We are home from our trip to Lake Havasu. What a great time with our friends Doug and Susanne Kennedy. We left Thursday morning about 930 and Doug drove. We went out thru the south west side of Phoenix thru Buckeye and up to Parker. Parker is a beautiful place right on the Colorado river with alot of very pretty RV parks. We stopped for lunch along the way anf a couple of times just to streach our legs. It took almost 5 hours to get to the London Bridge Resort where we had reservations. A very nice place right next to the London bridge. We had a two bedroom suite with a small balcony. We contacted Mike and Becky Fleury, our Balloon pilot and his wife, and agreed to meet them for dinner. They showed us where we were to go in the morning to meet for the launching and then we had a very nice meal right beside the bridge and water. Friday was to windy to fly so the 60-70 balloons that were there couldn't fly. They did inflate a couple on tether (FlurDeTucson) Mikes outfit was one, but the winds wouldn't cooperate so we took it down. There were tons of concession stands just like a fair so we walked arond, ate, listened to music, ate, walked and just had a nice day in the sun. The evening launchs were all cancelled due to high winds so Doug, Susanne, Linda and I went back to the hotel for a swim and hot tub soak. It was great. we walked across the parking lot and ate at Chile's and had great food and just a ball. we laughed so hard our ribs hurt. Mike called and said the launch was on for Friday morning so we quit early. We got to the launch site he had picked out and it was very close to the bridge instead of out on the island with most of the other folks. we had a great launch and Mike did a "splash and dash". that is where you fly the balloon over the river and just dip down and have the bottom of the basket just dip into the water and then climb fast to clear the bridge and hotels. Mike was the first of many to get it done. The crowd roared and there were lots of people taking pictures of it all. the chase crew in two trucks followed him as best we could and even thought he might land in our hotel parking lot but he made it to over behind Chiles and dropped into the parking lot. we stayed there for a few minutes and checked wind and swapped riders. Susanne got to ride and the rest of us started the chase again. they flew at house top level waving and talking to the people that came out to watch from the ground. Mike found a quiet residential streen with no powerlines and came down right in the middle of the street. we all, and even neighbors helped ensure that the balloon didn't get hungup on any mailboxes. everything went well and when everything was loaded we all went back to the launch site(a dirt lot) and did the christening of the new flyers. Champane and toast and pictures. neat day and lots of fun and tons of pictures. we had counted 38 balloons in the air at once, but I bet there were more. Quite a sight. Mike and Becky wanted us to stay and be involved that nite and fly on Saturday but the hotel room would have been over $400 for one nite so we couldn't stay. we got packed up and headed home. good trip back but my legs were really cramping up an I could hardly walk by the time we got back. Great time and plan on doing it again next year.
