HOT AIR RISES

For the second straight day, if you just looked up in the air, instead of being in Lake Havasu City, AZ, you could easily imagine that you were in Albuquerque, N.M. during that cities huge, annual balloon festival. During the morning hours, there were hot air balloons everywhere. I took a few shots at the house, then jumped in the truck, and headed down to the island where they were still launching balloons up until about 9 am.

I know absolutely nothing about wind currents, except that when you're on the ground, wind tends to come from one particular direction. I guess that's not the case as you rise above the ground to different elevations. As I watched a few of the balloons, even though it was a very calm morning, some would be going in one direction, and others were going in the opposite direction, depending on their altitude. At first glance, you would think that once in the air, a large hot air balloon would be completely at the mercy of the wind. That's sort of the case, however, by changing altitudes, I watched a few balloons change directions, which allowed the pilot to have some control over their flight path.

On the way back to the house, as I drove by the high school, I noticed that one of the balloons had just landed in the school parking lot. Once laid flat, there's a lot of material that makes up one of these hot air balloons. Not sure if this balloon pilot intended on landing at the high school, or just took advantage of the large parking lot. Once this event if over, it will be interesting to learn where some of the more unique landing spots were located. I wonder if any of the balloons will land in any one's back yard?

This morning, were picking up Bob & Diana, then heading down to the island to take in some of the activities within the festival grounds. With everything that's listed on the program, there should be plenty to keep us busy for several hours.

We've decided to take off for Quartzsite tomorrow morning, instead of a few days later. That will give us about a week to be parked in the desert before we have to be back in Lake Havasu for an appointment a week from tomorrow. I always look forward to boondocking in the motor home at Quartzsite where we have a campfire every evening, and get back a little bit to camping like we used to when the kids were little.