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Memories are made at the Red Rock Balloon Rally

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Going up in a hot air balloon just once is an adventure for most of us. For Peter Procopio, it was just the start.

The first time he saw a hot air balloon drifting over Gallup – not long after he’d moved from New York in 1977 – he was transfixed. He followed it and met the pilot, Alan Wilson. Soon after, he ended up trading a construction job to converting Wilson’s carport into a garage for ballooning lessons from Wilson and his wife, Kaye.

The rest is history, and that 41-year history became the Red Rock Balloon Rally in 1981. The first event had just 25 balloons. Eventually that number swelled to 200, and now rallies draw about 150 participants each year. The Red Rock landscape has been a draw for pilots since the beginning.

“The highlight of this particular rally is being able to fly in the Red Rock canyons around here,” Procopio said. “The attraction for the pilots is to drop in and out of the canyons. We can retrieve balloons from the canyons all around the event.”

The mass ascensions, the most visual aspect of the rallies, are sure to wow observers on the ground every time, but those folks seldom see the unexpected events that balloonists experience.

The early chill this year brings memories of the 1992 rally that got snowed in. One might think that was a “worst” rally memory, but “that turned into a great weekend,” Procopio explained.

“We had about 200 balloons come to Gallup and then it began snowing the day of the arrival and it didn’t stop snowing for three days. The whole town was shut down. All the balloonists were stranded here and people made the best of it,” Procopio said.

Procopio remembered that a lot of balloonists spent their time that year making snowmen out on the yard of the El Rancho Hotel, where a lot of them were staying. He said that when the sky did finally clear up, about 20 people were able to go out to Red Rock Park and fly their balloons, although they didn’t get very far.

“[Recovering] your balloon in two feet of snow is difficult, but they had a ball,” Procopio said.

Procopio recalled a rally in the late 1990s in which a balloonist inadvertently dropped in on a Navajo coming-of-age ceremony and became part of the party.

“At first they thought maybe they had done a bad thing, but the people came over and they were thrilled, because this balloon had a big [sun face] kachina on the side of the balloon,” Procopio explained. “They took it as a sign of good luck. Their crew all participated in the celebration with the Navajo family. That was one of the most special things that I’ve heard of.”

During some of the early years the rally featured an event that saw balloonists competing to collect bundles of weighted helium balloons deposited in various places for them to find. One year a bundle drifted down the rocks and a spectator went down after it.

“One of the balloon bunches landed on the sloping side of the red rocks. A spectator thought they would slide down and get the balloons and they did, but they didn’t think about how they would get back up,” Procopio said.

The spectator was stranded, until a pilot saw them and maneuvered over toward them and was able to get them into their basket.

“It saved their life maybe and avoided a search and rescue operation,” Procopio said. “The pilot not only saved their bacon, but also got a bunch of balloons.”

That was the last year of the competition aspect of the rally.

Procopio said that  those kinds of stories are often told at the post-flight tailgates.

He added the rally is a chance for people from all over the world to see and experience Gallup.

“We have people from all over the country that come to this event, from as far away as Pennsylvania. We had one from England,” Procopio said. “In addition to the flying, what the people come here for is the hospitality. Gallup is a very friendly place.”

By Holly J. Wagner
Sun Correspondent