Apparently, there is a hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque. I was not aware of this, but Joe knew about it. This puzzle is from 1993 though, so perhaps it’s no longer an event.
Well, I just looked it up, it is indeed still going strong. Every October, the city hosts a hot air balloon festival from their 78 acre park, the Balloon Fiesta launch field. That’s the equivalent to 54 Football fields!
Apparently in October, Albuquerque experiences mild weather and a weather phenomenon known as the “Albuquerque Box” which is a set of predictable wind patterns that allows balloon operators to land fairly close to their launch sites. I also looked up other festivals and there is one in New Brunswick, not too too far away from us.
Can you believe that I’ve, to this date, never done a hot air balloon puzzle before? I was at a yard sale a few month ago saw this one, and realized that I hadn’t ever puzzled a hot air balloon puzzle. Now, puzzlers out there, are no doubt in the know that there are A LOT of photo puzzles with balloons on them out there.
I really loved that this was panoramic, more of a landscape photo and so zoomed out to show the popularity of this festival. I also noticed that this was a Buffalo Games puzzle from 1993 so that was also a draw for me.
This was actually pretty fun to do too! There’s text, a slight gradient sky section and a whole bunch of small little objects to pair up too. Well worth the three dollars I paid for it 🙂
A handsome boy on a handsome puzzle.
750 pieces and complete.
thepuzzlesivedone 