Random Photos II

	One of the really cool things about our hotel is that it's in a neighborhood. It's the large building on the right side of this photo. There are houses right across the street.  Most teams chose lodging in town closer to the Competition Center, but all of Team USA is here.  The gentleman that owns the establishment works here every day; they've been very accommodating of the "peculiarities" that balloonists bring with them.
	The hotel has a great restaurant, we've eaten there several times already. Last night I had a tonfish (tuna) salad. The bar serves 400 HUF($2 USD) tall beers and glasses of wine every day. In Hungary it's often cheaper to drink beer than soda.
	There's always a variety of desert-type selection in the display case at the hotel. Erica and Bonnie are working their way through them one at a time, although it may be a losing battle as the selection changes daily. I haven't purchased anything myself, but everyone who has says they're not as sweet as what they'd expected.
	Just down the road a couple hundred feet is a grocery store. Several of us frequent it daily. They have a bakery, a deli, and fresh fruit. Plus they tolerate our lack of familiarity with Hungarian shopping protocol. For example, here you weigh your own fresh fruit and print out a barcoded label. When we neglected to do that, they didn't complain too much about doing it for us.
	About a half mile away is an Aldi. I've never been to one in the US, but if they sell the little chocolate balls with rum inside them (this one does), I'll probably start going there more often.
	During the chases we live on Sam's Club house brand trail mix. It's been an overseas dietary staple since we went to Japan in 2006, and there's always one in our vehicle. This is a 3-pound bag, and Erica brought three bags over. So far we've gone through 1½ bags, so we're pacing ourselves pretty well. We also have a wide variety of energy/fiber/granola bars on hand.
	Most pilots here are using trailers, both open and closet. Many of the teams that couldn't drive here (like Australia, Japan, and the US) are using cargo vans, storing the equipment inside. Johnny is the only one using a pickup truck, which is of course very common in the US. There are no 15-passenger vans with hydraulic lift gates here.
	This is what the inside of our van looks like. The envelope bag is sitting on the orange pallet that was used to air-freight the entire setup. It's a cargo van, so there's a wall between the passengers and the back. The fan we're borrowing was sold to a pilot from Slovenian by Cameron Balloons US after we used it at the Austrian Worlds in 2006. It's made by Ken Tadolini and is the best fan I've ever used. It has a 6hp Honda motor, a multi-wing adjustable prop, and wheel locks. It inflates a ZL-60 straight out of the bag (no spreading by hand) in just a couple minutes. Officially on my Christmas list.