Today we woke up to a beautiful windless day. Beautiful blue skies and temperatures into
the 70’s. A far cry from what we had
been accustomed to. It was a great day
for the start of the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival. We were able to walk out onto the field among the
crews setting up their individual balloons.
There were many different shapes and sizes. The one that really caught our eye was the
Old Woman in a Shoe. It was about the
largest balloon in the festival and had a Ground Crew of about 20
individuals. Most of the balloons only
had a crew of 4 to 6. We were even able
to almost walk inside the different shaped balloons as they lay on their sides
while fans blew air to inflate them.
While they did not have a mass ascension like in Albuquerque, they did
have a several lift off at a time.
The nice thing about this festival is that there were many
different events to keep us occupied. We
watched a demonstration put on by the Sheriffs Canine unit. Their dogs are well trained and
expensive. Cost about $10,000 each. The dogs are trained in sniffing out drugs as
well as missing people. They are a one-person
dog and trained to attack anyone who makes an aggressive move towards their
handler. Would be a great dog to own but
the only one who can own a retired dog is the handler. There is way too much liability for giving or
selling the dog to anyone else. After
watching the Police dog demo went over and watched dogs in a Frisbee catching
demonstration. While that was fun, I
really think That Joe Risley’s dog, Emmy, a member of our caravan, would have
done a better job.
We also watched Sky Divers and a Biplane flyover. There were about 200 different vendors where
you could purchase the many different Trash and trinkets that are offered at
any festival of this type. They had a
large selection of food offered by the many different vendors from all over the
country. I had a Chicken Bar B Que sandwich. That was delicious.
After the days festivities Joe and Donna Risley hosted a
great social at their Motorhome. They
fixed Pizza and your choice of either Apple or Cherry pie prepared over their
campfire. Everyone went home tired and
ready to rest up for tomorrow’s activities.
Submitted by:
#16 Bill and Carole Sistek
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