Geezsh...Im finally here and writing!

Here I am. Period. Right here on the computer. Right now...Here I am.

I'm not even sure where to begin-LOL...

Let me start with this past weekend where we picked up the kids from their field trip where they went to the Long Beach Aquarium. They were supposed to get back around 5:00pm, but around noon, I received a call that the one bus had been hit in the rear by a car, but that everyone was okay. I was in the middle of 6th period and almost lost it. (It was T's bus, Cope was on the 2nd bus) So we waited till about 6:00 when they showed up, all smiles. They didn't say anything about the crash, so that was a good sign. Otherwise T would have talked about it non-stop right away. At this point we had the truck loaded with the balloon, and pulling the rented motor home for the balloon camping weekend out in the Carrizo Plains- 55 miles East of San Luis Obispo.
We had an ABSOLUTLY WONDERFUL weekend even though it took 5 hours to get up there, and we got into bed around 12:30 am, only to get up and to the pilots briefing at 6:30am. Ugh.
Both Saturday and Sunday were FANTASTIC- and I think I owe it all to 3 VERY IMPORTANT THINGS....

1. Walls
2. Heater with automatic thermostat! Who invented this?
3. real pooper and shower!
4. a fridge! and a big one!
5. kitchen table to eat at
6. did I mention an automatic heater?
7. a real bed to sleep on with comfy blankets
8. an automatic heater

I know what you are saying....it is more than 3 things, but all of the above made the weekend so fantastic! I'm going to stop yakking, and post some pics.



Jeff ready to fly 'solo'. He flew just about an hour and 30 minutes Sat.










This is just a few of the 26 balloons from Northern Cal and Southern Cal that flew Saturday morning









Jeff's video where I challenge him to a series of "hops" for money...

This is how ALL AWESOME bonfires should be lit! (Video courtesy of Orval Choate)
It is lit by using the 'burner' from a balloon (hopper, I believe) and propane.