course, a lot smaller in those days – there were a few RV's around then, perhaps a couple hundred, whereas at this Fiesta there were approximately a couple thousand. At this Fiesta, there were around 550 balloons registered, with some 600 pilots on the official rolls, whereas there were at most a couple hundred in the beginning. Picture #1 shows our little RV lost between two behemoths, #2 shows the row of RV's across from our site, #3 shows another row along the border of the landing field right behind our spot.

When I went over to the launch field on Saturday, I took along my lawn chair and sat down near the field. There was another couple nearby and we struck up a conversation. There are many thousands of people in attendance here, undoubtedly representing all of the 50 states, yet the couple that I by chance sat next to came from Kenmore, WA – no more than about 15 miles from my home!! Go figure!

Greetings from the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque

One of the centerpieces of a Balloon Fiesta is a mass ascension, when virtually all of the 550 balloons registered at the Fiesta lift off (obviously not all at the same time, but in several groups cluttering up the sky). This usually takes place fairly early in the morning, so that the weather conditions are optimum for flying.

The unique feature of the Fiesta in Albuquerque is the so-called "Albuquerque Box" – a term which describes the peculiar atmospheric conditions in which there is a wind current moving, say, southerly at, say, 300 feet above ground, while there is another wind current in the exact opposite direction at,say, 800 feet above ground. Thus a pilot can take off, rise a short ways and float off to the south, then rise still further and return to his point of origin. [Why is it called a "box?" Because if you look at it from the side, its path is rectangular.]

This first picture is of a part of the mass ascension, while pictures 2,3,4,5 are so-called "custom-shape" balloons.

Some themes from our trek to Albuquerque – Part Two:

Theme #2: Life has changed dramatically over the last X years.

Recall that we spent an evening at Three Island State Park in Idaho, a spot on the Oregon Trail noted for a potential river crossing for the travelers. Put yourself on the trail in a covered wagon and consider the following:

A Risky River Crossing
Upon reaching the Three Island ford, the emigrants had a difficult decision to make. Should they risk the dangerous crossing of the Snake, or endure the dry, rocky route along the south bank of the river? About half of the emigrants chose to attempt the crossing by using the gravel bars that extended across the river. Not all were successful; many casualties are recounted in pioneer diaries. The rewards of a successful crossing were a shorter route, more potable water and better feed for the stock.
The Three Island ford was used by pioneer travelers until 1869, when Gus Glenn constructed a ferry about two miles upstream.

Now put yourself on a jetliner from your hometown to Oregon, or in a modern automobile (or even a small RV) on the Interstate Highway system and consider the question – what comparable changes will the next 140 years bring to travel?

Go back again to the pictures of the cliff dwellings and recognize the extreme difficulty – each young child must learn to master cliff side climbing using hand and toe holds, must learn hunting or farming for bare subsistence, must live or die without medical attention, etc. You can easily conceive of many more difficulties of life in cliff dwelling times. Now ask yourself the question "What changes in lifestyle, comparable to the changes over the past 1400 years, from cliff dwelling times to the television and Internet of today, will take place over the next 1400 years?"

Some themes from our trek to Albuquerque – Part OneB:

Theme #1: Many good things can be created only by government action.

On our sixth day out, while camping just outside the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park, we visited the Park, where Clara took a guided tour of Cliff Palace, one of the four cliff dwellings open to tours. A surprising new piece of information was the statement that the cliff dwellers were now believed to be the ancestors of some of the modern day Pueblo dwellers of New Mexico.

We also learned that there are some 56 total National Parks in the U.S. (including several in Alaska, American Samoa, Hawaii). By going through the list, I counted 32 that we have visited, and noted several that we will never see . . .

Picture #1 is a mural found in the auditorium at the Visitor Center, numbers 2 and 3 are different views of Cliff Palace, and #4 shows the virtual inaccessibility of these cliff dwellings.

Is the preservation of some of the history and culture of our country a constitutionally mandated endeavor? Whether or not it is, it is certainly a worthwhile one that should be continued.

Some themes from our trek to Albuquerque – Part OneA:

Theme #1: Many good things can be created only by government action.

For example, on our first night out, we stopped at Plymouth Park in Eastern Washington, a lovely campground built by the Army Corps of Engineers. Plymouth Park sits on the bank of the Snake River which begins to form the Oregon-Washington boundary. (See picture 1)
On days 1,2 and 3 we drove on the Interstate Highway System, built in the Eisenhower era, ostensibly as a matter of national defense, but obviously a great boon to both civilian traffic and commercial (truck) traffic.
On our second night out, we stopped at Three Island Crossing State Park near Glenn's Ferry, ID. This Idaho State Park was a quiet, comfortable, well-equipped place to spend the evening – you can bet that it was constructed before the famous pronouncement "Government isn't the solution to the problem – government IS the problem!" (See picture 2)
Mark Oct. 29, 2009 on your calendar in red! Why?
"it's worth noting that we're about to celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the most important federal initiatives of our time.

The event was the launch of the Internet, which we date from Oct. 29, 1969, when a refrigerator-sized special-purpose computer in Leonard Kleinrock's engineering lab at UCLA transmitted its first message to a twin machine in Menlo Park, Calif." (Note that this date falls before the famous pronouncement.) Back then it was called ARPANet, where ARPA is "Advanced Projects Research Agency," of the Pentagon. A Pentagon report on this stated:
" Communicating online will be as natural an extension of individual work as face-to-face communication is now." Sound familiar? 

Taylor tried to interest private industry in his project, but the companies he approached dismissed the idea. IBM told him its computers already talked to one another, completely missing his point that their computers should talk to everyone else's. 

AT&T, then the monopoly proprietor of the phone system over which the network would operate, fought Taylor's project tooth and nail, contending that the network's "packet switching" technology (a method of transmitting data in discrete blocks) wouldn't work on its phone lines and might even damage them. Packet switching remains the Internet's governing technology to this day."
Let's see, this message has reached you . . . how?

On our third night out we stayed at the Golden Spike RV Park (private) in Brigham City, UT and spent the night parked about fifteen feet off of I-15, where cars and trucks passed by all night long. Yes, it had the amenities, same as the previous nights had, but lacked the quiet, peaceful location. More about the name "Golden Spike" under one of the other themes.
Our fourth night out was not much better, as we spent the night at Slickrock RV Park in Moab, UT – by far our most expensive evening so far. But the next day more than made up for it as we made a quick run into and around Arches National Park – "On April 12, 1929 President Herbert Hoover signed the legislation creating Arches National Monument, to protect the arches, spires, balanced rocks, and other sandstone formations. On November 12, 1971 congress changed the status of Arches to a National Park, recognizing over 10,000 years of cultural history that flourished in this now famous landscape of sandstone arches and canyons."
(See pictures 3,4 and 5 -- #3 shows a formation nicknamed "The Three Gossips – recognize anyone?)
More on this theme in the next e-mail . . . followed by other themes . . .

The Vancouver Excursion

"Da Gang" made a trip to Vancouver to see the Renaissance Masters exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sept 8th. The trip began on Amtrak from Edmonds, heading north along the Sound.















Our first move, once settled in our hotel, was to head out for a late lunch at "The Sandbar" on Granville Island, a pleasant little seafood establishment with a great view back toward the city. A young woman at a nearby table, upon seeing that we wanted a group picture, grabbed a chair, jumped up on it and proceeded to get a couple shots for us.























We were not permitted to take any photographs at the exhibition, and it was almost unbearably crowded. It was however quite an experience to see and learn about some of the old masterworks, especially from reading the interpretive notes given for each of the paintings.







Wednesday started with breakfast in the hotel's little restaurant, followed by some sight-seeing leading up to lunch at the Water Street Café, just across the street from Vancouver's famous Steam Clock. My lunch, as you can see, was seared, but nearly raw, tuna -- one of my favorites, and very nicely done.




Part of our group then caught the train back to Edmonds while the rest of us explored Robson Street. Dinner that evening was a real treat at La Bodega, a Spanish tapas place.











On Thursday morning, the four of us went out to Stanley Park for a look around, then headed to Chinatown for lunch. After that, it was our turn to head for the station and the train back south.

The Big Cell Phone Evening

What a hilarious evening! Leo got home from a school trip just in time to get a call on his new cell phone! The phone is a "Graduating-from-elementary-to-middle-school" gift which he has been panting after for several months now, and it comes equipped with unlimited text messaging which all the kids have now. Well, you can see from the pictures how things went after that . . . first Leo is engrossed with figuring out the phone, then he has his Mom working on it also (Note how Leo's dinner is essentially untouched), then here comes Grandma . . . will wonders never cease . . . even the old folks have to learn about texting . . . messages are flying back and forth between Leo, his Mom, his Grandma, his friend Graham . . .