Alpine's Annual Big Bend Balloon Bash, 2004, Saturday Morning
Saturday morning, Brother Bill, picks me up and out to the airport to join up with the SunKissed crew.
Pilot and SunKissed owner, Ann Kirby, and crew chief Dick Carter discuss conditions Saturday morning before deciding to fly. "It's a go" and Ann invites me to join as passenger on the flight. I decline to join the rest of the crew in launching, chasing and recovery duties. Dick joins Ann in the basket for this morning's flight.
I was too busy learning my "crew" duties to take many pictures. The above is the only good one; a pre-launch picture of Ballooniac preparing next to us. I didn't have time to snap any pix while trying to case SunKissed, but Bill got the following pictures while chasing us and the other balloons that fly this morning.
Bill is directed out to the East before launching is complete. He caught this "neato" picture of the balloons rising from the airport with the mountains to the West for a backdrop. That "horizon" is at least 12 miles away and no filters or color enhancement was used in providing this picture. The dark blue land behind the balloons preparing to launch is the area West of Alpine, still in the shadow of the surrounding mountians.
Ann, Dick and SunKissed have a short flight and descend for a landing in a new residential area on the East side of town.
SunKissed is down safely and the chase crew has the envelope laid out, ready to begin the pack up by the time Bill arrives.
SunKissed's envelope is "snaked" in to her storage bag by (left to right), an unidentified home owner in the area, Ann, Tom and Dick.
We are packed up and heading back for the airport when the Waco balloon comes in, low and fast, with Sol Ross and the Alpine mountains for a backdrop.
Back to my pictures. We follow the Waco balloon to her landing site and find several other balloons in the area, including Zoopendous. After helping several balloons that found the same "landing pasture" pack out to the nearest road, Zoopendous pilot, Austin Young pours champagne for the end-of-flight toast (there's a tradition here I'll tell you about some time.)
That's Paula and Judy of SunKissed, left foreground, and Susan Young of Zoopendous far right exchanging stories about the flight over the champagne.