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2005-08-29
happy teeth

14:55

Friday was a long, 17-hour day - what with ballooning in the morning and evening, work squeezed in between (who says that I don't have my priorities straight) and then drinks w/the crew afterwards. Whew! Dogs weren't very happy with us, but no accidents so all is well. Saturday, back up at o-dark-thirty and more ballooning with a landing in the middle of a suburban street. The family whose yard we stretched the balloon out on, after seeking their permission, of course, was very interested in the whole proceeding and the mother kept exclaiming over and over again how cool and exciting this was - she had run around and woken up the family when she realized what was going on - and the little girl even helped us stuff it in the bag so she could say that she helped. We took some pictures, shared sparkling cider/champagne (Sarah and the rider that morning, Beverly, had to go through the ceremony that I did on Friday), and traded information to send them pictures.

It was really quite a to-do, landing in the street! Coming down, we had to stop traffic so that the balloon could land, and then we hurried to get it all cleaned up and instead of going when all was clear, most of the cars just sat and watched us pack up.

Saturday night was probably the most stressful setup - we started in the lot where I park everyday for work, along with quite a few other baloons, and it was something to see an everyday, unchanging sight so suddenly transformed. The wind shifted rather drastically before we finished filling it (although we knew, theoretically, why to always fill the balloon with the wind, that time we had a physical demonstration), so we hurridly packed the balloon into the basket, the basket into the truck, and drove around the corner. There, we set up very quickly, so quickly that Sue and I didn't even get all of the velcro in the top together. The balloon started oscillating due to the wind, coming dangerously close to a barbed wire fence. Fortunately, between Becca and I on the crown line (the line at the top of the balloon used to help keep it steady when filling it up), we managed to avoid the fence. That would have been disasterous. Also, when Dan finally lit the burners to lift the balloon up, he didn't quite keep up with the oscillating and ended up burning a bit of the mouth, but not much. As Sue said, there are two kinds of pilots - those that will burn, and those that have. Being as close to the balloons as we were, it was easy to see the burn/scorch marks, holes and repaired panels that dotted the mouths of most.

Sunday, it was back up and at Space Center Houston for the final flight, but there had been a storm the night before which had created havoc with the tents and chairs set-up for the Ballunar Fest, knocking some all the way into the streets, mangling others, yet leaving a few standing as if nothing had happened at all. It was decided to cancel the whole thing, including the flight, so arond 7:30, we headed home, and Dan and Sue started their drive back to Mississipi. They live close to New Orleans, only about 20 miles north, I think, so literally driving into Hurricane Katrina. Hopefully, they made it okay and were able to batten down the hatches for the approaching storm. They gave us t-shirts, and said that they'd be happy to have us be part of the Happy Teeth chase crew again next year. I certainly plan on it! I can easily see how people get hooked on this sport; I think that I might actually gasp! like it better than flying an airplane.

Such a crazy weekend! And now it's back to work.

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