Sunday, 10/02/11: Yesterday we stayed in the RV area and watched the Dawn Patrol and Mass Ascension from in front of our RV. Today, I got up at 5:15 a.m. and headed over to the Launch Field. I got to see the Dawn Patrol set up their balloons, fill them with air and then heat it to lift them upright and take off into the pre-dawn darkness. As they ascended, upon instruction from the ground, they alternately or all together fired up their burners for sensational glows. Quite at sight!
Along with thousands of other spectators, I wandered around many of the hundreds of balloons being laid out, filled with air and heated upright waiting their approval to lift off. You can get right up to the balloons during this process and talk with the crews…even look up inside the inflated balloons. You really can’t appreciate the size of the balloons until you wander along and through the packs of balloons as they launch. A record 345 balloons were launched yesterday in the first hour. I wouldn’t be surprised it the record was broken again today.
At 11:00 a.m., we boarded buses for lunch at the Pyramid Marriott Hotel. After a wonderful buffet lunch, we were treated to an hour of dancing by the Ballet En Fuego Latin Dance Review. 
Then it was back into the buses again for a trip to The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, owned and operated by the 19 Pueblo tribes of New Mexico. We spent two hours there watching live tribal dance performances, toured the museum and shopped items made by authentic pueblo Indians.
A book that was just published in September titled Code Talker was on sale at the Pueblo Center Gift Shop. During WWII, the Japanese had managed to crack every code that the United States used. But when the Marines turned to its Navajo recruits to develop and implement a secret military language, the created the only unbroken code in modern warfare – and helped assure victory for the US over Japan in the South Pacific. Chester Nez is the only surviving member of the original twenty-nine Code Talkers, and this book is his story. Authored by Chester Nez with Judith Schiess Avile, they were both there and both autographed my copy of the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment