Gallup Balloon Rally

This past weekend was the annual balloon rally in town. Also, our good friend Lauren from Michigan came to visit. Lauren went to CMU with us and worked in the Volunteer Center. She taught in South Korea last year and came to visit us in the Philippines during one of her breaks. She picked a great weekend to visit this time! Our graduate classes were finished for the semester so we were not too busy to hang out, plus there were over 150 balloonists in town!

We had gotten some advice from a friend in town to go to the state park (where the balloons were to lift off) early in the morning, as many balloon pilots were in desperate need of volunteers to help them crew their balloons. We got up early, drove to the park and sure enough, within 3 minutes, a pilot shanghaied us and put us to work on his balloon. For lack of better words, it was very cool--made even cooler by the fact that Erin and Lauren got to go up for a beautiful 1 hour ride while I helped the chase crew track 'em down. It was such a beautiful day and we got some great shots.

We're going back to MI for Christmas and a much needed break. While school is going well for each of us, we both need some time to recover from the first semester of teaching and going to school.



Balloonists getting ready



Erin and Scott Working



Filling it up with hot air



Erin and Lauren up in the balloon



A view from up high