And the Adventures of “Flat Stanley”

Our story begins at Harrisburg Elementary School in Harrisburg, North Carolina. For the members of the “Gr-r-reat Tony Balloon Team” the day started out pretty normal. 

My name is Scott, and you’ll see me in a lot of the pictures, my job is to fly the Kellogg hot air balloon, and I’m the person that will be telling this story. 

We did all the things we normally do for a school visit, starting with a briefing of all the teachers (so they knew what we were planning), then, we stood (inflated) our gigantic “Tony The Tiger” hot air balloon.

Everything was going according to plan, with the exception of a little bit of rain. The kids all got to come up to the basket for a good look inside the TONY balloon, everything, according to the plan.

As we were finishing up the flight, Andre, my Co-Pilot for the flight operation climbed in to the basket to take control of the deflation process. Our helper crew worked hard to pack the balloon away in its bag by “squishing” all the air out…

Then we met Miss B. and her class, and something very special happened that changed the rest of our flight season, (or at least until May of 2004). 

Miss B. (Miss Blomquist) and her third grade kids asked us to take “Flat Stanley” with us for an adventure. Of course we were thrilled and honored to have such a celebrity join our Kellogg Ballooning crew!

The first thing we did, was get “Flat Stanley” outfitted (dressed) as part of the Team.

“Flat Stanley” in his Team Tiger Balloon Shirt

Some of you may be wondering who on earth “Flat Stanley” is and why he is hanging out with us ?

 There is a book called FLAT STANLEY.  It is about a boy who became flat when his humongous bulletin board fell on him while he was sleeping. In the book, Stanley was folded up and sent in an envelope to see his best friend in California.

 Miss B’s class thought that it might be fun to send Stanley with us, and asked us to take him with us on our travels. On these pages, we plan to share with you all the places we visit and all the things we (and Stanley) get to do. 

Lots of it is work, but we always have time to share in some fun. We’re very excited, because Stanley is going to get to have an adventure with lots of ballooning, tons of school kids all over the country, lots of travel to fun and exciting places and best of all, the chance to make new friends where ever we visit.

Now just so you know that Stanley is in good shape, living well and being cared for, when we aren’t in a hotel, Staley stays in my office, over my desk. The staff here at Lighter Than Air America, Inc. is building Stanley a room of his own, and they promise me that it will be finished in time for Thanksgiving!  More on that later.

Stanley is going to get to see some fun places over the next seven months and I want you to know who will be taking care of him in his travels, because there are several of us that will, in fact, my pilots and crew chiefs (along with my daughters) are all screaming to have their time with Stanley.

Scott & Laurie Spencer (Scott is writing this story), then TONY pilots Doyle Hartman and Jim Frame.

Tony Crew Chiefs Bob Stewart (left) and Jesse Satterlee (right)

You’re going to see lots of other people too. Kids that we meet, my staff here at Lighter Than Air America as well as my family, this should be fun.