A Dream Come True

I think I may have mentioned before how I have wanted to go up in a hot air balloon for over 25 years. We even spent almost 20 years in Albuquerque, NM, the Hot Air Balloon Capital of the World, and I was never able to fly. J-man gave me a gift certificate Christmas of 2003 for a flight, and I really wanted to go up in autumn, but every fall, the weather and my schedule have thwarted each attempt.

This past Saturday was to be my latest attempt, and I was afraid to jinx it by saying too much about it, or writing it here. Since it was scheduled to be an early morning flight, we decided to drive up Fri. afternoon and spend the night in a motel. Two hours before leaving, my pilot called--the winds were too high and all flights were cancelled for Sat. My heart sank. She rescheduled me for Sunday afternoon, which was still iffy, but assured me that it's still warm enough down South here we should be able to have a few more weekends left to fly.

Since my daughter lives in a nearby area, we went on up Sun. so we could at least visit with her a few hours while the pilot kept us updated by phone. The morning flight went as scheduled, but the winds were picking up, and she didn't know if we'd be able to lift off that afternoon. Final plan was to meet at a nearby field at 4pm, where a test balloon was sent up to judge the winds--and TA-DAH!--we were on!

Does this basket look big enough to hold 4 tanks of propane and 5 people?


Then the balloon was unrolled, and 2 big fans set up. We held the rims of the balloon while the fans inflated it with cool air.


This is our pilot, walking inside the balloon to pull some of the folds out, while the fans inflate it.


Next, a burner is fired to warm up the air in the balloon, causing it to lift off the ground. At that point, we start climbing into the basket, while still tethered to the truck.


And we're off!


It was a gorgeous day for flying! Visibility was incredible--probably 50 miles, our pilot said.




Closeup of those trees:


Looking up into the balloon:


Every so often the pilot fires up the burner to keep the air warm enough to lift us higher:


And sometimes she lets us dip toward the treetops. I grabbed a leaf off the top of this tree:


More eye candy:






Touchdown in a pasture, and waiting for the crew to reach us:




Time to deflate, smush all the air out, and roll it up:



It's kind of like trying to get a blanket back into those zipped bags they came in.

Our pilot, Bonnie Clevenger:




Afterwards, we went back to the Visitor's Center and had champagne to celebrate first flights. Soon, Bonnie will send us passengers our "first flight" certificates.

I heart ballooning.