A ROGUE BALLOON AND A BOOK FOR MOTHER'S DAY
This Mother's Day weekend we went on an adventure in the oil fields of Texas that could have been an episode of Landman. It all started with a hunt for a rogue solar balloon.
A friend texted Tom to say he had a strange request. A friend of this friend launched a solar weather balloon from the Albuquerque Balloon Park with a group of middle school students on Friday, and the balloon went rogue. It ended up 400+ miles southeast and from the GPS coordinates appeared to have landed outside Greenwood, Texas. We were in Midland, TX, about an hour away, so he asked if we knew someone who could look for it.
Naturally, we volunteered.
Surprisingly, the mapping program took us right to the balloon, even though we had to drive through about 15 miles on unmarked oil field/ranch roads past numerous oil pump jacks and tank batteries.
Fortunately, we didn't encounter any rattlesnakes. It is that time of year.
Once we found the balloon and the parachute, we had to untangle them from the mesquite bush they had landed in. Then we had another problem. The box with the expensive tracking device and camera was nowhere to be found. We had to look around for a bit. You'll never guess where it was!
Yep! It was tangled in an electric wire on a utility pole.
Climbing poles and dealing with live electric wires was beyond our skill set, so we called for backup. While we waited, we picked pieces of balloon out of the mesquite bushes. We didn't want cows eating them.
A man from the power company arrived a bit later, and he and Tom were able to get the box down. Yay!! In a couple of weeks, we will drive the contraption back to Albuquerque.
The funny thing is that I spent this last week researching hot air balloons for my new book. The working title is CORN CAKES TO CARS: POEMS ABOUT INVENTIONS. Did you know that the first balloon passengers weren't human? Three animals made the inaugural trip: a sheep, a duck, and a rooster.
This past Thursday, I was on the website for the Albuquerque Balloon Museum at https://balloonmuseum.com/montgolfier-day/ researching the first hot air balloon flight. Friday, I got this book I ordered from Amazon - Up and Away: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot-Air Balloon.
I haven't read it yet. I got a little distracted searching for the solar balloon this weekend, but stay tuned, and I will keep you posted about my thoughts on the picture book, the progress of my new poetry book, and anything I learn about the solar balloon we rescued this weekend. I'm still not sure what the experiment was about that all those middle school students were running, but I will find out and let you know.
By the way, the logo for my website is a hot air balloon. Check out my books at https://www.wordtravelpress.com/Sign up for my monthly newsletter HERE.
A friend texted Tom to say he had a strange request. A friend of this friend launched a solar weather balloon from the Albuquerque Balloon Park with a group of middle school students on Friday, and the balloon went rogue. It ended up 400+ miles southeast and from the GPS coordinates appeared to have landed outside Greenwood, Texas. We were in Midland, TX, about an hour away, so he asked if we knew someone who could look for it.
Naturally, we volunteered.
Surprisingly, the mapping program took us right to the balloon, even though we had to drive through about 15 miles on unmarked oil field/ranch roads past numerous oil pump jacks and tank batteries.
Fortunately, we didn't encounter any rattlesnakes. It is that time of year.
Once we found the balloon and the parachute, we had to untangle them from the mesquite bush they had landed in. Then we had another problem. The box with the expensive tracking device and camera was nowhere to be found. We had to look around for a bit. You'll never guess where it was!
Yep! It was tangled in an electric wire on a utility pole.
Climbing poles and dealing with live electric wires was beyond our skill set, so we called for backup. While we waited, we picked pieces of balloon out of the mesquite bushes. We didn't want cows eating them.
A man from the power company arrived a bit later, and he and Tom were able to get the box down. Yay!! In a couple of weeks, we will drive the contraption back to Albuquerque.
The funny thing is that I spent this last week researching hot air balloons for my new book. The working title is CORN CAKES TO CARS: POEMS ABOUT INVENTIONS. Did you know that the first balloon passengers weren't human? Three animals made the inaugural trip: a sheep, a duck, and a rooster.
This past Thursday, I was on the website for the Albuquerque Balloon Museum at https://balloonmuseum.com/montgolfier-day/ researching the first hot air balloon flight. Friday, I got this book I ordered from Amazon - Up and Away: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot-Air Balloon.
I haven't read it yet. I got a little distracted searching for the solar balloon this weekend, but stay tuned, and I will keep you posted about my thoughts on the picture book, the progress of my new poetry book, and anything I learn about the solar balloon we rescued this weekend. I'm still not sure what the experiment was about that all those middle school students were running, but I will find out and let you know.
By the way, the logo for my website is a hot air balloon. Check out my books at https://www.wordtravelpress.com/Sign up for my monthly newsletter HERE.
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