Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Starting to get ready

We spent the rest of today putting the balloon system together. Tomorrow we'll wire up the van and perhaps make a practice flight.




And by popular demand... Maury and Danielle ("Elle") Petrehn

Got it

We just picked up our balloon from air cargo in Vienna. The pallet weighed 800 pounds. No issues at all - everything got through customs without a hitch. I know for certain that Al Nels, Joe Zvada, Johnny Petrehn, Joe Heartsill, and Nick Donner have their equipment as well. Sandy and Jeff Barlett (helping Joe Zvada) just arrived too.

Our house

Today we're picking up the balloon from air cargo and sightseeing in Vienna. I'm posting this update from the airport, so we still haven't figured out how to get online down in Horkirchen. We'll come up with something, as calling home from the cell phones we have here is very expensive (as is calling them from the US).

Because I'm posting this in the morning, I don't have a lot of exciting photos yet. So here's some non-exciting ones of the cottage we're staying at. The big pink building has 3 separate units in it. That's Andrew and Ashley Nels in the window; they're staying in the 7-bed place right next to us. Maury and Jen Petrehn will be in the 4-bed unit on the other side. Johnny is about 100' away, to the right of us (you can see his van in one of the panoramic photos). Andy Baird, Derrick Jones, and John Gibbons will be here as well. The view out our back window includes a lake, which is where another balloon was flying this morning.