Curves Balloon Makes Unexpected Landing at MICDS

Georgine Ustruck of Ballwin and Cathy Baumann of Fenton paid a surprise visit to MICDS this morning.

They are customers of Curves stores in their respective communities and won a free balloon ride this morning from Forest Park. Ustruck is  regular at the Curves in Manchester. The Great Forest Park Balloon race is scheduled this weekend with the popular 'Balloon Glow' this evening.

Pilot Ron Frusher, manager of balloon operations for Curves International had scheduled a 5 a.m. launch from Forest Park as a practice run, with a planned landing somewhere on the campus of Washington University.

Prevailing winds took the hot air balloon straight west over Clayton to Ladue. The ride turned out to be more than 40 minutes in duration.

An MICDS field hockey gym class greeted the unexpected guests and all kind of cameras came out for some shots.

"We had a great flight. It was fun and I got to take lots of pictures," said Ustruck. The surprise landing came at 8:20 a.m.

Tim White, MICDS' director of security was on the welcoming team. "It's not everyday you get a hot air balloon landing on your campus," he said with a grin. "But everything went smoothly and we welcomed them," said White.

Within minutes, the 11 member chase crew had packed up the balloon and were ready to return to Forest Park.

The balloon is named the 'Spirit of Curves.' The crew and guests had plenty of spirit upon their unexpected landing on the MICDS campus.