Alpine's Annual Big Bend Balloon Bash, 2004, Friday
Friday morning, my brother picked me up at Mom's house before dawn and we head to Alpine's airport for the start of the 2004 Alpine "Big Bend Balloon Bash". Opening ceremonies begin shortly after dawn. Now if this were the Super Bowl or the World Series, the National Anthem might be accompanied by a fly-over of a flight of F-18's or B-1's. But this is Alpine and they have their own way of doing things.
And there's something to be said about an ultra-light fly-over, you have time to salute "Old Glory", mounted above the wing.
Weather briefings were concluded before this so as soon as the opening ceremonies are over, the first balloons start to inflate.
That yellow balloon with the green, red and blue panels is SunKissed, a balloon I will become familiar with at the end of this flight.
In just a few minutes, SunKissed is on her way, high in the sky, and others begin their launch.
The rest follow, timing their launches to avoid collisions. That's Zoopendous in the foreground. A private balloon owned by Austin and Susan Young of Houston and piloted by Austin. In case you haven't guessed, they are also strong supporters of the Houston Zoo.
Two more balloons lift from the Alpine airport grounds. The launching phase is almost complete and it's almost time to start chasing.
The crowd marvels at the "fleet" of balloons heading East in the morning air.
This balloon out of Waco seems very appropriate for a West Texas festival.
The last balloons of the first day's launch are on their way.
I have to put the camera up at this point and "go to work". Since 99% of the land around Alpine is private ranches, there's a 99% chance that each balloon is going to land on private property. Our mission as radio volunteers is to follow the balloons, offer directions to the chase crews as needed and, when a balloon lands, keep the crews out of the pasture until we can call in and gain permission and entry instructions from the ranch owner.
Several of the balloons have found a landing area about three pastures deep into a rancher's property. We drive to the first gate and find a small fenced area full of calves. The rancher insists that we wait (and hold the chase crews there) until his hands can move the calves to another holding area. We can then lead the chase crews through this and the next pasture to retrieve their balloons. It took about 45 minutes to complete this process and we then led the chase crews to their balloons. Farthest up the trail (and farthest up the side of a canyon wall) was SunKissed, envelope still standing. With no place lay out the collapsed envelope that wouldn't be torn by cacti or other ominous features of a West Texas canyon, pilot Ann, crew-member and passenger Greg Stefanovic and a crew-member from a neighboring balloon had been struggling for almost an hour by that time to unsuccessfully "walk" SunKissed down to a flatter, smoother area. Brother Bill and I helped the rest of the crew get SunKissed down to a safer deflation area and while Bill went around, checking on the other balloons in the area, I stayed to help the crew pack up SunKissed.
Left-to-right, meet Greg Stefanovic, Paula Kennedy, Judy Huston and Dick Carter, SunKissed's crew for this flight. Ann had thrown out a "tether" line for others to help pull SunKissed to the safest landing spot possible. Lacking a smooth, flat surface to re-roll the line, the crew is standing with all palms face up to form a surface on which to wind the line. Once the craft was safely in her trailer, Ann thanked us for our help and invited me to join them the next morning for their flight (weather permitting).