For the last several years we have met our friends from the ballooning community near our home in St. Louis MO. to begin our annual trek to New Mexico for the International Balloon Fiesta.

Travelling with a pack of wild balloonists makes for a very humourous and quick journey. Here the pack gathers around one of many watering holes.

Dean, finally free of the confines of his vehicle, shows us how much further we have to travel to Clinton OK. were we will end our travels for day one.

The watering hole in Clinton OK. holds something completely different than the one located back home.

Members of the heard must continually compete for food. Those who are fast will feed another day. Those that are slow will become the food of someone else. A lesson, I fear, I've learned to late.

There is no safe place for any heard when there are cameras about. Photographers often hide in dark corners waiting for the unsupecting balloon heard to gather around a table hoping for the most rare of events to occur. Spontanious posing with grins. This is an extremlly dangerous moment for the photographer since this only happens when the heard is waiting for it's first round of drinks.

O.K. So you might be wondering what happens when a member of the heard decides not to attend the annual outing. Well, it involves all the other members of the community having a good laugh.

The journey continues in the morning at 0500hrs....yawn. We should be at the launch field by early afternoon. Till then Be Excellent.