Up at 5:30 to get over to the awesome folks at Rainbow Ryders. Our
pilot was Troy Bradley, holder of some amazing numbers of world
records, flying since he was 14, and his son, Bobby Bradley, now 11,
soloed for his balloon pilot's license two years ago.
We had a trainee/checkout pilot, whose name I don't remember, but who was awesome as well.
And with that we were aloft
All dirt lots in the Albuquerque area appear to have had someone cutting donuts in themWe had no seat cushions to use in the event of a water landingHoping to touch down in this parking lot, the chase van folks waiting for us
Instead, we had to go across the freeway, it was too tight to touchdown behind the CostCo. Big nice open area, but the barbed wire tipped fences were all locked up, no way to get the people or the balloon out.
At this point, Troy's mother-in-law showed up and offered to help, so she and the ground crew hooked up to her car and we carefully towed over the fence, and then deflated on the street, carefully avoiding hooking the balloon on the wire on either sidePacked it up and stashed it on the trailer.
