I’m still not over the need to see hot-air balloons. Back on November 9th, I explained why I would be taking my time, rather than cruising through my pictures from the 2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.  For now,  each of these photos puts a smile on my face when I see it. I hope they are continuing to have the same effect on you. Consider that my sharing these with you is an act of kindness: because smiling feels good, and I swear, these can make you smile.

Little Dog wears overalls and a hat in complimentary blue and orange colors.

Every special shaped hot air balloon gets named. In this frame, there are four of them, all partially visible in some form or another.In the left-hand foreground is a slice of Uncle Sam; on the right-hand foreground with her head back is Chic-I-Boom; the blue pointed shape, which will be shown full frontal in a forthcoming post, is named Dexter. The star of this frame, is of course, in the middle: Little Dog.

Since there is no item to offer scale in this shot, keep in mind that the character in the background probably stands 100 feet tall. It’s at least twice as long as the moving van I drove across the country, and that was 54 feet long.