Balloon or Bust!

15 Aug 10--Today is Fluffy's birthday if anyone wants to send their best wishes...she is 15 today, and doing well!

Yesterday, the 14th of August, was my and Cathy's 1 year anniversary of living full-time in the RV. A year ago yesterday we closed on the sale of the house, spent the next few days in New Braunfels, and then headed to New England with Christopher. We are amazed that a year has passed already.

So yesterday we thought we would celebrate "big time" by going on a hot air balloon ride. We got up at 4 AM to head out at 5 AM for a ride to Park City, UT where we were meeting the people conducting the ride. (The ride there was 1 1/4 hours.)



At about 6:30 AM we all packed into vans to take the ride to the launch site, about 30 of us in all, plus the pilots and owner of the company. We were surprised at how small the buckets we were all supposed to fit in were. They told us that 10 of us would be in each bucket, plus the pilot. We were checking it out here in these pics, and believe me when I tell you that we were skeptical at how we were all going to fit.

We had to get in and out of the van and move to different locations 3 times because the pilots didn't like the weather conditions. They didn't really share a lot of info with us, but at one point one of them said they weren't crazy about the wind patterns. We didn't realize there were any wind patterns, because although it was cold, we didn't even feel a breeze.

After a while one of our pilot's competitors decided to launch his 3 balloons, so our guy said he was going to see what happened with them and then make his decision. One of the 3 balloons got really high while the other 2 seemed to barely clear the tree tops, but that seemed to be enough for our pilot to get started.

We stood to the side while they prepared for launch, even commenting that maybe they shouldn't be dragging that balloon on the ground (which came into play shortly). Notice as they are hooking up the bucket how small the space inside looks. Cathy says that 2 slots will hold 3 people each while the other 2 corners hold 2 each and the pilot goes in the middle. Thank God Marie and I have lost weight, because at least a few months ago that would not have been an option!

The balloons are huge...Marie is in front of the one we were supposed to go into...right before they stopped the generators filling it up because it had a HOLE in it!!! So this was the end of trip. (Wouldn't you think they would have checked the balloon out before the event?) The owner said that we could schedule for another day, but other than that rather cavalierly loaded us back into the vans to take us back to where he originally picked us up. We were pretty disappointed, but rescheduled for tomorrow, so we are not giving up. Tune in again later...if we actually launch I will definitely post the pics tomorrow night.

With the balloon ride a bust, we decided to drive into Park City to tour the town a bit, but because it was still so early in the morning, maybe 8:30, almost nothing was open. They were having a car show there, so we took a few minutes to basically just go up and down the street looking at cars and window shopping.

So with nothing else to do, we headed to the Olympic Park where some of the 2002 winter events were held. They have a zip-line and bobsled rides here, and they have ski jumping and ski jumping classes/practices that you can watch for free. As luck would have it, they had something special going on this day so the show wasn't starting till 1 PM...it was still only about 10 AM...so we headed home, dejected.

After the day being a bust, we had a good time last night, riding out to Coalville, UT for their county fair and rodeo.

So many of the little kids were dressed like this, they were just adorable. And there were a ton of kids there. Everyone seemed to have at least 4 kids, and they were probably the best looking group of kids you ever saw. I guess the Mormons are overwhelming of European heritage, so they have the blondest, bluest-eyed kids you ever saw.

Marie introduced herself to a couple bulls on our way into the stands, and took this picture with the bulldozer for Jack.

Miss Congeniality let us take a picture with her, and Marie is just getting settled before the start of her 1st rodeo!!!

I said this when we were in Cody, WY, but if you have never been to a rodeo you would be surprised at how patriotic they are. They started with the Toby Keith song that was popular right after 9/11, (I forget the name of it) and then the National Anthem. As the flag goes around everyone stands, the men and boys take off their hats, and everyone places their hands/hats over their hearts. They do this without being told to, or reminded to. Then for the National Anthem, everyone sings every word of it out loud, not the least bit embarrassed that they can't hold a note (haha). Anyway, even if you think Toby Keith is a jerk, (which I do), listening to the songs and seeing the people's reactions is really moving, at least to me. So I love the beginning and end of rodeos the best.

Here is some bucking horse and bull riding. The bull riding is always the last at the rodeo, and probably everyone's favorite event. The are soooo big, I don't know what possesses anyone to get on them. We thought Emily, Kaleigh and Jack would really like seeing these.

This is Miss Summit County throwing out little rubber cows to the crowd...I got one so I put her picture up here. You just know she will remember this day for the rest of her life.