and the Continuing Adventures of “Flat Stanley” 

Pendleton, Oregon

Pendleton, Oregon is a beautiful community at the western base of the “Blue Mountains”, in the northeast part of Oregon. For us, its much more than just a place to fly balloons, it’s the home of another of our clients, the Wildhorse Resort. 

Each year, at the end of October, we celebrate the end of the ballooning season in the Pacific Northwest at Wildhorse Resort with a weekend of ballooning with our friends. 

Though it is a lot of fun, its still work for all the members of the Lighter Than Air family because we are responsible for getting each days launch into the air. 

We love visiting schools and stores with our balloons, but a weekend opportunity to go out and fly our balloons off the ground and into the sky to see where the wind will deposit us is the very best part of our job. 

For this trip, we left our Tony balloons behind and both Miss Laurie and I picked the balloons we wanted to fly.

Miss Laurie picked her favorite balloon, the Wildhorse “Wind Warrior” and I picked a brand new Coca-Cola balloon that I hadn’t flown yet.

By now, you’re wondering where Stanley is ?  I’ll get to him in a moment, he did fly with both of us, but I thought I’d share a little bit more about the event first. 

Remember, when we fly balloons, we never know where we will end up because we can’t steer them. We ride the wind to our destination. During the event however, targets are placed around the resort and we are tasked with flying our balloons over them and dropping a small bag as near to the center as we can…

This is a real challenge when we can’t steer. We have to go to different altitudes above the ground and catch different winds. Math is very important to us as we fly the balloons in competition. We have to be able to quickly figure angels and deflection in order to put ourselves at the proper altitude, within the proper wind. Enough of that. We had a wonderful time with our friends, flying balloons. The people that came to see the event got to see a spectacular morning sky filled with balloons!

Now, on to Stanley. He had a fantastic time in Pendleton, but, we were all a bit tired after having traveled from North Carolina to Idaho, then to Minnesota, on to Nebraska, back to Idaho than over to Oregon in less than 7 days, so we got some rest while we were there too. Stanley, being younger than Miss Laurie and I, got rested faster then we did.  

I’m sure you know what its like, Mom and Dad want a nap, you’re up and ready to go… 

Stanley wanted some adventure (Oregon is a long way from North Carolina) and the staff of Lighter Than Air America was ready to have some fun too, so my daughters, Shauna and Lesley took good care to include Stanley in their special activities.

These are my daughters Shauna (right), she is 25 and Lesley (left) she is 21 and here are some of the things they did with Stanley while in Pendleton: 

Each year at the Wildhorse Balloon “BASH”. The LTAA crew has a water volleyball game in the hotel pool. Stanley got to play this year… Jesse is holding Stanley.

I don’t want to give the impression that we are catering to Stanley’s every whim… but yes, the pictures below are of Stanley in his own balloon.

YES, IN HIS OWN BALLOON !

Stanley took a ride with TONY the Tiger in a remote control hot air balloon.

So, do you know what a “Spud Gun Shoot” is?  Each year at Wildhorse, on Saturday afternoon, the balloonist’s have a spud gun shoot.  

Spud Guns are made from plastic pipe. You shove a potato down the barrel, then charge the barrel with either compressed air or hair spray. These guns will shoot a potato almost 500 yards. (No Idaho Spud Jokes Please) 

The theme of this years Spud Gun Event at Wildhorse Resort was “Invasion”.  Flat Stanley took part in this event to. He got to ride in the Spud Gun Hummer.

The picture above and right is the Lighter Than Air America Spud Gun Team. From left to right that’s carol Hess, Miss Laurie, Jesse Satterlee, then Shauna and Lesley Spencer and on the right end, Mr. Lunch Box Bob.

The Annual Spud Gun Shoot is great fun. Last year, the tams “Bagged” an elephant !

Well, as you can see, Stanley had a pretty good time in Pendleton. But wait, there is still even more. Stanley was on the “Lighter Than Air Vision” video stream. After an evening flight, Stanley enjoyed some social time with the Lighter Than Air Gang. 

You can see video of Flat Stanley by clicking the links below: 

Watch Stanley Body Surf with the LTAA Kids

Watch Stanley Fly the Remote Control Balloon

Watch Stanley Rock Out with Shauna and the Beatles

So that’s about it from Pendleton, Oregon. Its time to go back to Boise and get ready for a quick tour of Stanley’s new “temporary” home with Scott and Miss Laurie.

The Flat Stanley video is powered by Fiberpipe.net

You can see more video from our Hot Air Balloon adventures by visiting LighterThanAirVision.com