We went back to the field on Thursday morning. Some more of Clayton’s friends came down from Denver, so I had a chance to get more pictures of the prep.
First, toasting a successful Fiesta and a good friendship with some good old Colorado beer.
Assembling the basket components.
Stretching out the balloon.
It’s a powerful fan, the balloon fills quickly. There are all kinds of flaps that can be manipulated with ropes, that is how Clayton controls assent or descent.
Moments before liftoff.
And they are off, now it’s time to look around. Thursday was shape day, I only saw a few of the shape balloons. Becky got some great pictures so I’ll wait to see them.
Then the chase started, we all piled into the truck and followed the balloon. Jared was in touch via walkie-talkie, we also kept eye contact. There was Doppelganger – another balloon very similar to Finish Line. The weather was perfect, they were up in the air almost 1.5 hours and they ended up at the very far reaches of one of the outlining suburbs. The Albuquerque region is much larger than I expected.
Starting to come down in this field, none of us wanted him to land there, too much brush and who knows rattlesnakes. I missed it but some of the guys saw a jackrabbit the size of a coyote.
So although he did touch down briefly and very smoothly, he got enough lift so we could walk him a quarter of a mile down to a nice grassy area.
I took a few pictures, then I joined in walking the balloon, Clayton made sure to keep it afloat, so no dragging on the ground.
This wasn’t easy, maneuvering down a slope.
On the ground, now it was necessary to hold on to the basket so it didn’t lift off again.
Jared grabbed the rope and is pulling the balloon to the ground. They got a sponsor this year, a Boot store, I hardly saw the sign, it was small compared to the whole balloon.
Deflating.
Deflating, rolling up the balloon and stuffing it in the bag takes a lot less time when you have a large crew.
We were awarded tank tops, courtesy of Clayton, then we sat back and enjoyed a nice tailgate party out on the field with other balloonists.
Great experience, I need to make sure there are no conflicts, so Joel can have this fun experience as well.
Leah