I hope today went as well as it could do. I’m inspired by your strength and courage in the face of terrible adversity. As a father myself I’m not convinced I could have coped in the way that you have done. In your own way you and your little boy have inspired more people than the vast majority of us achieve in our lifetimes. For that you should be incredibly proud. Wishing you and your family all the best for the future.

Thanks ‘bearnecessities’ it was a cold morning at sherwood pines me Vic ( in orange ) and a friend Emma had planned a peak district ride but snow put a stop to that idea, One of the silver star balloons made a run for it and got away before time 😳 I put a little message on explaining what the balloon was for and a little bag of wild flower seeds, it snowed just after we let them go xx

AMAZING that is is all i can say THANK YOU all so much its made my day so much better i shall post mine up a little later

today was hard but with the support I’ve had it made it so much easier and i can only give that to you as with out you i could not have done it .
writing on this forum is easier than talking to family members etc.

oh and our organist made us laugh (really out of tune lol)

Well Lewis we are all here for you when you want or need to talk ,I didn’t get chance to get a balloon but I observed a minutes silence and said a little prayer .take care

Thinking of George and all of you in Bavaria x

I’m playing all the right notes; just not necessarily in the right order?

alp_girl could you send that to bruders338@hotmail.co.uk please as i wish to save it in our memory box.

i have the other pic’s thank you i can’t say it enough but they are amazing and mean so much

Sure, will do, Lewis, got a couple more to upload from my camera. I’ll email them all tomorrow.

I’ve just had an email from Ninkynonk about a baloon release at HTN.

If anyone wants to they can set up at the start and release them as the hooter goes.

If anyone does require balloons, there are a few left still so just drop me an e-mail.

My thoughts have been with and your family today. As others have, made a special trip to my local trail letting the balloons off on my favorite section.

DSC01161 by Luke Prescott, on Flickr

DSC01162 by Luke Prescott, on Flickr

DSC01163 by Luke Prescott, on Flickr

DSC01164 by Luke Prescott, on Flickr

JoeG’s US Balloon Release

I was able to find some yellow SpongeBob balloons and made up a little card to attach to it.

The weather at home was not nice, maybe a little above freezing and some light rain. This is not the type of weather that I like to ride in at all, but I felt that I had to go and release this balloon today in George’s memory. So I loaded up the fat bike and drove up to the park. Although only a little over 2 miles away, the weather there was different. It was snowing was cold enough that the snow was building up on the ground.

Before I got out of my truck, I attached the balloon to a heavy padlock to make sure that it would not blow away if it slipped out of my hand or something! Then I put the lock as well as the card attached to the balloon in my Camelbak and rode to the spot that I had in mind for the release.

Once there, I leaned the bike against a big old oak tree and found a spot to set the camera to use the timer to get a photo of myself.

Then, I noticed a problem. The balloon wasn’t pulling up on its string! Between the cold outside temperature and all of the snow sticking to the balloon, there wasn’t enough helium in it to get it to rise. So, I hunched over the balloon and rubbed the snow and water off of it with my gloves. It was just enough, and I let the balloon go.

It climbed slowly but steadily, and I watched it till it was out of sight. Farewell, George. You are not forgotten!

This is the clearing after the release, and a couple of pics on the ride back.

The release took place just off of White Oak Trail in Pleasant Valley Park, Murrysville, Pennsylvania.

My thoughts are with George’s family.

Still can’t read this thread properly, some lovely tributes. I can’t begin to imagine how tough this time is for you. There is a great community here & it apparent in the tributes. Keep strong and keep going. I can’t make a money donation (i think this is what may have been happening but cant read the thread properly) but if I can use my arty skill set in anyway to make your life easier right now please be in touch, or via the mods.

David

Here are some of the pic’s from our day.

Not very flattering one of us but its the only one with us releasing the Balloons from bearnecessities/JoeG.

The ones we released

these ones where Richards balloons that i sent to Aberdeen to my aunt/uncle and there two little boys

Not sure if im aloud to post the pic’s of my LBS but they have been really supportive and they did release two of JoeG and 4 of bearnecessities.

Stuart the boss told me that they got caught on a balcony and needed the handy man to climb up to release them (but all survived)

I took a couple of minutes out for you, your family and George yesterday. Quietly thinking of you at 1230. I had a tears in my eyes and had to compose myself before going back into work.

Read through all the posts again today and words fail me, your strength, the generosity of strangers and the kindness shown here left me with tears in my eyes again.

I hope in time the pain fades but that in the short time you had with George he brought you joy and happiness that you can remember him by.

So sorry for your loss. Hope you are getting through.
The ballons is a beautiful idea well done all.

Chris

I’ve been unable to read this thread without welling up, tears in my eyes right now & they’re starting to roll down my cheeks. It has taken me 2 weeks to be able to face reading it.
I was going to try and say something profound & meanigful, but words are failing me at the moment. I’m not very good at saying the right thing at the best of times. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.
I was unable to join in the ballon release yesterday, so sorry. If you don’t mind I will release one on Sunday for Spongebob!
Even though we’ve never met I’m thinking of you and your family, please give them all huge hugs from me.
Helen

Hope this works.

Release 1: view of Melbreak near Crummock Water. The words hope in sign and on my helmet I thought were fitting.
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/n3iqswezdhlgij6/GwtbQyAYUD

The wind caught me out and it headed for Whinlatter!
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/kmwtlgdi7gwlj5k/_tEaYrbb6-

I’ll have to download onto pc tomorrow. Doesn’t seem to work.

Doesn’t seem like you can hotlink images directly from Dropbox. I’ve amended your links so they go to correct pages, at least.

Pictures taken on the outskirts of Sherborne castle in Dorset earlier today (Fri 15th). The weather was beautiful.

Hope you’re ok.

Mike

Keep seeing this thread, popping in and keep meaning to say something but I can’t really think of anything to say that hasn’t already been said. Your attitude is amazing and this thread has been strangely inspirational in a way. Love the balloon release pictures.

Lovely. That’s about all I can muster. Just lovely.
Sincere thoughts to you guys.

Release 2: View of Melbreak from the edge of Crummock Water.
link

Up and away over Rannerdale Knott
link

Release 3: Getting Dark, on the Shores of Buttermere
Link

Heading away over Honister Mine. The sky had a blue tinge and the ballon strangely lit up???
link

So so sad deepest sympathies to you guys god bless x

Not sure by whom but some balloons were launched at the start line of Hit the North today

Not sure by whom but some balloons were launched at the start line of Hit the North today

By Ninkynonk. I hope somebody got a photo.

i have not read thr entire 18 pages, but as much as i could “handle” my thoughts and deepest sympathies go to all of you. look after each other!

Lewis,

I rode at Hit the North yesterday, quite a few people saw my balloons and gave me a nod or made a comment, George was in a lot of peoples minds yesterday.

As you can see I let my balloons go right at the start of the race, as a keen mtb’er I thought you’d like it as something slightly different to some of the other (wonderful) pictures already posted.

Thanks to Andy (Harry the Spider) for allowing me to stand on the start line with them at the begining of the race.

Still thinking of you guys, hang in there…

I’ll email the photos to you when I get a chance.

Sorry not been about lately been so busy. and to be honest just sat feeling sorry for myself.

But today i got up went for a walk and feel much better.
Got to brave the next step Work tomorrow!!

Thank you to all for the pic’s i have received loads via email so thank you so much for taking the time to do that for us.

i shall wait a little longer (as not everyone was able to let balloons off this week) but end of next week i shall be ordering the photos to go in our box.

Thank you all so so so much. Your amazing

Good luck tomorrow. I’m sure the folk around you at work will be as much of a support to you as folk here have been. Theres another side to people at times like these and I’m sure they’ll step up.

Good luck in work tomorrow.

Not sure if they will let you break yourself in gently to the routine.

We went into town today & managed to get a helium balloon, although they wouldn’t fill the ‘George’ balloon with helium as it wasn’t ‘supplied by them’.
We figured the helium balloon would have enough oomph though to get them both aloft…

We drove over to Ferry Meadows in Peterborough, found a quiet spot & let them go….
At first, they weren’t gaining much height and we were worried they would get caught in the trees, but all of a sudden they really took off & shot up. We watched them until they were out of sight….it was quite busy there, so hopefully others noticed them.

OH doing release duties…

DSC_4474 by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

13-02-17 DSC_4475 by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

DSC_4477 by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

Almost out of sight…

DSC_4491 by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

Bruders – I’ll mail them over now (once I look back for your mail address.
Good luck at work tomorrow…!

Thought of you today Lewis; how was first day back?

I hope you coped at work as best as you could. I am sure that all the messages and pictures have helped you in this utterly terrible time. I have to say through tears after reading what some of you have done for the memory of George has given me hope for mankind.