I emailed Goldballoon the post on Diomede Islands . Thinking I had a scoop for him
like perhaps there was a unique place in the world that he didn’t know about…Well silly me

Hey Gary,

It’s interesting that you brought up the Diomede Islands. In 1990, as part of a much bigger adventure, I took 2000 lbs. of ballooning equipment and fuel there on a twin Beech. I slept under the stairs in the post office for two weeks, while having a most incredible time on the edge of life as we know it. The weather co-operated for me to make the first balloon flight between the US and the USSR, without any authorization.

From Diomede, I went back to Nome, Alaska and then chartered a bigger plane to take me to Provideniya, Nome’s sister city in Russia’s Far East. The description and photos at this link barely scratch the surface of the surreal experience that I will one day tell and share more of:

editors note as always for best viewing…click on the right arrow then on the pause icon on the left then on the “I” information icon then scroll with the right arrow

https://balloonbill.smugmug.com/Other/Easter-Sunday-in-Provideniya/

These are the only images from the Diomedes that I’ve converted to digital form, from the mountain of slides

My response to Bill

Holey Molars WTF SHEESH and THERE ARE NO WORDS FOR THIS

………..

“The entire story is worthy of a book and a movie, or maybe a series of books. Too much happened in such a short period of time, during such an amazing time in history. The funny thing was no one wanted to join me to explore freely. Money can’t buy stuff like this, you just have to let go and be pulled forward into it.”

Life is endless opportunities…