Day 11 - UFO? Weather Ballon? Big Black ______?

 No,  its just our hot air balloon experiment gone awry!

In the spirit of our New Mexico studies,  I thought it would be interesting to learn about how hot air balloons work.   

Albuquerque, New Mexico is the home of the annual hot air balloon festival.   Every year, well not this year,  but every normal year... thousands gather in Albuquerque to watch hundreds of unique hot air balloons launch.

We decided to try launching our own today.   First we used a small kitchen trash bag as our balloon.  We filled it with hot air from a hair dryer and watched it sort of rise slightly and then bumble to the ground.  That was anticlimactic to say the least!

"There has got to be a bigger bag we can use to make this more exciting."  I said to the kids,  as they barely lifted their eyes from their computer screens.    I could tell they were totally unimpressed.

I had remembered seeing a black plastic bag in the Steve Spangler Science Kit that I picked up from the Thrift Store.   I immediately searched our coat closet to see if I could find this kit.    

Low and Behold!   Not only did I find a large plastic bag -- I found the motherlode of all!  A 50 foot black plastic tube.   It was designed with our exact purpose in mind - creating a hot air balloon!

It was so long that we had to cut it in half.   We couldn't possibly work with a tube that long in our tiny yard.   We taped one end shut and then used a rubber band to seal the open end around the shaft of the hair dryer.   

Lauren turned on the hair dryer and now I am pretty sure that I had the kids full attention.

Of course that launch was so epic that just had to try it again!   However this time we were going to use a higher powered hair dryer.    Not really thinking through the consequences of this decision,  we refilled our balloon with air and let it go!   Ooops....

That's not a big black bird up in the sky... that's our hot air balloon.   Holy shit!  

"Go follow that balloon!"  I yelled at the kids.  "Wait,  get on your bikes,  it is going to be in the next neighborhood by now."

We ended up piling into the car and chasing down our balloon.   We lost sight of it as we turned onto the main street out of our culd-e-sac.   We slowly circled the outskirts of our neighborhood, praying our hot air balloon didn't cause any damage when it landed.   

" I see it, Mom!"  Zach shouted from the backseat.

"Are you sure? "  I questioned slowing down to get a better look.   

Sure enough,  there was our long black plastic bag wrapped around the branches at the tip top of a large elm tree.

"Maybe we can shake the tree and get it down?"  Lauren suggested.

"Nope,   we aren't shaking that old sturdy tree in the slightest.  Plus,  it is wrapped around those branches tightly."   I said.  "I don't think it is ever coming down."

Thankful our experiment didn't require a call to the FAA to report a big black UFO tube floating into never-neverland.