Helping get the balloon ready, then it's up, up and away...

While I was posting pictures, something got stuck and I had to get off the internet, thinking I was going to lose the pictures I wanted to post, but, when I just got back on, there they were on the blog, so that was good.

Some fellow Boomer friends, Steve & Pam Ritchie, found a balloon to crew, so they were helping get it ready, then, Steve got to take a ride in it.

The bottom picture they are using the fan, you can click on the picture to make it bigger so you to see it better

What's interesting for me was the way they got the balloon inflated in the first place. They have giant fans to blow into the balloon to start and then after it's inflated to a certain point, they point the propane igniters, I guess you'd say, into the balloon to finish the job. I don't know what the proper terminology is for what they use to propel the balloon upward, but, you will see what I'm talking about in the pictures. When I saw what they were using to inflate the balloon in the latter stages, I was thinking they had to be pretty careful where they were aiming it at, otherwise, the balloons would catch fire...hmm..wonder if that has ever happened?

Laying out the balloons

I also forgot to mention that we were able to attend the Yuma Balloon Festival that was held the weekend before Thanksgiving. We haven't been to the one in Albuquerque yet, so we have nothing to compare it to. We thought it was great seeing all the balloons inflate together and go up one by one, we'll probably be overwhelmed when we finally get around to going to the big one in Albuquerque.

We always eat well at our get togethers!