Now she is home, napping, preparing to play with her toys and chase the dogs around.. or vice versa.
The house is .. BORING!!!!!
Now we have to wait for a few months before we can go out to California and visit. We will miss Christmas with her.. but we had a mini Christmas just for her after Thanksgiving and her birthday also but it cant be helped. Luckily technology allows us to see her every day or visit with her via video chat.
Still not as good as the real hugs.
Oh well...
Also during that time we went out to see a balloon return to its owner and him and his son fly it again after a long time away. Balloons name is I Dont Know... which leads to all sorts of Abbott and Costello comments.
Its a nicely maintained Aerostar with a center pull parachute top and scoop. It has a lay down 20 and a stand up 15 gallon propane tanks. Makes for some interesting standing positions. She looked to fly very nicely and I had a 360 video camera on her for the flight.
Below you will see some clips from the cam in 360 mode. I have not stripped it to pano or split pano yet. I will be doing that right after I finish this blog post.
Check these out.
Checking the 360 down position prior to launch. It was very cold.
Off they go. Almost missed it as I was shooting other balloons while waiting. Boom.. they were airborne.
Mo checking something out .. probably the crown and the red lines.
Into a local arroyo followed closely by the dead cat or 8Down1ToGo...and more as it was a follow the leader kind of day.
Father Son meet up before switching out. The only way to be in an arroyo..
Up and over Unser heading East with the air flow down the arroyo. Just above it was moving at about 8 mph South and higher it was going West from East.
Splitting the lanes at 50 feet and ascending.
Higher still to get that Southerly wind.
Coming low again over Unser, South of Paradise and a wave off of a landing.
Now its someone elses turn to fly and ground track. Hard thing to do in a HAB... stay level with the ground just above it and not hit it.
Checking for where the hand is going when reaching up to burn. Smart!
Switching again for a quick landing over big rock piles.. no mistakes would be good here.
But a text book landing and a nice re-inflation to stand up after.... taxi to the right and call it a day.
Down and resting. Envelope smells good, basket is in good shape.. impressive.
That was Thanksgiving morning.
There was supposed to be a flight Friday afternoon but the winds were iffy so it was called off though some did fly and did have fun doing it. I dont much care for the iffy nature of afternoon flights. But you could say mornings are as bad.
Here are a few standard shots of the day...
Let me state here that the day was bleak. no light and washed out color. I had to adjust these to see anything.
Lovely fan design viewed from the crown.
Getting it hot and ready to launch. Zone 5 burners.
Lining up for whatever fun could be had.
Follow how my hand is... go this way then go that way... Ha ha ha. Look closely at the picture.
Sandias in the background look like the Smokies.
Not too hard of a pack up though she didn't want to go back in her bag after.
A fun day.
Saturday Mo flew but I didn't go out as I was going to be going out Sunday to shoot another balloon only for that to fall apart due to high winds.. so it was called off at the field and I got to go home without any shots.
Some outtake shots.....
An edit for Thanksgiving of the morning sky. Sweet colors and clouds but too much junk in the air to get a clean shot.
Catz Eyez.
A colorful view on a dark morning.
Trading out passengers is good. Blocking the sidewalk..... who cares.. no one was walking there but us.. too darn cold.
Keep that Cat away from the volcano!!! Or at least Mike. Bird beauty mark.
The raven that came flying past.. he was farther off and I had to track and shoot like mad. I had the focus set wrong.
Diamond Weave fabric is strong. Look at that pattern!!!
I am still gathering up ballooning etiquette comments for the blog when I have lots of them. I have received many so far and they will all be posted anonymously when I do... so think about it.
Time to close this up and get ready for tomorrow.
Red Rock Balloon Rally is this Friday the 30th of November and then Sat the 1st and Sun the 2nd of December in Gallup!!! Its going to be interesting!!!
