Balloon and Other Adventures

I had a restful (although not terribly productive) day off this week. It was good to stay home, get some chores done and take it easy. Friday was a good day at work, busy but not too crazy and I was able to get off a little early to go to a soccer game with my husband. We trekked up to P-town for a Pilots game. It was a little drizzly, but not super rainy and it was not too cold. Plus we were up 3-0 by half time, so it was good all around. We ended up leaving at the half to head home since we had an early start today. This morning we got up at 5am and headed out to the balloon launch area. It is a pretty big operation and we were surprised to see so many vehicles and people there already (about 40 passengers we found out later!). As it turns out there were four balloons launching at the same time. They were what my Papa calls "meat haulers", and our balloon had 1 pilot and 9 passengers. I volunteered to help with the set up and got to hold open the balloon throat while the fans started the inflation. It was really cool, but right at the end a little tough because I was not quite heavy enough to keep the bottom of the throat under my feet. It kept trying to throw me off! Then the pilot got the burners going and finished the inflation and we got loaded in. It was a little bit of a cloudy morning, but it was absolutely beautiful! Our pilot took us to a little gully where they sometimes see deer and we went down pretty close before going back up again. We flew a little while longer and made it over to the river and we got to do a "splash and dash"! That is when the pilot takes the balloon down so the bottom of the basket is touching the water!! It was really, really cool and even more special because a boat went by us while we were skimming on the water! It was also neat as we were in close proximity to a bridge and some of the other balloons. While we were on the water a car was going over the bridge and was so surprised to see us there...they stopped right on the bridge to get a picture! We had a really great time and it is so hard to put it all in to words. Don was really surprised at how slow and calm the flight was (he had never been up before...in our group I was the only one besides the pilot who had been up before) and was really overwhelmed right at first. We had a really calm and easy landing and everyone helped out getting the balloon packed away. The balloons that they use are really huge and once they are packed in the bag weigh about 500 lbs! Once we got the balloon and basket stowed we headed back to the launch site for champagne (or sparkling cider) toast and breakfast. We also got a beautiful poster, ascent certificates (for bragging rights), and a champagne cork "balloon". All in all it was a wonderful adventure. I did get some great pictures and will have to post them to share. We came home and took naps (mine longer than Don's...no great surprise there) and then went to lunch with our friends A and G. We had not seen them in what seems like forever, but is really more like 6 weeks or so. They are doing well and it was good to visit with them again. I went out for kennels and now am home for the evening. I don't think really have any plans for the rest of the night...most likely just take it easy and enjoy the rest of the day.