Our main reason for coming to Colorado Springs was the Labor Day Lift Off hot air balloon event. It was an opportunity for us to reacquaint ourselves with Brad and Jessica Rice and their family and some of the other crew members for their Heart’s A’Fire hot air balloon team. I looked at it as kind of a pre-season opportunity to get back in the game ahead of the big event – the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

The Labor Day Lift Off in Colorado Springs is celebrating its 40th annual event. Although the number of balloons participating pales in comparison to Albuquerque – about 70 balloons here versus more than 500 balloons there – the event is well-run and draws large crowds of spectators. The organizers fill an area of Memorial Park with vendors and also bring in a mobile kids’ amusement park.

On Saturday morning, I rolled out of bed at 5am and prepared to go to work. I met Brad, Yonnie, Darin and Aaron at Brad’s rig. We would be the main crew for Brad. We rolled out to the same area of the park where we set up the static balloon display on Friday. Our stall was marked E2 on the site map, but it wasn’t clearly marked at the field. Brad had an app on his smartphone from the organizers that utilized the GPS function to pinpoint our spot. We were in the right area but it still wasn’t clear which way to orient everything for set up. Looking around, it seemed everyone was in the same boat and we saw what appeared to be a haphazard approach around us.

After the pilot’s briefing, we quickly set up and inflated the Heart’s A’Fire balloon. Brad had two passengers from his event sponsor, Xfinity. We were in the first wave of balloons. They had divided the participants into two groups. On Saturday morning our group went first and on Sunday we would go in the second wave. The launch official had us release soon after we were inflated.

We piled into the chase vehicle and slowly made our way through the crowds of people and onto the city streets. Navigating around Colorado Springs is challenging. None of us were intimately familiar with the roads. I was using the map app on my phone as we watched the direction the balloon was heading. The wind speeds were much higher than anticipated and the balloon was heading south.

We thought we knew where it was going, so I navigated us to a commercial area where the road ended by a Camping World store. I was hoping we could find a dirt road to get us into the pasture where we thought they would go. No such luck. There was a dirt road but it immediately crossed a ravine with steep sides that were too much for us to pull the trailer through.

After radio communication with Brad, we hit I-25 northbound and pulled off to the shoulder. We could see a number of balloons in the cow field to the east. It was rough terrain and also had a sturdy barbed-wire fence. I wriggled through the fence and trotted down into the field. I wanted to make sure everyone was okay. I saw Brad walking toward the fence. I continued past him and found the balloon and confirmed both passengers were fine. As I looked around, I could see this wasn’t going to be an easy extraction.

I saw a balloon with a pilot and two passengers approaching the landing. They had to come in high enough to clear power lines to the north, then quickly drop – only to find a steep ravine that had to be cleared before they could set down. The ground wind had picked up and I could visibly see their balloon pick up pace during the last twenty feet of descent. I ran hard and caught their basket when it was about two feet off of the ground. It was moving fast. The initial ground contact resulted in a bounce that threw me off. I scrambled and jumped and grabbed on again, expecting a rough ride. Just then Aaron appeared and grabbed the basket right next to me and we pulled it to the ground.

The basket was stopped but the wind blew the balloon until it was pulling the basket past the tipping point. I warned the passengers to keep their hands in as it tipped on its side. No harm done. They were safely on the ground. Eventually 13 balloons ended up in this field. It wasn’t an easy landing for anyone, but there were few alternatives.

We set about disassembling the Heart’s A’Fire to a greater degree than usual. We removed the three propane tanks in preparation of packing everything back to the rig at the side of the interstate. Luckily, about then, a local person who knew Brad and crew drove up in a Jeep. We were able to load the envelope, tanks and other hardware in the Jeep and she drove out to the trailer. While the rest of the crew unloaded the Jeep and packed the gear in the trailer, Brad enlisted his two passengers and the four of us started carrying the basket out of the field. It was laborious to say the least, but we got it done and it was time to tailgate.

Back at the park, tables, chairs and easy-up canopies were taken out and set up. Yonnie, Darin and Aaron manned the grills. They made a pile of fixin’s for breakfast burritos. We had eggs, sausage, bacon, hash brown potatoes, grilled tortillas and condiments galore.

A burrito and a couple of cold beers at 10:30am made the physical labor of extracting the balloon soon forgotten. We were home by 1pm and I was ready for a nap. Donna went to the hotel swimming pool. I ended up taking a dip in the pool around 4pm, then I had to start thinking about the evening event.

Heart’s A’Fire was participating in the evening glow. The evening glow is where the hot air balloons are set up by sundown and provide a static display. When the pilot hits the burners, the balloons glow like a lamp shade. It can be spectacular and a huge crowd came to the park. About half of the registered balloons took part Saturday night, the other half will participate on Sunday night.

Of course a static display entails all of the same steps as a flight, minus the launch and chase. The set-up and tear-down are the same amount of work as always. The workload got higher as the wind started blowing harder than forecast, making it difficult to control the balloon and keep the basket from tipping. It’s physically demanding work to put your weight on the rim of the basket to keep it from rising or tipping. I was too busy to shoot any photos – but here’s one from Albuquerque last year.

The spectators mostly seemed oblivious to anything other than watching the balloons light up. Our balloon was near the tipping point and Brad decided it was best to deflate before things got any worse. As the envelope was collapsing, people continued to crowd around and walk right through the area where the envelope would land. I was yelling, “It’s coming down!” repeatedly as I struggled to keep the basket under control. Aaron and Yonnie were manning the crown line and we had to enlist a couple of spectators to add their weight by putting their hands on the basket as it was more than Darin and I could do. When the envelope deflated, we had to remove a few things from under the envelope like a stroller and backpack that someone had left on the grass in our area. We packed with headlamps on our caps.

I was exhausted by the time we came home. After a nightcap, I zonked out until the alarm had me rolling over at 5am again.

The weather forecast was much nicer for Sunday. After the pilot’s briefing, we were moved to a different launch site. Today, Brad would be the hare pilot for the hare-n-hound event. This meant that Heart’s A’Fire would be the first balloon released in the second wave. Brad’s task was to carry a target, set his balloon down in an appropriate area and the other balloons would chase him. After he set the balloon down, one of the crew would take the large vinyl “X” and place in the open. The other balloonists would drop a bean bag and judges would measure for the closest “hit.”

Once again, the park was filled with crowds of spectators.

We launched with two passengers aboard – a woman who’s apparently involved in the sport and her five-year-old daughter. They had a nice flight. They went up high and moved to the northwest, then dropped down and changed direction bringing them back toward the park.

We were able to watch most of the flight from the chase vehicle and made it to their landing zone just before they arrived. Aaron, Darin, Yonnie and I converged on the basket and set it down gently on the grass as it floated by. Perfect! Aaron quickly set up the target.

Soon balloons were passing overhead and the pilots were throwing their bean bags with streamers at the target. We had to educate a few spectators that were standing and talking near the target completely unaware that bean bags could land on their head if the weren’t watchful.

We were packed up early and ready to tailgate by 10am. There were brats on the grill this morning plus tables full of side dishes. We were back home by noon. I’ll relax for the rest of the day and watch the Moto GP race from Silverstone, England. Tomorrow we do it one more time, then we’ll move back to the Elks Lodge in the afternoon and ponder our next move.