A Comedy of Errors

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2006-09-04
pretty colors in the sky

02:46

I never talked about last weekend, when i worked the 2006 Houston BallunarFest. The balloon events were Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings and Friday and Saturday evenings. I was with a different balloon team than last year, and actually it was a father/son deal, so there were really two balloons that I helped out with. I had such a great time! I love being around the balloons and helping out. This year, I even drove the chase vehicle once. It was awesome! I'll definitely be doing this every year that I'm in town.

I've done this two years, and both years I was given a short (but awesome) ride. This year, when I was in the balloon, I think that Sarah took a picture of us; my balloon is the yellow one, front and center. That day, the ground breeze was really strong and I knew we were in a bit of trouble when the pilot remarked, a few feet off the ground, "We're accelerating." This is NOT good for landing, as you might imagine. We both braced ourselves at the back of the tiny basket, but even so, the jarring of the basket as it repeatedly slammed into the ground just about shook us loose. We then flipped around and landed on our side and were dragged for ten yards or so before finally coming to rest not far from a drainage ditch; the balloon actually deflated into the ditch. This guy has been flying for thirty years, and said that that was one of the rougher landings he's had. Whew! It was crazy. But, once it was over and we weren't hurt and the balloon was fine, it was actually kinda...fun.

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