Speaking of Beth, Don. I did tell her ‘hi’ for you when she was in Minneapolis for the event. 
Thanks, she is really nice lady.
That is one awesome balloon that she flies. I never knew that hot air balloons could be shaped into many different shapes. I just thought they all looked like this:
((ˉ))
_ U_
(My sad attepmt at a text hot air balloon) 
Well, I’d seen some shaped like a bear and and an icecream… but they still generally looked the same.
I’ll tell her you said hi.
It was cancelled.
But because my mom talked to Lance all day for information, so she asked if we could still come and we were able to 
It was to windy to fly, but the breeze did feel good. And man, that is one confertable chair. And smaller than I thought it would be.
I told Beth that you said ‘hi’, but she replied with: “Which one?” 
Uhm…
She told me she knew 4 other Dons. And then she asked where I had met you and she knew who you were. She also told me that a few girls in Minneapolis had given her the same message, and I laughed… to myself anyways.
And I got to keep one of the posters It fell down and bent in half (you can see the crease) so we asked if we could keep it, and the Disney-spokesperson-lady called and asked and said I could. I also got the t-shirt, a ‘Cluster Crew’ pin, and a 3D screening of UP! for next Thursday. (I’ve had a few friends want to slap my face because of that) I’m going to see it with my mom.
Overall it was a good day. For a long time we did nothing, but balloonists(?) are very interesting people to listen to. It was neat listening to all their stories and such.
Hey, when they arrive in Phenoix tomorrow, will you tell Whit that Lauren and Becky said ‘hi’?
Well SHUCKS!!!
That’s too bad they couldn’t get UP! in Big D. I am glad you had a good time anyway. And got some goodies.
I will say Hi to Whit in Phoenix. It will be right at the State Capitol Building in downtown Phx. The temperature should go over 100 F by noon.
[url]Phoenix, Arizona Weather Forecast
I am old and fat and I don’t think they make underarm deodorant that strong. 
Haha.
Well enjoy your hot weather
Thats all Beth and Whit were talking about today, and enjoying the coolness and the breeze that Dallas has
well i don’t want to slap you in the face, just a punch in the arm.
Edit: No need to quote someone’s whole post — Rachel. =)
Dutchess:
I know, I could see it in your face today that you wanted to injure me in some way so you could have the tickets
To bad they’re in my name
i know. grr face. i am incredibly jealous
Haha. Yeah, that is what she asked me too when I told her Don said hi.
That’s too bad it was canceled. At least you got some fun goodies though! I got to go to an advanced screening too, but I am a bit jealous that you get to see it in 3D. 
Well we got the Phoenix Cluster UP this morning. The event was right at the State Capitol in a park area dedicated to the USS Arizona battleship which was sunk at Pearl Harbor. The flag pole and anchor from the ship are on display.
The crew assembled at 2 to 3 am and the cluster was UP and ready by 6am. We kept it UP until about 10:30 am. A series of media came and went during that time. We were on live TV on 3 different local stations. Beth was on this one at the last minute while Troy was working in Pennsylvania. I said Hi to Whit for everyone and Beth told me about all the young ladies who she got to meet. Beth will be heading to Boston and Troy will join us at San Diego.
Everything was packed up by noon just as the temperature hit 100F. We were all hot and tired and did I mention HOT! Lunch and cool drinks were very welcome.
I will try to get pics and maybe video posted soon.
The San Diego event in on and right now the location is set for the flight deck of the Aircraft Carrier Midway moored in San Diego Harbor. It is now a museum and this will be quite interesting. [url]http://www.midway.org/[/url]
That’s cool that the cluster was able to go up. And that’s neat that Beth talked about us, and Hannah and her friends. Gee, what a small world x)
Gah, 100F in May? I think we just brushed under 80 today.
Man, I really wish we had been able to ride. I’ve been telling my friends the past few days:: It was soo exciting! I mean, we had a few news crews come, we were unable to get the Cluster off the ground, but I got this t-shirt, a pin, a poster because it bent in half (not that bad actually) when the wind pushed it off the stand, and I get to go see UP! on Thursday! Oh, and the balloons are REALLY big!
They always like to ask what we did there, besides inflate and deflate (yes, we learned that the term ‘blow-up’ is not equivelent to ‘inflate’) the balloons. Yeah, we just sat there and talked, and enjoyed the mosquitos and the cool breeze.
The Cluster Balloon event in San Diego is ready to go tomorrow morning. We got the equipment up onto the flight deck of the USS Midway this afternoon and the Midway crew were very helpful. If the wind does not come up too much, this will be the best flight of the tour. What a great venue. We are trying to figure out if any other balloons have every launched from the Midway or any other aircraft carrier. Blimps and Airship have but what about balloons?
Last week the tour was in Los Angeles and Mary Hart from Entertainment Tonight went UP! Here is a video clip.
Wow this looks awesome! I wish Canada had cool events.
On the subject of weather, AirRageous - how’s the balloons in non-perfect weather? I mean, they’re balloons, so can the materials of it withstand non-satisfactory weather? How does it differ from the “traditional” ballooning?
Wow, I just got back to Albuquerque after the trip to Phoenix and San Diego. My traveling laptop went down on me and I could not post any updates. Sorry.
The San Diego event went great. We started at 1:30 am and actually got ahead of schedule by 3am. So we took an hour break and enjoyed some USS Midway coffee. The guides and security volunteers on the Midway were great. They provided everything we needed including COFFEE!!!
The cluster was up and ready by 5am and all the crew who were under 230 pounds got to go UP! They had lost or damaged about 7 of the balloons on previous appearances so we did not get quite as much lift as we would have liked.
Even though we were way out on the catapult deck of the ship, which was exposed to the harbor, the wind held off for most of the morning. It did start gusting about 9am but thanks to all the aircraft hold down hooks in the deck, we were able to secure everything pretty well.
The cluster handles the wind pretty well. The individual balloons jostle around and the suspension ropes get tangled. By the time we took it down, it looked like someone was trying to learn macramae.
Regular hot air balloons do not handle the wind as well. They tend to form one big sail and the wind pushes them hard. The cluster seemed to do better because each balloon could move around on its own to some extent.
They did sustain some damage though. The ropes of upper balloons would rub against lower balloons and we got a few holes. The balloons are not elastic but more like a beach ball. They fill to a certain diameter and the skin gets very tight. We were able to patch the rub spots with ordinary clear packing tape.
As for “traditional” ballooning, we don’t usually inflate and stay on the ground. We do tethering and static displays on occasion but usually we free fly. While the balloon is on the ground we can get buffetted by the wind pretty badly. But once we take off, we are with the wind and the balloon is very stable. I would much rather be flying the balloon than trying to hold it on the ground.
I will try to get some pics posted later once I am rested up a bit. But here is a web cam shot from one of the tall buildings in San Diego. Pretty cool.
[/img]
Wow. That is one heck of a picture. Looks awesome. (How I wish we could’ve flown!)
Speaking of holes in the balloons, many of our pictures of the chair have the purple tape showing on the white balloon. 