JumpStart by Robb Armstrong for March 25, 2022

Not often do you see Dexter out-Dextered!

I’m not so sure they would have hot air ballooning in the Alps, with the major air currents going up and down the mountains.

i remember seeing hot air balloons quite a bit over the Schwäbischen Alb when i was in Tübingen (Alb not as high as Alps)

In 1983 I went to an airshow at Truckee Airport in Truckee, Calif., up in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Donner Pass. We got there at 2:00 am (great way to avoid the entrance fee) and parked the VW bus in a bare dirt field just off an asphalt hardtop near the runway where several general aviation aircraft were parked, then crashed out for the night. Pitch dark up there and couldn’t see chit, so we just crashed in the van rather than set up the tents.

Very early next morning (sunrise) I heard a weird sound and looked out through the ride side widow curtains of the van and saw a hot air balloon about 100 yards away getting ready to launch, several people holding ropes. Cool!

I told my friend who was still sleeping in the back and then parted the curtains on the opposite side, and saw 11 or 12 balloons preparing to launch! Whoa! Where did we park?

We got dressed warm and climbed out to watch the action for awhile before making breakfast. That was a treat! Barely any wind, so the balloons were in sight for a long time before disappearing in the general direction of Nevada. We were only 15 minutes or so by freeway from the state line.

So cool.

Even her can be distracted at school.

That’s a twist. Dexter is actually upright and Sunny is slouched and day dreamimg.

Now I’m wondering what the W means on the balloons.

Why the W’s..?

Nothing like a family balloon ride to really bring us all together.

Around Philadelphia in 80 minutes.

Uh…who’s piloting the balloon? Did Marcy suddenly get her LTA cert?

Is Dexter sitting upright while Sunny reclines? It’s the end of the world as we know it!

Fly the “W”, CUBS WIN!