Dark into Daylight—a Dead Rooster Crows at the Moon
Photo credit: jahdakine
I don’t like alarm clocks. I also believe that whoever invented them should have their eyes sucked out with toilet plungers. However, this weekend, I am going to have to use one (an alarm clock, not a toilet plunger) in order to make sure I get up.
Friday thru Sunday is the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival. As regular readers of this blog know, I periodically perform ground crew duties for hot-air balloon companies. I got the call earlier this week which is of course no surprise since this is the busiest ballooning week of the year here in the Temecula valley.
What is a surprise, though, is that one happy (and, possibly deranged) couple has decided to get married in a hot air balloon—which is OK—but they booked their wedding on a flight known as the “Dark into daylight” flight. This means that everyone (including me) has to get up at such a dark and scary time of the morning that the only people awake are zombies and grave robbers.
The reason it has to be so early is because the balloon has to be airborne in time for the passengers to see the sunrise during the flight (which is why it’s called, Dark into daylight).
I have to drive down to the launch site, assemble the balloon, inflate it and hope everything goes off without a hitch so we can beat daybreak.
So, I will attempt to get up Friday morning at 2:30 a.m.
As I write this it is 10:00 p.m. Thursday night.
And, some guy is playing a bagpipe next door (I wish I was kidding).
So, I am going to post this and hope I can figure out how to set my alarm clock (which I’ve never used before) and hope I can get a couple of hours sleep.
See you around Monday or Tuesday. 
*UPDATE–Friday 6/6/08: I used the alarm in my cell phone and it woke me up flawlessly. The balloon flight went perfectly and the passengers, who were actually celebrating a wedding anniversary and NOT getting married as I had erroneously reported, had a wonderful time (by the way, they were not deranged in the least–in fact, they were extremely nice and were a lot of fun).
Comments
Comment from Uni
Time: June 5, 2008, 10:19 pm
Your cell phone should have an alarm on it!! You can use that! Put it next to your ear.
Comment from Dark Angel
Time: June 6, 2008, 2:51 am
The snooze button was invented for people like you and I.
William McCamment reply on June 6th, 2008 3:26 am:
Yes it was, and my cell phone alarm has one!
Comment from laane
Time: June 6, 2008, 3:06 am
Are you sure it’s a guy?
I’ve been playing bagpipe…maybe it was me. LOL!
William McCamment reply on June 6th, 2008 3:26 am:
Oh, yes, it’s a guy. It’s the same guy that plays the drums. LOL
Comment from Jillian
Time: June 6, 2008, 4:09 am
Pfft. 2:30AM might as well be 12 noon for me. I stay up all night.. sometimes for days at a time. (which is actually not good)
But I hope you made it on time. Getting married in a hot air balloon.. or even just being in one as the sun rises sounds awesome.
William McCamment reply on June 6th, 2008 4:19 pm:
Wow! Get some sleep, girl!
I did make it on time, and it turns out that the couple was not getting married, but celebrating their wedding anniversary. D’oh!
I should also point out that they were not at all deranged either! In fact, they were extremely nice and a lot of fun.
Comment from Eric “Cluck” Knapp
Time: June 6, 2008, 4:35 am
You don’t have to worry about zombies if there are grave robbers around. It’s a well known fact that grave robbers are the preferred food of zombies.
William McCamment reply on June 6th, 2008 4:23 pm:
I can’t tell you how great it is to have an actual zombie expert hanging-out around here and I know that one day it could really come in handy.
Comment from Jenn Thorson
Time: June 6, 2008, 10:57 am
Hope the Dark into Daylight is a success, and that you have a minimum of zombies to deal with.
PS- I was watching TV with a friend when your hot air balloon Honda commercial came on!! So of course I had to relay the excellent story. That fame– it keeps spreading!
William McCamment reply on June 6th, 2008 4:33 pm:
The Dark into Daylight was a great success. The balloon looks really awesome in the dark when they blast the fire. The whole thing glows like a colorful light bulb!
I’ve shown friends that commercial and when I say, “see that balloon basket? I’m hiding behind it,” they look at me like I just asked them to clean my shower.
Comment from Kathy
Time: June 6, 2008, 6:32 pm
I hope you know you have the coolest job on the planet. Well, at least it beats my job in tech support. You don’t get into commercials for that. Glad you got up on time and that everything went so well. I can imagine how amazing the balloon looked all fired up in the wee hours.
William McCamment reply on June 6th, 2008 7:30 pm:
Balloon crewing is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I only get to do it about 3 or 4 times a month.
I could do without the super early Dark into Daylight flights, but in the five years I’ve been crewing, I think I’ve only had to do that twice.
Comment from Barry
Time: June 7, 2008, 4:29 am
I always knew you had enough hot-air to get a balloon off the ground :))
On another note - I always use my cell-phone as an alarm clock, it is the most reliable one I have - and loud enough for a half-deaf guy like me too 
William McCamment reply on June 7th, 2008 2:18 pm:
Gee, thanks, Barry. LOL
I like the cell phone too. I rarely need an alarm clock, but it’s nice to have the cell phone for emergencies.
Comment from ettarose
Time: June 7, 2008, 4:46 am
I finally got to see your commercial. I think that is cool. Even if you are not seen, just the fact you got to do it! How many times do you get to ride in the balloons? Have you been to Albuquerque?
William McCamment reply on June 7th, 2008 2:26 pm:
It was a lot of fun working on that commercial. Those nudists were all hilarious–constantly making us laugh.
I have never been to “the big one”: Albuquerque. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do but never did it. Eight-hundred hot air balloons in the air all at once makes me nervous though (contrast that to our little balloon festival here with about fifty balloons). LOL
When we have a lot of room in the big balloon (10-12 passenger) when we’ve booked about seven people, they NEED me to ride in it in order to help give it a little extra weight. So, I’ve flown many times. It’s a lot of fun.
William McCamment reply on June 7th, 2008 2:29 pm:
p.s. I also have some official flight hours myself and have flown a hot air balloon from takeoff to landing (with an instructor next to me though). That is a LOT of fun!
Comment from John Sullivan
Time: June 9, 2008, 3:10 am
Sir William
Hey just passing thru to read what you were up to and it’s sounds like your summer is starting off great Well Good for you.Miss seeing you around
I got a new avatar so see if you can find me 
All the Best to you Always
William McCamment reply on June 10th, 2008 3:47 am:
Thanks, John
It wasn’t too hard to find your avatar–it shows up in my BlogCatalog widget in the sidebar.
Comment from Pink Lemonade Liz
Time: June 9, 2008, 8:47 pm
Wow - seing the sunrise from a balloon - what a beautiful thing it must be!
Here in the Napa Valley, we too, have tons of balloon flights daily and they regularly land in the field behind our fence. My girls always love to watch the people get out of the basket (it’s not always so graceful!) and then watch the crews put the balloons away. It’s not easy work - kudos to you!
William McCamment reply on June 10th, 2008 3:52 am:
Haha! Yes, it is much more dangerous getting out of the basket than the balloon flight itself. I have seen people tumble ass over teakettle many times–usually because they get impatient.
Crewing a balloon is very hard physical work. It always wipes me out for the rest of the day. But, it’s fun!
William McCamment reply on June 6th, 2008 3:39 am:
That is a great idea and is exactly what I wound-up doing.
…and the cell phone has a snooze alarm.
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