Saturday, April 25, 2009

Rise Above It All

042509: I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, not to mention there's something wrong with my camera and I've got to get it fixed. So my solution to both problems right now is to post a photo from days past at Topaz Lake. Besides the last few days at Topaz have been a combination of rain, wind and clouds. Not that any of them aren't beautiful....I just don't want to go outside!
I have been asked numerous times how I took this picture.... "Plane?" No, it was a hot air balloon. In fact a partial shadow of the balloon can be seen in the upper right of the photo. We are lucky to have a good friend, Gary Peterson, who owns a hot air balloon and occasionally will bring it down to the Park (in the wee hours of the morning!!!) to give rides to our customers (many of his friends, too.) The balloon is tethered to a boat - and it goes way up, floats down and from another boat the riders transfer in & out. On this day, due to the lake level being so high, we used the Marina's big parking lot to inflate/deflate the balloon and once air borne we were towed over towards the Park. Gary then sent the balloon high so I could get some photos! I think we got in about 6 rides that day before we had to pack up. The morning was so hot that Gary said he thought he was going to run out of propane keeping the balloon afloat going back to the Marina.
In 1983, the first year hot air balloons ascended from the Park (there were three that year), I was lucky enough to be a first rider. We had a wild ride over the West hills and landed up on Monitor Pass. I'll find the photos I took then and post them another time. It was after that morning that subsequent balloon rides were tethered to keep them over the lake.

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