On the morning of the second ascension we made our way to K2 location on the ballon field to catch up with Bill Lee and his Spirit of New Mexico balloon which he was ready to launch. Bill had been our pilot in Gallup NM a week earlier. We gathered around with the balloon team and watched the familiar process of unfolding, checking and tethering lines, setting up the air blower to partially inflate the envelope, starting the gas burners, rotating to vertical, final adjustments to match passenger weights and at the festival marshall signal liftoff in unison with a dozen other balloons in the K row! What a sight at the break of dawn joining several hundred other balloons already in flight!
