View from the front door about five minutes ago.

[dmn23]

Living in Albuquerque is occasionally a trip. I happen to live under the flight path most of the balloons take and it's a little surreal. My work desk is right next to the kitchen window, but it's too cold to have the window open so I didn't hear it first. Then I glance up and HOLYJEEZOMG IT'S GONNA LAND ON MY CAR. As it turns out he was parking it in a vacant lot a couple of hundred yards up the street.

 

[Peeker]

sweet!


you could never pay me enough to go up in one of those things though

 

[Mark Wein]

 

[Tiltsta]

Cool. I've never seen hot air balloons where I live.

We get lots of blimps, mostly covering golf and polo events.

 

[Mike Fiasco]

sweet!


you could never pay me enough to go up in one of those things though

I paid to go up on one of those things!

 

[Phil513]

I went on a balloon ride once. It was really great.

So whisper quiet you can hear conversations on the ground. And you are moving at the same speed as the breeze, so it really is a surreal feeling.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

[video=youtube_share;5akEgsZSfhg]http://youtu.be/5akEgsZSfhg[/video]

 

[rsadasiv]

Meh, I live in DC - I see huge containers of hot air outside my front door every day.

 

[FenderPusher]

Meh, I live in DC - I see huge containers of hot air outside my front door every day.

He's here all week folks, tip your waitresses.

 

[Denverdave]

WE have a fair number of balloons that launch from a state park about 5 miles from our house so we see them all the time as well. I have never been in one, but Mrs D always wanted to ride in one so I bought her a hot air balloon ride a couple of Mothers Days ago. She loved it!

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

He's here all week folks, tip your waitresses.

At least 20%

 

[dmn23]

Landing in the vacant lot:

 

[mosiddiqi]

I've been on one a couple of times in Egypt..really nice experience...though they recently had some fatal accidents there :(

 

[Lerxst]

I went up in one last september

 

[Lerxst]

Very peaceful. It was really neat to see all the animals react to the sound of the burners and scatter suddenly...great big owls in the trees, deer in the fields, foxes, etc.

 

[Lerxst]

When I was a kid, we used to live not far from an estate that used to host balloon races. They'd get balloons from all over the place. Saw Malcolm Forbes Harley balloon a few times fly over our house.

 

[Steverino]

...it's too cold to have the window open so I didn't hear it first.

What would you have heard with the window open?

 

[dmn23]

What would you have heard with the window open?

They're quite loud. It's a relatively quiet neighborhood and on warmer days with the windows open you can hear the burners firing long before you see the balloons. It's a very distinctive sound and not one you'll mistake for anything else — it's essentially a giant flamethrower.

 

[aliensporebomb]

Really neat but I'm not sure I'd care to go up in one. Airplanes are about as far as I go.

 

[Tig]

Cool to have one so close!

We have the annual Ballunar Liftoff Festival that is next to Rocket Park in NASA. It makes for a great weekend around here.