An Authentic Austrian Dinner

Do you remember Tacos in Tokyo from our 2006 trip? How about Tacos in Austria? Tonight we had a full Tex-Mex fiesta complete with beef tacos, chicken fajitas, chips and salsa.


There was even some Becky Nels butter cream frosting for dessert (left over from her brother's birthday cupcakes):


There's about a half-dozen of us over here that would normally be flying at the Midland, Michigan balloon festival this weekend. So a big overseas "Hello" to everyone there, we'll all be back next year!

This afternoon the rain moved in, and the weather got markedly colder. Tomorrow morning's practice flight has already been canceled, so next up is the master briefing and opening ceremonies tomorrow afternoon. Registration was today, a process that cost Paul almost $1000. Some of that was deposits on helium tanks and such, but for some reason they'd only accept cash, no credit cards. And just in case you thought that wasn't enough, lodging isn't provided either. The first competitive flight is Sunday morning, although at this point the weather is a big question mark. The high Sunday is supposed to be 50 degrees. In some respects that's okay, as it will save me from doing laundry for a little while (I'm about out of shorts). Larry Coan got in this afternoon, as did Joe Zvada, Steve Zvada, Luke Zvada, Andy Baird, John Gibbons, Derrick Jones, and Richard Sabin. We're just a couple people away from being 100%. We still have to drive 10 miles to get online - 4 of us are in the van right now in the dark sharing a really bad wireless connection at the briefing tent. We split the time between being incredibly frustrated and laughing. Maybe I'll take a picture of it someday.

Elle's First Flight

Photos from Danielle "Elle" Petrehn's first balloon flight:

(Photos courtesy of Maury and Jen Petrehn)

Another practice flight

Happy Birthday Dad!

Last night a storm blew through, but by 5:00am the skies were clear. This morning was another practice flight, this time with actual tasks. Apparently the winds are often light here, and that was certainly the case today. A few of the 40 or so balloons made it to the targets before they closed, but many (including Paul, Al, and Nick) were a little too late. Johnny got to the first one in time and had a decent drop.



Interesting bathroom observation of the day: ashtrays in the toilet paper dispensers.

Smoking is big over here - anyone who thinks cigarette advertising is dead is just on the wrong continent.

On the food front, here's my goulash (tastes like beef stew) and Bonnie's "toast" (with egg on top) from yesterday's lunch:

Mine was 5.50€ (about $7.50 USD) and hers was 4.40€.

Today should be pretty relaxing. We're done with practice flights, and the opening ceremonies and master briefing aren't until tomorrow afternoon. Naps are probably in order, as many of us are on working on about 3 hours of sleep after staying up late to be online last night. Renee Howard just told us that it's supposed to start raining this afternoon. Perhaps we'll have a "special" Austrian dinner tonight at the cottage.

Joe Zvada, Andy Baird, Larry Coan, Derrick Jones, and John Gibbons will be in today. That should almost complete Team USA's roster.

Maury and Jenn said that they got some good photos of Elle's flight last night, so maybe I'll get those up soon. I've taken some video, but so far we haven't found a connection that fast/convenient enough to upload them. Plus none of them are very exciting.