Getting Ready

We are getting ready for our big trip. The day before we left we were going to take Finnegan to the groomer for a little hygiene cut just to make sure there were no accidents while we were on the road. We quietly took out the kitties carrier---turned around to pick up Finnegan to put him in and BENTLEY was already in and waiting. He knew we were getting ready to go somewhere and he didn't care where---as long as he was going. What a cat.

 

 As we packed the motor home Bentley ran door to door and window to window. He meant we were NOT leaving without him. Here he is in the foyer guarding the door.

 

Since we were going to be staying in some of the campgrounds for several days we ordered the kitties a little playpen so that they could sit outside with us. I set it up in the living room to check it out. Guess who was the first to approve?

I then took it out on the deck and put all 3 kitties in and they had a good time watching the birdies. Hopefully it will work as well in the campgrounds.

Home Again 2

Just a couple more pictures of the kitties. Bentley does enjoy laying in the bed too. He often will get under the pillows to sleep.

This is Nicholas favorite place to ride---in David's lap. His favorite place to hide is the top of David's closet. He used to be able to jump up there, but now that he is so fat he will sit and meow at us and look up at the closet until we pick him up and put him there. Just a little spoiled.

Home Again

Well, we are back home again and it is hard to say who had the most relaxing vacation.

Finnegan normally gets car sick, at least the first day in the motor home and usually likes to sit with me holding him a good portion of the trip. On the way out he was pretty much a big baby and wanted to be held. On the way home he was much better and claimed his favorite chair, sleeping most of the way.

What can you say about Bentley? He is usually relaxed no matter what. His favorite place is the sofa. He did change positions a few times, just to get his exercise.

This is Finnegan with his FINNY FACE on.

Jonathan who had a serious bout with kidney failure seems to do very well. He is eating and drinking and has gained back some weight. His favorite place was in the window or with Bentley on the sofa.

David and Finnegan look pretty relaxed here. It's a toss up as to who had the best "cat nap".

Up, Up & Away Part 4

The happy newly engaged couple.

The field that we landed in was on an Amish family farm. The pilot laughed as we were coming down that the Amish woman was headed to the out house and looked up and saw this large balloon coming over her barn. We think it was an outside phone booth, not an out house. Once we landed the husband (who was in the process of milking the cows), wife and 6 kids came out to meet us and talk to us. They were all so nice and asked where we were from. We would have loved to take a picture of the family by the balloon, but that is a No NO for the Amish.

The video shows the balloon on the ground. The chase team met us there and brought the truck. They folded the balloon up, stuffed it in a bad, loaded the basket in the truck and off we went back to the launch site for orange juice and champagne.

Up, Up & Away Part 3

There were 10 passengers in the balloon and during the flight we flew over a banner on the ground with a lot of people cheering. We wondered what was going on with all the cheering. As we passed over the banner it read "JOELLIE, WILL YOU MARRY ME?" One of the couples on the flight became engaged. How they were able to get that banner right in our path is a miracle since we had no idea where we were headed.

The flight lasted only an hour and it was over too soon. As the pilot looked for a safe place to land the winds picked up and he told us we would have a exciting landing. We weren't sure what he meant by that. I must say I never gave any thought to the landing part of this whole thing. He said the second rule of ballooning was "If it's brown, don't come down". When they cut down the crops they plow it and fertilize it and it's then brown. The pilot looks for an empty field where he can land the basket and large enough for the balloon. Landing in a corn field is not a good idea.

Prior to landing he warned us it would be a rough landing due to the winds. We were to go back into our take off position--crouching down in the bottom of the basket with feet braced, leaning against the middle bar away from the way we were headed and holding on to the straps. I must say it WAS a rough landing. We bounced along the ground 3 to 4 times before resting on our backs (or the basket side). We were told not to get out until he said to in case the balloon had not completely deflated and it tried to take off with us again (since nothing was holding it down on the ground). Once on the ground we were able to get out. WHAT A RIDE!

Up, Up & Away Part 2

This is the second balloon taking off after we have left.







I took several videos, but most of them were too large to post on Blogger. I'll post as many as I can.

The landscape in this area of the country could not have been been for ballooning. We were so glad we ended up going in the early morning even though we had to get up at 4:30AM and call the balloon service to see if it would actually launch. The morning was much cooler except for the heat coming out of the propane heaters that kept the balloon up. It was so quiet and beautiful as we floated across the fields of corn, Amish farms and roads ways, We traveled about 18 miles SE from Bird in Hand, Paradise and Strasberg.

Since I'm not sure how much memory I can upload at one time, I'm going to do this blog post in sections.

Up, Up & Away Part 1

We were scheduled for a hot air balloon ride on Monday night at 6PM. When we arrived the crew had not yet shown as they were dragging their feet due to the high winds. A storm was anticipated later at night, but the pilot thought the winds would die down enough for us to take off. They didn't and so our flight was cancelled and rescheduled for 6AM the next morning.

We arrived at 5:45 AM to find the balloon "Mother Ship" half inflated.

They filled it by blowing air into it with gas powered fans and then turned on the propane heaters as the ground crew held it on the ground.

There were 10 of us in the basket with the pilot. The basket was placed on it's side and we had to climb in, lay on our backs, crouch down towards the bottom of the basket, hold on to the straps as they released the balloon. As the did the basket went upright and we were off.

It was so quiet and smooth, you would never guess we were moving or actually got up to 2500 feet. There was no sensation of moving or heights. You could hear the cows mooing, dogs barking and see people waving. It was much more fun than I had thought and not at all scary.

This was the parking lot at take off.