Balloon accident

This balloon hit a tent as it was trying to come across the field during the competition this morning. The pilot fell out tumbling from about 25 feet off the ground and landed among some tables set up outside the tent. The co-pilot tried to recover the balloon as it shot straight up when he fell out due to loss of his weight in the basket. She pulled a cord that opens the top to let out air. Evidently she pulled it too much and the balloon started to deflate and plunged to the ground. Both the pilot and co-pilot had non life treatening injuries to legs and arms. It was very scary for awhile until the ambulances took them away.
You can go to koat.com and see video of "Man falls from Balloon".

We are having fun even tho there was an accident today. Yesterday some people were hospitalized when they had a bad landing in a mall parking lot.

This is not the safest sport I guess! Good thing Terrys doesn't do this.

More later. Below is a web site that has 459 pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/sunriversandy/BalloonFiesta200902?authkey=Gv1sRgCNWXm7mIoorP2QE#.

Sandy

Dawn Patrol. About 10 balloons went up at 5:45 to check out the wind currents, the the mass ascension started at 7 am until about 9:30 am.
This balloon is called When Pigs Fly.
Wally, from Wausau, WI



More of the mass ascension. There are 550 balloons registered this year, but some got stuck in China and may not get here before the event is over on the 11th. We are hoping the 12 balloons that are special shapes, ie Darth Vader, make it for Thursday's launch of just the special shapes.

We are having a great time.

Sandy

Balloon Fiesta 2009

Cute balloon with airplane, pilot and tail gunner!!
Joey and Lilly Bee!! from Arizona and New Mexico. They take off with their hands touching, very cute.
Airabelle, the Flying Cow from Canada

Cats and Birds

In the background is the bird feeder and Puddles is attempting to climb a tree!! She didn't quite make it.
Thunder loves to sit under the cedar tree in the center of the patio. He thinks he is invisible!!
This is a "Painted Bunting". It has a blue head, green back and red front. Very pretty bird.
Another shot of the bunting.

Another beautiful day in Texas. 70's and low humidity now, but will get in the mid 80's today.

Sandy

More LBJ Ranch

Well, after my last post I did have a picture of the huge 480 year old oak tree at LBJ Ranch. Here is a shot from the side of the house (Terry drinking some water), and below the two pictures are of the front view. Very impressive.


Sorry this picture of Puddles got in there. She is drinking from the "birdbath" that I improvised with a ceramic flower pot saucer. I have it sitting on top of the rock with the bird feeder in the background. As you can see we do have some flowering plants. the low to the ground yellow flowering plants are Lantana. We also have purple Lantana in other places in the yard. Most of the plants are native plants. The taller blooming yellow plant is Jeruselum Sage. These plants will get big so we will probably transplant some of these to other areas. We also have one on each side of the front porch.

More flower pictures to come.

Sandy

Birthday Drive to LBJ Ranch

We didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few. We drove down to Johnson City and visited L. B. Johnson's Ranch (Texas White House) and were amazed. The house is 8000 sq ft and he spent 25% of his Presidency here meeting with foreign dignitaries, etc. In 5 years in office he held 100 BBQ's under the oaks shown above. I was amazed. the house sits on the Pedernales River but the locals pronounce it with an "r" after the first e as "Perdonales".
This is the "Texas White House". Johnson died here and Lady Bird had a life estate and did not die until 2006. The request was to put the house back like it was during Johnson's Presidency so they are still doing that. The only room that is now on the tour is his "office". Lots of work was done here. I can't blame him for spending that much time here instead of Washington, DC.
This plaque shows a meeting of the joint chief of staff under the huge 480 old oak tree that is in front of the house on the left side of the above picture. I'm sorry I didn't get a good picture of that tree!! Anyway, it was a nice day for a drive, hot (90 deg) and windy with low humidity.

The property currently is 2200 acres that the Johnson family still owns, but the Federal Government owns the house and grounds or about 800 acres. It is still a working cattle ranch.

We also visited a Wildseed Farm and the German town of Fredericksburg. If any of you every come to visit, we will go to there for the day. Fredericksburg is in the book "1000 places you should visit before you die". We got there about 4 pm and most of the stores closed at 5 pm so we didn't get much done. We will go back. Of course we had to stop in our favorite fudge shop for 6 squares of fudge to take home. We got carmel chocolate, dark chocolate, walnut dark chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, carmel pecan chocolate, and pecan chocolate. Yummy!!

More in a few minutes with our flowers.

Sandy

Wendy in Cambodia

Wendy is traveling in Cambodia and Laos for two weeks. If you want to follow her blog its www.yaydrwendy.blogspot.com .

We are just hanging out weeding our beds, embroidering bags for Albuquerque, etc.

Hopefully I'll get some more pictures out there. We are going to Choke Canyon in a couple of weeks for 10 days. Maybe this time we will actually remember to take the camera. We are camping 5 days with friends from Kerrville, TX, Gene and Mindy Betterton.

All for now. Sandy

More party

Guest started arriving. The party was at Wendy's Olu Street house so this was the last party ever in the house since it would be torn down the following week.
Lots of food and friends.
Zach, Austin, someone I don't know, Wendy and Mike and the dissertation monkey!! Now it can be put on someone else's back!!
Party animals!!

Party pictures

Cake
Bruce's wife, Penny, and Becky. Bruce was Wendy's advisor.
Miriam (I think) and Lisa (Wendy's first roommate in HI). She is an elementary school teacher.
Bruce Houghton Wendy's advisor.

More Hawaii

Mom, Dad and Wendy after she found out she passed!!
The pecan pie has volcanos around the edge of the crust as well as the one in the center!! Very creative and home made by Andrea. It was wonderful!!

The cake also had a volcano!! Dr. Stovall!!

Wendy'

Well, here are some new pictures. Wendy getting ready to present her dissertation on March 13, 2009!!
Wendy with here friends Andrea and Penny. Andrea also has her Ph.D. and Penny is working on her Masters. They are both great girls and friends.
Proud Mama!! After the dissertation she had to meet with her advisors for about 1 1/2 hrs so we were all waiting in the Magma Chamber with her peers to see if the presentation was accepted. Of course, it was and she is loaded down with congratulation lai's. In Germany is is tradition to give hats, so she got a hat from one of her friends.

First Visitors

Well here are some more turkey pictures. These guys are about 4 feet tall and we think about 30#. May be a little gamey for Thanksgiving turkey. We usually have one or two but sometimes we get 10 or more.

Pete and Linda Harbers from Anacortes Washington were our first visitors. Pete elected to back in behind the rv garage so he could get satellite reception. If he had backed all the way, you wouldn't be able to see the front of the coach. They have headed back to Albuquerque, NM, and on up to the Salt Lake area for some spring skiing.

We had lots of fun and visited the Alamo, San Antonio's river walk, Fredericksburg, and friends in Kerrville while they were here. Linda and I also had lots of fun sewing and making tote bags.

Hope everyone is enjoying the spring. Wendy is finishing her Ph.D. on the 13th and I'm going to HI for a couple of weeks to help her celebrate and move to a new apartment. She plans on staying in HI for awhile and continue to look for jobs in her field.

Until later.

Sandy