It is great to have friends with interesting hobbies. I’ve known Clayton for years, and he has always said, come ballooning. So finally this year we made arrangements to go to Albuquerque. Unfortunately, Joel realized he had a very important engagement here in town, so I went with my friend Becky instead.
Clayton is in the green and his wonderful partner Jared, who I just met this week is in the red. I think you can figure out which one is Becky.
Up at 4:30 in the morning, going out to the field and preparing the balloon for flight. It was freezing, standing around till almost 7 am, frost on the ground, I’m not built for that kind of cold.
You better believe I stood close by when Clayton tested the propane.
The balloon itself, named Finish Line, is laid out, ready to fill.
First a fan is used to fill as much air in as possible.
Jared is holding the line attached to the top, stretching it out so the balloon fills evenly. No way can one do this hobby alone, it takes a number of people.
Once it’s pretty full, Clayton turns on the heat.
Those flames are hot.
Into the basket we go, a quick picture before liftoff.
Then, we glide up into the air.
Looking back at other balloons who are preparing for their own ascent. 
The view from the air is incredible.
It was a little too windy, so not many balloons made it up. They aborted the lift-off for many balloons. I didn’t notice how strong the winds were until it became apparent that we were over the city, rather than out into open space.
We landed twice, hard. Clayton is an excellent pilot, he knew we had to get down quickly when it’s windy, it’s hard to get a smooth landing, so down we went into a newly plowed field. Just to have someone run out yelling that we can’t land here. We had landed, bounced and the basket tipped over. So we straightened up, calmed the guy down and back up we went, just another few blocks to an empty lot and once again, hard bouncing landing. People immediately ran to help. Most people in Albuquerque love the balloons.
I didn’t get any pictures of the landing, I was busy getting bounced around, but you can see, trying to land in a city isn’t easy.
Two more balloons landing right next to us.
The Albuquerque balloon had their chase crew at the ready, about 4 guys grabbed the tether and pulled the balloon down gently. Unlike our basket, can you see it toppled over practically on that log? Luckily we were dumped out before the log then it got dragged further. No damage to us, basket or the balloon.
Wrapping up and getting ready to pack everything up.
This is long enough for one post, more balloons soon.
Leah
GREAT photos!!