Friday May 15, 1998

I left Clark, NJ at about 9:30 AM EST on the morning of the 15th. After driving through the Bronx and NYC on I-95, We hit Connecticut and soon Rt. 91 North. We drove through Milford, CT and saw the huge jai-alai stadium. After continuing into Massachusetts, I spotted the National basketball Hall of Fame while being filtered into a single lane on I-91 in the heart of Springfield. Soon the mountains grew taller, and the Connecticut River came into view. After about an hour in Massachusetts, we finally entered Vermont. Driving halfway up Vermont takes almost as long as it takes to drive from New Jersey to the Southern border of Vermont! I thought we wouldn't make it, but we finally came to Rt. 113, Thetford, which was our turnoff. About 6 miles on that road and we hit Post Mills! We stopped to fill up the tank at the general store/gas station and were on back on our way on the short drive to the airport. In about a minute we were there! The whole trip took about 6.5 hours and was a little more tedious than I expected, but I'd drive back again next year in a heartbeat.


sign.jpg - "Welcome to Post Mills Airport"

galaxy.jpg - Brian's basket for larger balloons

garage.jpg - THE GARAGE

garage1.jpg - Another shot of THE GARAGE

garage2.jpg - One more shot of THE GARAGE

boland.jpg - The Man, The Myth, The Legend. Here he's playing around with a weed burner of his, helping some kids inflate their nylon model balloon.

modlbaln.jpg - The model balloon mentioned just above. This one is about 2000 cubic feet.

modlbal1.jpg - Same balloon, wider shot. That's the bow of Boland's ship (fabric cutting room) about to impale the balloon. Check out the picture of his ship below for another shot from the other side. His spinning ducks give him an idea of the wind. The rate of squeaking is proportional to the wind speed...

weedburn.jpg - Brian's weed burner attached to the model balloon and blasting away.

boland1.jpg - Here he is again beating the crap out of his 1000 gal. propane tank... Just kidding! (he's just putting the red lid back on...)

ship.jpg - Here's the ship, Brian's deck, part of the cutting room on the top right, and the famous swing chair. Try it out, you'll love it.

museum.jpg - Full view of the balloon museum building. In the center of the second story you can see the balcony.

museum1.jpg - Exterior view of the curved picture windows. On the left (which is behind the building) is the cemetery. You'll hear more about that tomorrow (Saturday).

loft.jpg - The second floor of the museum. Brian uses this huge open area to lay out balloons for inspection and construction. It was once seriously considered being used as an indoor ice-skating rink. Good thing that plan fell through (pardon the pun)! The balcony is in the foreground on the left. On the right are the windows looking out over Post Mills Cemetery. There's a sign that reads, "View to your future." Hmm...

tanks.jpg - 23 brand-new ten-gallon Worthington tanks stand ready for action

loft1.jpg - The curved picture windows at the end of the loft. Brian wanted the end curved instead or rectangular just to be creative. Looks like it worked.

scraps.jpg - Brian's newest project: Build a balloon completely from leftover scraps of nylon.

singr112.jpg - Here's the sewing machine responsible for much of the madness in Post Mills.

gondola.jpg - The gondola of Brian's newest hot-air airship

jtstream.jpg - Look closely and you can see my reflection! That's a lot of chrome for a burner.

model_a.jpg - The Model A Ford that was putting around the airport property over the weekend... I presume it was donated to the balloon museum by Joe Kittinger because of the "Rosie O'Grady's Flying Circus" logos on the sides.

happybag.jpg - One of the newest Museum relics in the process of being donated

basket.jpg - A Boland collapsible basket being assembled (that's the canvas outer wall being put on)

chariot.jpg - Experimental chariot basket built by "Wild Bill" Whelan and the Eh-Team (pronounced "A-Team") from Canada

blimp0.jpg - THE BLIMP! Or at least the gondola...

bearship.jpg - Homebuilt balloon (flown on top of a TBW basket) from Derry, NH. I found out that it's not "Air Bear"... It's "The Bear Ship."

bearshp1.jpg - Shot of "The Bear Ship" being stood up

bearshp2.jpg - Same balloon, different picture

inflate.jpg - A balloon inflating with fan in foreground

cassidy1.jpg - Ron Cassidy's balloon inflating

cassidy.jpg - Ron Cassidy standing up his experimental balloon

balnline.jpg - Interesting line of balloons in the distance... Somebody's trying to tell us something!

108-1.jpg - Brian's 108,000 cubic-footer in the process of standing up

108-2.jpg - Another shot of the "big one" on its way up

108.jpg - A bottom-half shot of the 108

108-3.jpg - View up into the top of the 108

108-4.jpg - The 108 lifting off on tether before lifting off for a free flight

reflect1.jpg - I call this "How a Rear Window of a Van Sees Me and My Camera"

reflect2.jpg - I call this "How Two Rear Windows of a Truck See a Balloon"

t3-017.jpg - The type of burner most homebuilders use. Read on (Saturday) to see why.

2balloon.jpg - Two interesting homebuilt balloons (but they are all homebuilt, and all interesting!)

cubeinfl.jpg - In this picture, you can see that the mouth of the Flying Cube is pretty much triangular.

phil1.jpg - "Ran Out Of Pink" inflating

phil_top.jpg - The parachute and single yellow gore on Phil's balloon... He ran out of pink and had to use yellow on the last gore! He says it's easier to spot the first gore now, so he's going to do this with all of his future balloons.

phil.jpg - Phil MacNutt and his aluminum, propane-filled horse. "Where's your saddle, cowboy?"

3balloon.jpg - The Flying Cube, the 108, and Phil MacNutt's 25,000 cubic foot tank seat rig.

4baluns.jpg - Balloons in different stages of inflation and flight

5baluns.jpg - Phil's burner and cables in the foreground with other balloons in background

renaiss.jpg - Lawrence Feir's balloon "Renaissance" immediately after being stood up.

phil3.jpg - Phil's balloon directly overhead.

cube.jpg - The Flying Cube, built by Brian Boland. It is 28,000 cubic feet.

cube1.jpg - Another Cube shot

launch.jpg - Balloons ready for flight. Notice Brian in the foreground walking casually across the field to his 108. (yes, I know some of these pictures are out of order, but you'll all have to live with that.)

indepen2.jpg - "Independence," a 68,000 cubic foot homebuilt made from various choice bits of nylon.

independ.jpg - "Independence" floating away

stars.jpg - Unidentified balloon and owner, so help me out. Notice the jeans sewn into the balloon. There's a story behind them, but I don't know all the details.

silver.jpg - Mike Emich's AX-5 "Silver Shadow" used in his most recent record flight breaking the distance record for that class

silver1.jpg - Same balloon... It's 41,000 cubic feet.

silver2.jpg - Same balloon...

silver3.jpg - Same balloon...

museum3.jpg - View of the end of the museum building as seen from Lawrence Feir's "Renaissance" balloon.

renaiss1.jpg - Renaissance on tether with me at the blast valve. I think I made the flame in this particular photo which my mom took.


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