Here at last

We got into Motegi today, and this is finally starting to feel like a balloon race. After checking into the Twin Ring Motegi hotel:

We went and fueled the balloon, put together the burner and fan, and got things ready for a practice flight in the morning. We'll try another practice flight in the evening, and spend much of the day working on electronics, computers, radios, and the like.

The Twin Ring Motegi is Honda's testing ground for their race program. As such, there are about a dozen different race tracks here. It's a very impressive facility. Here's the view from our 5th floor room:

And finally, here's Johnny preparing for the big event:

Greatest idea ever

So Erica's got an entire 50 pound suitcase full of food. Cookies, crackers, granola bars, hot cocoa, and such. But the genius idea was the instant oatmeal. All our rooms have these instant hot water machines. They look like coffee makers, but just put out boiling water. So you just grab a cup, pour in the oatmeal, add water, and you've got breakfast:

It's great because not only is it cheap (breakfast is $25 here at the hotel), but it'll give us something hot to eat before flights.

Enough being a tourist...

Today is the day we leave for Motegi. We'll help Johnny get his balloon from the airport, then load up the vans and drive up. Once we get to Motegi, we'll start putting the equipment together and get fuel (the balloon tanks are empty). We'll do some practice flights tomorrow, and the rest of our group (Shawn and Joe) gets in tomorrow night. Saturday is practice flights along with the registration and master briefing. Then on Sunday morning the real thing starts. Right now the weather doesn't look so hot for next week (60% chance of rain most days), but it's been changing by the day, so who knows.