September 24, 2006, a day that, if it wasn't mentioned in this journal,
would otherwise be quickly forgotten, I suppose. Not much happend today but at
least they are playing some great blues on the radio!
It is, however the second full day of fall. Hopefully the fall will be more
active than the last few races I have attended.
Most rtecently was Creston, the final event of the yeear for our crew.
Billy, you know, the brother in law once removed by divorce, and his sweetie and
her two kids joined me from north of KC for a weekend of exciting
ballooning...NOT.
Never even got our balloons out of the trailer what with 14 gusting to 40
all weekend and tornado warnings a couple of counties away. We did have a great
parade though! My sponsor, Wayne and Michelle from RE Lewis refrigeration had
invited the staff from the DeBuke office to come out for the same exciting
ballooning but since they had nothing better to do they brought about 60 pounds
of candy, walked along with the trailer they had decorated and threw it at the
kids and old ladies in wheel chairs that lined the streets. They made the parade
a lot more fun!
And they ran out of candy.
Then after the parade Wayne invited us all out to the house for a steak and
shrimp BBQ. Even though we never flew I had a blast anyway!
Brookfield was disapointing as far as competition races goes but it too was
quite fun otherwise. We had a new sponsor this year. MyLittlePopMachine .com.
Bruce has been a sponsor for the race as well as helps with other things to do
with the race for several years. His son Ben also sponsors a balloon with Ben's
Chick's (Although after seeing the house I think Ben's Bunnies would be more
accurate) Thay also invited us out to see their new house which is in the
process of finishing construction. Way Cool!
As far as competition we had only one race on saturday morning and the
winds played tricks on us. Only the craftiest pilots had good marks on that one!
As well they should. We did have two non competition flights though and they
were both quite fun. I even got to take up a patriarch of Bruce's family that
was blind and 76? years old. How can a blind person enjoy a balloon ride? I have
no explanation but he did seem to be quite entertained! I felt honored to give
him the experience. Woulda felt even better if we had of gotten anywhere near
the target!
All in all it has been a good race year. Won at Eldon, got weathered out
every place else. Not ALL the flights but pretty much any compettion event was
cut to the bare minimum or non existant! of course that means that I tied for
first at Centrailia! We all did! Some years seem to be like that. We will just
have to increase our sacfifices to the weather gods this winter. I'll offer up
Gomer as a sacrifice. Think theyd take him?
Happy winter!
Herb