33

Balloon Life,October 2000

Trish and I started oursummer ballooning
seasonbyattendingasmall,19-balloon
event in Springville, Utah. The thingthat
madethe5thAnnualArtCityDays
Balloon Festivalunique is that both Trish
andIgraduatedfro mhighsch oolin
Springville. We had fun seeing old friends
and howmuch some of them had changed
through the years. Flights were scheduled
for June8-10 since they don’t fly balloons
onSundayinUtah.Thursday’sweather
kept us tethered, but the flights on Friday
andSaturdayweregreat.Theysaythat
youcan’tgoback,butifyouhavea
balloon everyone is your friend.
The nexteventon our schedule was
the20th Annual HotAir Balloon Rodeo
inSteamboatSprings,ColoradoJuly

14-16. This event is special to us since it
usually takes place on Trish’s birthday.
Making it even more fun is that I have
ended up in first place in the competitions
three of the past five years. Our sponsor
this year was Channel 2 News from Den-
ver, and what a fun bunch they were. They
ended up producing an excellent promo
piece on the balloon event, featuring theA
Little Exposure balloon and team promi-
nently. The flying was great as usual and

those of you thatknow Trish, youwould
be surprisedto see her roughing itout in
themountainsandcampinginatent.
After to few days of R&R we drove north
to Billings to attend the Big Skyfest 2000
balloon event.
TheBillings Big Skyfestis one ofthe
events put on by Jetta & Rob Schantz and
partofBalloonTourAmerica.Itisat-
tendedbycurrentandpastUSNational
Champions, Canadian NationalChampi-
ons,WorldChampions,andNational&
WorldRecord holders. With$20,000.00
inprizemoneyitdrawsaninteresting
groupof pilots tofill the 50slotsfor the
event. Trish and I attend the event because
ofo urt op -n ot chl ocalcrew,an d
Albertson’swhohavebeenour sponsor
thepastfewyears.Aftersixtasksand
someinterestingflying,BillBakerfin-
ished inFirst Place andtookhome some
well-earned prize money. I even ended up
placing in the top 20 and took home a few
extra dollars.
CrestedButte,Coloradowasthe
next event on our schedule and took place

Summer Ballooning
in the West

Story & photos by Ron Behrmann

the 48 balloon pilots that flewin this years
event went home wishing the event lasted
a few more days. Rainbow Weekend kept
the balloonists busy attending the rodeo,
floating down the river on inner tubes,
checking out the art fair in the town park,
and many other activities. After the event
we went camping, mountain biking, and
fly fishing in themountains north of Steam-
boat Springs. The Billings event is the
next weekend and we like to make a take
a mini vacation between the events. For

Springville, Uath

SteamboatSprings, Colorado

Billings, Montana

Balloon Life,October 2000

34

August 11-13. We thoughtthat last years
event wouldbe thelastbecause ofthe lack
of supportby the local sponsorsandlodg-
ing industry. It was a pleasant surprise
when we received our invitation for this
year’s expanded event. We were spon-
sored againby the Sheraton Hotel and the
Crested Butte Mountain Resort. We drove
up to the resort early in the week so that we
could enjoy the activities of the area be-
fore the event started. There are great
hikingtrails,world class fly fishing, river
rafting, mountain biking, and much more
to do around the resort. Our son Nick

could put on a “Balloon Photography
Seminar”for our sponsor Lakewood Cam-
era. Friday morning we drove out to
Chatfield State Park to participate in the
media flight and were impressed to find
three local TV stations doing live broad-
casts of the flight. Mosttimes itis hard to
get one TV stationout for coverage. This
setthe pace for the weekend. The balloon
event wason the cover andinside mostof
theDenver area newspapers onnumerous
days, and the TV coverage wasextensive.
This was a real plus for the sponsors and
the commercial balloons that were in-
volved in this year’s event. In spite of
some gloomy weather reports, all of the
flights and the “Lites In The Night”Bal-
loon Illumination went off without any

found out that they were holding a re-
gional mountain bike raceat the resort
mid week, and decided to enter his first
race. Duringthe race he missed one of the
trail markings and ended up riding over
thirteen milesrather than thetenmilesthe
other rider’srace, and stilltook home the
prize for placingFirstin hisdivision. The
two days of flying on Saturday and Sun-
day couldn’t have been better. We drifted
slowlyaround the resortand had plentyof
opportunity to do multiple landings and
flyallthat wantedto fly. We hope thatthe
new momentum of the event continues.
August24-27we were lucky enough
to bepartofaneweventinDenver,
Colorado.TheRockyMountain Bal-
loon Festivalwas organized by Debbie
Pfauntsch, and what a great job she and
her staff did on a first time event.We
drove to Denver on Thursday so that we

problems. It has been over ten years since
there was a balloon event in Denver and
fromthe level of success of this year’s
RockyMountainBalloonFestivalthe
event drought should be over.
After the Sunday morning flight in
Denver we packed up and drove back to
Albuquerque todo some commercial fly-
ing and photographic work. Wehad to
turn right around and drive back up to
Colorado Springs on Friday for the24th
Annual Colorado Springs Balloon Clas-
sicovertheLaborDayweekend.We
checked in to Antlers Adam’s Mark Ho-
tel, the OfficialHoteland our sponsor for
thepasteightyears. Pilotregistrationfrom
3-6, Mandatory pilot briefing at 6 p.m.,
andfrom7-9p.m.a“Get Acquainted

Crested Butte

Denver, Colorado

Colorado Springs,Colorado

35

Balloon Life,October 2000

Reception” putonbythestaffat the
Antlers featuring a wide selectionof food
anddrink. Saturdaymorningturned outto
be the only bad weather day. Some of the
regular balloonsand mostof the commer-
cials tethered at the field until the wind
came up. The rest of the weekend turned
outto be the great flyingwe have become
accustomed to in Colorado Springs. This
year they held something that had been
missing from the Classic, competition.
ThecompetitionwasaHareand
Hound race, which hopefully might ex-
pand to other tasks in the future.
Monday afternoon wedrovefrom
Colorado Springs to Springville, Utah to
dosome business before continuingon to
Reno. Wednesday morning we left for
Reno, Nevada to participate in the19th
Annual Great Reno Balloon Racewhich
tookplaceSeptember7-10.Thursday
morning was media day and the condi-
tionsallowed us tobox back tothe launch
site. Eachmorning theballoons flying
from the field would compete in a Hare &
Hound race, and the fly in balloons would
competeinaCNT.Therewasalso a
Balloon Blackjackcompetition onthe
launch field for allof the balloons, where
the pilotstried to drop 2 baggies on large

playing cardsto get a good
score.OnSaturdayand
Sundaymorningsthere
was a Glow Show from 5-
5:30 a.m., and the Dawn
Patrol at 5:30 a.m..This
makesforaprettyfull
schedule for some of the
pilotsthatparticipatein
severaloftheseevents.
Over the weekend we flew
asoneofthreeGRBR
(Great RenoBalloon Race
sponsored)balloons,
whose jobwasto flyVIP’s
for the race. On Saturday
we flew a camera person
and themalestarof the
“Extra Mile” segment on
the Extra television show.
They produced a nice seg-
ment on the Reno balloon
racethatwasshownon
Extralaterintheweek.
Sundayweflew aReno
TVnewscasterandher
cameramanboyfriend.The
weather was great, and so
was the flying.
SundayafternoonTrishand I packed
up and headed on toCalifornia for a little
more R&Rbefore the V ictorville balloon
event. We stayedclosetothebeacharound
Morro Bay, and spent some time getting
our feet wetin thePacificOcean.On
Wednesday we spent the day shoppingat
Cuyucas Beach, eating some of the best
fish&chipsever,andstrollingonthepier.

When we got to the end of the pier we
were treated to a sea creature display that
Sea World couldn’t compete with. There
were fifteen pair of dolphins frolicking in
the ocean, sea lions, pelicans, gulls, and
even whales within our site. We just sat
there and watched for hours.
Thursdaywedroveinlandto
Victorville,CaliforniafortheHighDesert
BalloonFestival. It was quite a shock for
usto go from the cool coastin tothe 100+
temperatures in the desert. This is a small
regional ballooneventthat drawsbal-
loonistsfromsurroundingarea.The
Burger King special shape and the J&B
Bottlewere inattendance thisyear, which
added notoriety to the event. The flights
are launched fromthe Mojave Narrows
Regional Park, which is one of the few
green areas in the valley. I was able tofly
Friday and Saturday using the box winds
to take off on grass and land back at the
park ongrass. Sundayour flighttookus to
the north over some rugged rocky hills,
and finally outto a large open fieldwhere
most ofthe balloons landed.After the
flightwepackedupour gearanddrovethe
800 miles back to Albuquerque, arriving
home after midnight.Itwas greatto sleep
in our own bed.
Our summertour took us toeight
balloon events, 44 days on the road, only
three missed flights because of weather,
and 23balloon flights for acombined
flight time of 27 hours.
It was a summer of ballooning that
we won’t soon forget.

Reno,Nevada

Victorville, California