even more puzzling...

 

This is a picture of the jugsaw puzzle my wonder spouse and I are currently working on.  It is being a beastly puzzle, but we're making progress.  While the puzzle is being very difficult, I do love the picture.  It reminds me of the International Balloon Fiesta that a friend and I attended in Albuquerque, New Mexico several years ago.  We did not go on any balloon rides at that event (too expensive) although I have been on two rides since then.  They are amazing.  

We were at the site early on the day of the festival and were able to walk among the balloons and talk to the participants as they were inflating their beautiful balloons.  When it was still pretty dark, about a half hour before dawn, they had the GLOW!  While they were all still on the ground, every balloon flared it's fire, so every balloon glowed from within.  An amazing sight.  There were at least a hundred balloons there.

What we learned in conversation (my girlfriend will talk to anyone) and I found very interesting was the reason for the festival being in this location.  In this particular spot the wind blows two ways.  You really can't steer a balloon but buy rising to a certain level the balloonist could catch the wind going one way, then after traveling for some distance, he could let the balloon go higher and catch the wind blowing in the opposite direction, allowing the pilot to land on the same field where he took off,  According to the people we talked to, this is one of the very rare places in the world where this phenomenon occurs.  Maybe the only place. I really don't remember. 

I do know that when my spouse and I took our balloon ride in Egypt, we were picked up after the 45 minute flight at a spot quite a distance from our take-off site.

I have experienced two hot air balloon flights, one in Australia and one in Egypt, so I've flown over pyramids and kangaroos.  It is an excellent experience, lots of fun and not at all scary.  I highly recommend it.  Now back to that puzzle.