Black Walnut Festival

A high pressure system camped out over the entire region for the weekend, promising great weather for hot air ballooning. Unfortunately, Jill and I were headed to Stockton, MO for the Walnut Festival (think Squash Festival in Doc Hollywood). The same weather was forecast for Stockton, so I just knew I'd be looking at the sky, wishing I could fly. As we were preparing to leave on Friday, I asked Jill what she thought about taking the balloon with us. She didn't hesitate to say we should do it.

Saturday morning would have been great, but we didn't have enough crew, so I waited until Saturday evening. Jill's sister Beth, who's birthday (I won't say which one) is approaching, was in line for her first balloon ride, so she was the passenger. We set up and launched in Julie's field, and had a terrific flight, landing west of Stockton. The flight path was a very straight line, but it was a nice flight, taking us over the Sac River.

Fortunately, a convenience store there offers propane at odd hours, so I was able to refuel Saturday evening, in time for a Sunday morning flight. We woke up to fog, but light winds, so I waited for the fog to burn off. 8:30 was a little late for Roger and Me to launch, but with the forecast, and the really light winds, I decided to go for it. We had nice "steerability" with a big right turn up high. We flew for almost an hour, the last 10 minutes hovering over the field we landed in, trying to work our way to the edge before finally setting down. The landowner was related to my passenger, so we knew which gate was unlocked, and we had an easy packup. I wish I had a GPS track to study from this flight, but my GPS was stubborn this morning, so no such luck!

My next big balloon weekend is two weeks away, when I travel to Columbus, Kansas for Columbus Days. I might get a flight or two between now and then if the weather and my schedule conspire to allow it!