Karen looks out our Motorhome window and sees THIS ...
She calls out, “Ed! Look! There’s a big hot air balloon coming down!”
Putting on jackets, we run out to a spot several hundred yards into the field west of us--- Below is Ed, running towards it----
Balloonist: “What land are we on?”
Ed: “County park land.”
B: “Do we have permission to land here?”
Ed: “Well, seems to me you’ve already landed.”
It was a Hot-Air Balloon Tour that had taken off from the County Fairgrounds eight miles away.
Balloonist: “We almost came down in the woods over there."
Ed: “Coming down in those woods would’ve created problems. That's city open-space preserve-- no roads.”
B- “I don’t want to be on city land ...is this city land?”
Ed- “No, like I said, this is county land.”
B- “Good, I don’t want to go on city land.”
Here is the Gondola with happy Balloon Tourists. The Balloonist is the one concentrating on his equipment---
Soon, a melodrama unfolds! ---
-The Ranger from the neighboring CITY Open Space Preserve shows up to issue them a Citation for landing on city land…
-The Balloonist strenuously objects (“...we're on county land!”)
-The City Ranger’s face hardens (“...you landed first on city land.”)
-The Balloonist even more strenuously objects...
-The City Ranger grimly threatens to impound the balloon (by now collapsed & rolled-up).
The Balloonist calls his boss...
...His boss calls their lawyers....
[By then, we’d called our own COUNTY Ranger, who's now also involved.]
...Needless to say, we’re staying clear of further involvement...
WOW! ...What a "neighborhood"!
We wonder who (or what) will be our NEXT Visitor to "Drop In"?