On Halloween weather conditions and such were finally favorable to go hot air ballooning. I live in the south and the weather gets hot -- 100+ degree for days on end. When its hot like that-guess what the balloon can't take off because the air is too light (hot air rises). So we had to wait until temperatures came back to more favorable values.
We had a date set for the week before and got up before sunrise to do the trip. Everything looked a go until they sent up the test helium balloon. The winds were too strong. We could not land safely at those speeds so the trip had to be canceled. Finally on Halloween at 7:00 a.m. it was a go. . . and Oh what a trip it was.
In this picture, I am standing with balloon owner/operator/pilot. We are on the inside of the balloon just to give you an idea of how big the inside is.
Here they are heating the balloon up - the balloon glow
When we took off we were able to see the sunrise. It was truly an amazing sunrise to see. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was.
Some of the first things we saw and recognize were Oil/Gas rigs in the distance. The target zone is the Haynesville shale. The Haynesville shale is a tight gas play. Usually the pad where the rigs are located are on about 5 acres. Believe it or not there are all sorts of wells out there that you don't see. You just happen to see these because they are in the process of drilling them. The spacing for the wells is normally about 640 acres (1 mile). From each one of these rigs they will drill a number of horizontal offshoots and then acid fracture the rocks. The Haynesville gas is very desirable since it is such a clean gas.
This is I-49 intersecting Bert Kouns highway. Facing north toward downtown Shreveport, LA.
This is the Red River to the East. We were flying about 30 knots at an altitude of 1200 ft.
An Oxbow lake from the Red River.
In the center of this picture is where my house is located, I know where it is because of the buildings I see. But the trees on our street and in my yard keep it pretty well hidden.
This was one of my favorite shots, seeing the balloon being reflect in the water as we flew over it.
Another shot of the Red River. It was so amazing to see the mist rise from it. There was something so mystical about it.
Seeing the balloon's shadow as we flew over an area that is called Dixie Garden
The pilot was in the process of training another balloonist so he could go solo. One of the things they have to be able to do is touch down on water safely and then get up again. It was pretty awesome to land on water like that. This is a body of water called Champion Lake.
Here's the reflection of the balloon getting off of the water
This is the swamp waters known as Meyers lake.
Looking north a view of downtown Shreveport, to the right is Bossier City. The two cities/parishes are separated by the Red River.
Another beautiful view of Meyers lake. The white building is the elks club.
Meyer's swamp area is beautiful this time of year with all the fall foliage.
I just really liked this picture. Its a tree on Champion Links golf course.
Going over more swamp area.
and more swamps
More beautiful fall foliage.
I couldn't believe it when we actually flew over the first place I lived at when I moved to Shreveport back in 1981. The odds of that were incredible, because we were just going with the wind and they were able to steer it a little bit but it was like steering a boat where you have to start maneuvering well in advance trying to get it to go where you want it too.
My place was the top apartment. I liked it because I thought it was so secluded looking - Well I guess it wasn't as private as I thought.
Here's the Social Security building. I have a couple of friends that work there and I thought that they might get a kick out seeing the building that way.
Here we are coming in for the landing near the Shreveport-Barksdale bridge.
Here's my son getting out of the balloon. I couldn't believe the rid was finally over.
All I can say is if you ever get a chance to go hot air ballooning go for it. It will be one of the most incredible things you my do in your life.
What a ride, what a day. I couldn't have planned things to be any more perfect than the day I got. We had to wait a month for the conditions to be right, but it was well worth the wait.
1-11-11
I finally got a map of the route we took. The trouble was with all my city maps the place where we took off from was not on it and a good part of the trip could not be seen. When I would go to the state maps it would look so small. So now I found a condensed version of the geologic maps where I was able to splice two of the maps together.
Hi - I'm new to Blogging and this is my 1st attempt at it. WELCOME to my humble ABODE. Please bear with me until I get this stuff figured out. The reason I created this blog is because I was informed (very nicely I might add) that it would be appropriate for me to have a blog in order to participate in the Accretionary Wedge, since it is a carnival of geology blogs. So here it is.
About me: I LOVE to READ, I STRUGGLE with WRITING. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best at writing. I love reading the blogs in the geology blog world, and for the most part I'm very content just reading them. I think you all do a great job. But occasionally I do want to make a comment or add a bit of wisdom to some other blog. To follow the rules I am attempting to create this blog. Who knows if I get the hang of blogging I might even add some other bits of wisdom here and there on other things non geology related but I still care about.
Right now I'm a stay at home mom, and have been out of the geology world for a long long time. I have a BS (78) and MS in geology (81) from Ohio U. Geology has always been a passion of mine. And quite frankly I miss it. That's why I was so thrilled to find the geology blogs sphere.
I live in Louisiana, and by the shear fact that I live here, admit to being slightly crazy at times. The other thing that convinced me I maybe crazy was the fact that I went into geology. The one thing I observed at Cleveland State University (where I did some undergrad studying) and Ohio U was that in both places the Geology departments were in the same building as the psych departments, and not the chemistry, physics or biology buildings. The psych majors were always coming and getting us geology majors to do research on. I once asked 'why' and the researcher said it was because we were crazy and would do most things asked of us. Here I was thinking it was because we were conveniently located there next to them and they didn't have to go far to get us. Oh well, I may be slightly crazy but I consider myself harmless because I love people and would never intentionally hurt anyone and I love living in this world. The one thing about me is I do like to have fun. That's why I live in LA - it has the reputation of being one of the happiest places to live in the United States. From what I can tell it is a well justified reputation to have.
That's enough for now, since this is just my first attempt.
(11-4-10) I'm now trying to see if I can add video to my blog. I picked this one so you can see some of the crazy things I do. Most of it is pretty fun stuff. I'm only in one of the slides because I took a lot of these pictures. It's kinda hard to be in the picture and take an action shot at the same time. Its on YouTube @ St. Lukes Youth UMC Summer 09. Well lets see if it works.
