Take Flight in a Hot-Air Balloon
W HEN BONNIE JELINEK attended last year’s 50th anniversary Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, it was a huge check off her bucket list. So imagine the Plano, Texas, resident’s joy when her…
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Tag: Hot-Air Balloon
Join a Hot-Air Balloon Chase Crew
LOOK UP ON ANY CLEAR DAY in Albuquerque, and you might spot a colorful globe drifting across the sky. “The balloons would land on the dirt road down the street from us,” says Michael Kerns, who grew…
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Meet This Legendary Balloon Pilot
JIM AHERN’S BALLOONING CAREER was peaking right as things were starting to take off. “I was in the airline business before ballooning,” Ahern recalls. “Back in 1978, ballooning was just a hobby.” At…
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Balloon Fiesta Takes You Up, Up, and Away
AT 5 A.M., DARKNESS HANGS LIKE A CURTAIN over Albuquerque’s Balloon Fiesta Park, hiding the riot of colors, shapes, and sounds about to be unveiled in the morning light. For now, you and the thousands…
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Balloon Pilot Reaches New Heights
RAY BAIR FOLLOWED WHAT HE CALLS a “natural sequence of steps” into ballooning—from spectator to crewman to balloon owner to pilot. In 1973, Bair and his wife, Carol, attended the very first World Hot…
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Five Things to Do This Weekend
1 Elevate your weekend. The La Mesa Airfield in Ratón hosts the International Santa Fe Trail Balloon Rally this weekend. Balloons lift off daily at 6:30 a.m. Saturday through Monday. The Ratón Elks…
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What We're Reading: Sky Rider
ON JULY 4, 1882, six-foot-tall, 225-pound Park Van Tassel lifted off from Albuquerque’s Old Town in a hot-air balloon that was dangerously inflated at only two-thirds capacity. It was the first…
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Datebook: December 2021
HOLIDAY BAZAARS OFFER A CHANCE to find that quintessential handmade–in–New Mexico treasure, the one that will be cherished by far-flung friends for years to come. Get your wallet out and chart a…
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Photo Tips for the Balloon Fiesta
WHILE NOTHING LIFTS THE SPIRIT QUITE like the colorful balloon-filled skies of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta’s mass ascension, we’re here for all of it: the balloon rodeos, dawn…
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Three Ways to Experience New Mexico's Skies This Summer
Experience New Mexico's majestic landscape from the sky. Illustration by Michael Byers. Soar over Gallup’s red cliffs Family-owned X-Treme-Lee Fun Balloon Adventures gives you an uplifting…
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