Buy a few more rolls of film, or at least some new batteries for your digital camera; -- you're going to need them.

Officials are expecting a dozen or so hot air balloons for the High Plains Freedom Flight 2003, set next weekend, Oct. 24-26 in McCook.

There's nothing like the sight of a hundreds of yards of colorful rip-stop nylon against a blue sky with white puffy clouds.

Or, the glow of a million BTUs of burning propane in the night.

Don't forget that film and those batteries.

While McCook may have a dozen or so hot air balloons on hand, imagine a thousand or more in one place.

That is the scene each year at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, held this year Oct. 4-12.

But not all the balloons were filled with hot air.

Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis flew their helium balloon all the way from Albuquerque to Duluth, Minn., to win the Eighth America's Challenge Gas Balloon Race.

If the Abruzzo name is familiar, it may be because he is the son of the late Ben Abruzzo, who piloted the first balloons to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific. Richard Abruzzo completed the first balloon flight from North America to Africa.

The winning team crossed Nebraska neck and neck with Barbara Fricke and Peter Cuneo, who placed second and landed near Hinkley, Minn., after 63 hours in the air.

The racers would have had more competition, except many of the others were forced to land in New Mexico because of a storm.

Among them was John Kugler of McCook and his co-pilot, "Red" Sheeshe, who made it 184 miles before landing near Clovis, N.M.

"Next year ..." Kugler said, hopefully.

John probably doesn't remember it, but I first met him 20 years ago at the Ainsworth Centennial celebration.

It's hard to forget someone who brings a giant green balloon to a party, and hollers "yaahoo!" at liftoff. John and a local businessman floated off to the north, while the crowd watched two or three ultralight airplanes circle the field.

It turned into a drama when a gust front moved into the area, and we wondered whether the tiny airplanes would make it onto the ground in one piece.

They did, although we rushed over to them when they landed and grabbed them to keep them from flipping in the wind.

As I remember it, John and the local passenger survived a rather bumpy landing unharmed.

I first met another guy about 13 years ago, and it's about this time that I usually embarrass him by saying "The first time I saw you, you were this long," holding out my hands about a foot apart.

Happy birthday, son.