Day 18 - Lake Havasu - Balloon Festival - Day 4

Today was our 5^th day in Lake Havasu City and the final day of the Balloon Festival.  Some of us were up bright and early to see the balloons lift off.

It was great fun to have balloons landing in close proximity to our rigs again today.

Several members of our group said that they felt this balloon festival was more enjoyable than the one in Albuquerque.   The one in Albuquerque is so large; it is hard to get up close and personal with the balloons and their pilots and owners.  Jim and Claudia Miller spent some time talking with the owner and pilot of one of the Panda Balloons.  They learned that a regular balloon costs in the neighborhood of $30-50 thousand and a special shaped balloon costs $100,000 up.  The balloons must be inspected after each 100 hours of flight time and the pilot must have a pilot’s license.  If they want to carry passengers, they must have a commercial pilot’s license.

Wagonmaster John drank his first birch beer today!  John Huettemann kept telling him that he needed to try one and today seemed like a good day for it.  John (Mincks) said that it was very tasty but it needed some vanilla ice cream to make it complete.

The three Adventurers that were dry camping in the overflow area were able to move into full hookup sites today.  Stuart and Beverly Blythe are now enjoying the view from their lake front site; in fact they invited us to join them for our evening social.

Our Wagonmasters made a special presentation to Joe and Donna Risley for volunteering to host our evening socials during the past 4 evenings.  Also to Stuart and Beverly Blythe for being so gracious in volunteering to dry camp in the overflow area for the 4 nights.

Tomorrow we will explore the London Bridge and associated English style village.

Submitted by:

#1 John and Sally Mincks