Wakefield, NE

Unfortunately, this is the last balloon rally of the year. Mother nature was less than accommodating throughout the weekend, only allowing us to fly Friday night and perform a field of fire on Saturday night. I was busy flying Friday night, so I didn't get any pictures. However, my passenger from the local newspaper took a few photos. I also was interviewed by one of the Sioux City TV stations on Sunday morning. Check out the interview here. I had a hard time organizing my thoughts by then because I was so tired. ;-)

Overall, it was a great small town balloon event with a GREAT community, I just wish the winds would have lightened up some to allow us to fly more.

View looking back towards town and the balloon field Friday night.

Help squeeze the air out of that kids!

Getting ready for the field of fire.

Field of fire. Notice the drift of the flame.

Entertainment at the bar Saturday night. He performed for over six hours.


This is what happens when you have a rough landing.

Did I mention the drinks were flowing?

Special Shapes Rodeo

This morning winds were expected to come up, so some pilots elected not to fly. We stayed on the field to watch the special shapes launch, and then quickly found our way to a spot to launch to fly in for the key grab. The winds switch so Rich scraped up the east side of the field and landed in the gravel pit.

The weather looks bad the next few days, so we are planning on getting an early start on the trip back home tomorrow.

Special Shapes Glodeo

We went to the special shapes glodeo tonight. The winds picked up towards the end of the glow, bringing an abrupt end to the event.

Sandia Peak

We spent the daytime hours today touring Sandia Peak.

Thursday-Albuquerque

Special shapes Rodeo is today and tomorrow, so everyone except for the special shapes and the ride balloons launch out of the ravel pit. For the first time of the event we had a box, though there was a slight westward drift with each pass.

Short on time again today as we are headed to the tram. Will try to write more tonight after the Special Shapes Glow.

Fiesta continues!

Had another nice flight again this morning. Flew from north to south and landed in the Office Max parking lot with a few other balloons. Unfortunately, one of the balloons got a little cold and ended up burning several panels while waiting for his crew. A few Red Bull girls chased us down at the landing site, and gave us all free samples of Red Bull. Rich was in the first wave, so again don't have a lot of balloon pictures. While Rich and Mike were in propane, I met really nice mounted officer riding around the balloon field named Deirdre.

Short on time as we are headed to the zoo party, will write more later.

Dawn Patrol.

Mass Ascension with three targets south of the field.

View looking north towards the balloon field.

The crew with the Red Bull girls.

The stork.

Deirdre and Banjo.

Deirdre, Banjo and me

Day of Highs contines...

After a cool yet high flying morning, we set out to visit Tinker Town and conquer the Sandia Peak. Tinker Town was one man's self created collection of Americana. They had a boat that had sailed around the world (it took 10 years to do it), lots of old time circus paraphenlia, and lots of active displays. While at Tinker Town, we were buzzed by a gas balloon traveling back to the north at around 10,000 feet agl. The balloons should be headed north into the central plains over the next 24 hours. To follow the latest location of the balloons, click here.

From Tinker Town, we climbed to the top of Sandia Peak. This is the top of the mountain that overlooks Albuquerque. At that elevation, the temperature was a balmy 41 degrees F.

One of the many bottles in the walls at Tinker Town.

Glass bottle walls.

Thoughts to live by from Tinker Town.

Gas balloon as viewed from Tinker Town.

Mike, Rich and I at the top of Sandia Peak. Toward the top of the picture, you can see a gas balloon flying by.

Here is a picture of the snow at 10,400 feet. As you can see, I was dressed appropriately. ;-)