August 15, 2008

The weekend of August 15 saw me driving out to Salt Lake City and Eden, Utah to visit my friends and to participate in the Ogden Valley Balloon Festival (www.ogdenvalleyballoonfestival.com) at the Wolf Creek Resort in Eden, Utah.  It's a very nice community with a few ski resorts in the area, and is a short distance east of Ogden, after a very nice drive through a canyon. 

I came out a day early where I picked up our friends Judy Tudor of Dayton, Ohio and Joe Pozycki of Albuquerque, New Mexico who flew into Salt Lake.  They were going to be part of the Crew along with Maria Peterson (Crew Chief) and her folks, Berndt and Inbritt Lysholm, who were in visiting from Stockholm, Sweden. 

Friday's flight was Media Day and we took a reporter and cameraman from the Xterra TV Channel who were in the area in order to film the mini-triathalon that was also taking place that weekend.  On Saturday I got to fly with Karl Peterson (Pilot) who worked it hard to get the balloon close to the competition target.  All that work resulted in me getting a very nice and long flight through a very nice valley.  I have attended this Balloon Festival for three years running now, and it is one of my top five favorite events in which to participate.  On Sunday I had to leave after we launched Berndt and Inbritt with Karl in order to get Judy back to the airport in Salt Lake.  And Joe got to fly for the first time when they hopped.  A hop is when the balloon lands and passengers are changed out for the next leg of the flight.