The "Almost-a-lost-cause" Hot Air Balloon Post!!!

Here's how it goes. I was told this past May that I was cancer free and to celebrate that, I wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride. The only friend that I could convince to go with me was my good friend, Keith. It turned out to be an awesome day and I think that we both were glad for the opportunity. However...I have 132 pictures from the day. Realisitically, I can't put them all in this blog post. I will try my best, though, so I hope you're up for viewing!!! :) Let's begin...

So, here it was...the butt-crack of dawn and we were trying to find a hot-air balloon take off field. When we saw this pick up truck, we knew we'd found the spot!! :)



We parked the car, got out and headed over to this team. It wasn't long before they were having us help set up! Wait...I guess I wasn't helping too much...I was taking pictures! :) The process is they set up the basket and then attach the burner to the basket. Good logic, if you ask me.




After awhile, the pilot starts testing the burners...looks good!! (notice the flame in the air!)


Now it's time to set up the balloon. And it is H.E.A.V.Y. (remember how big it is?) Enough said.



So, the balloon is pulled out and ready to go. At this point they attach the "strings" of the basket to the balloon and then they set up a big 'ol fan (like the one you see in the picture) that starts pumping the air into the balloon to blow it up.



During this time, we were handed some helmets to try on for the landing. Here's Keith doing a wonderful job of demonstrating!

Notice in the second picture, the pilot is INSIDE the balloon? He's doing last minute checks on the material and ties and whatever else he's checking on. In the meantime, the fan just keeps on blowing up the balloon!!

Now, though, it's time to put those burners into action! Here goes!

And wallah....a hot air balloon that is ready to go!!

And we're ready!! Yahoo!!

However...it was at the point of this picture...

...that I thought, "Oh, what have I done!?" But, soon after thinking that, the pilot said, "You can go ahead and sit on the bench if you'd like!" Yup...this is the point of when I about pushed Keith and the pilot out of the basket to get to that bench. After that, everything was FINE! It was awesome!! Also, notice the white building that's behind the crew. We parked our cars next to that building and after landing, the crew would bring us back to this point. This next picture is a comparison of our height in the air just several minutes later. See the white building in the upper and almost-center of the picture? Yup...that's the same white building! Crazy, eh?

Shortly after take off...one of the main roads (which is next to the building where we parked) and then a view of someone's backyard.

This is the other team that was flying that day. Our company had our balloon and another balloon -- this one -- flying that day. However, there was also another company that flew this day, too. You can see the other company in another picture coming up. But since the other team with our company took off first, they were much higher than us by this point. Get that all straight? ;)

Scenery of the surrounding area...

Keith enjoying the view...

...or maybe he's looking at our shadow! :)

Here's another comparison picture for you...it's of backyards and in the first one, we were at a high height. The second one is a bit closer to the ground, but still pretty high. I really like the basket in these pictures...it's just kind of cool to me. :)

More scenery and another picture of our shadow!! :)

This is the picture that shows two things...first, you can see the other company flying. Their balloon is off to the left. Second, our company's other balloon is in the center of the picture, but what I was pointing out was that we were FINALLY up higher than them! Wahoo! :)

Look closely at the water on this one. Do you see our shadow on the right side of the lake? We tried to get closer but the heat that was rising from the roads was acting like a brick wall and we didn't get any closer than this. Bummer, eh?

A lady mowing the greens at the golf course...

A courtyard picture and a picture of our balloon's shadow in a pond...


This is a picture of the lake that we were trying to get to. Notice how far away we are? Not only were we stopped by the road (the one in this picture) but we ended up on a level of air that took us back the direction that we were actually coming from! We'll go with it, I guess! :)

This is the beginning of our attempts to land. Our first attempt was in a field next to a parking lot. This first picture with the blue buildings was taken because of the direction of the flags. With our flight this day, I learned that there are different levels of air and with each level, the direction of the wind changes. So, we could be floating along going North and as we start to rise, we will all of a sudden get to a level where our balloon would kind of stop in the air and then it would change directions. It's because the wind changed with our altitude and since our balloon went where the wind went, we'd change directions. Pretty cool, huh? Well, this picture shows that the flags were actually blowing on the ground the opposite way that we were going in our balloon! It was crazy!! (I hope you can click on the picture and see! I've moved these pictures around so much, I'm not sure if you'll be able to click on them and enlarge them. I hope so!)

Yup...our first landing was NOT successful. Here's the chase crew as they realize that we won't be landing near them any time soon! :(

Back up we go! I love these shadow pictures! Oh, and notice how close we were to the building? We varied incredibly with our distance up in the air. It was quite amazing, actually. :)

More shadow pictures in the lake! In the second one, I'm waving at you all! ;)

After two attempts, we finally were successful in landing. However, we had to come down so fast that I was more concerned about bracing myself and surviving! So, no pictures of that! In fact, I think that the pilot wanted to take the opportunity to land when he saw it and he brought us down fast. At one point I said, "Do we need to put the helmets on?" The response? "No! We don't have time! Bend your knees and hang on tight!" And we hit hard. It's kind of a weird thing to explain. You, obviously, can look over the basket and see the ground coming, so you're trying to prepare yourself for the impact. At one point I thought, "Oh, that wasn't so bad!" And then we hit. And boy, oh, boy did I bruise my knee when we landed! It slammed into the side of the basket and scraped the skin off and bruised it. Trust me...those baskets are sturdy! :) Keith tells me that the look on my face at this point was absolute fear. I think he was delusional from the lack of air because we were up so high. Ha! But at this point, the balloon pulls the basket back up into the air and we come back down again. I can't remember for sure if it did it again, but it might have. When you think about it, it's no surprise that happens because there's still so much force in that balloon that it will just suck that basket right back up into the air. Finally, though, one of the crew members said, "One of you needs to get out," so I willingly volunteered myself. This is the point of when I started taking pictures again.

So, what happens now is that the entire crew throws themself on the basket to create some drag...notice Keith in the middle of it all? After he got out, he helped a bit. At the same time, the pilot is doing everything that he can to open up the pockets in that balloon. It's amazing how many holes that he can open up! He's just letting the outside air into that balloon to deflate it. You can see in the process of taking the balloon down, some of the pictures show the entire top of the balloon opened up. It's pretty cool!

Up to this point, I've just been taking pictures like a mad-woman. However, it was time for me to help put the balloon back into it's carrier. This is the point where I really learned just how heavy that balloon was! But everyone would get in line -- like you see in the pictures -- and two other people would carry the bag. As the bag was coming to you, you'd heft your portion into the bag and then turn around and go to the end of the line, picking up another part of the balloon. It was kind of fun! But these pictures are actually of the prep-work to be able to put the balloon away, but it gives you an idea of the process.

After the balloon is put away, they bring a rolly-thing over and hoist the basket on it and push it over to the trailer where they disassemble it and put it away.


When everything is packed up and put away, the crew drives us back to the take off site. At this point, every gathers around for a toast. Now, our pilot explained the symbolism of toasting, but I wasn't really listening. You see, when we were putting the balloon away earlier, the crew played a trick on us. So, while he was telling us this story (notice how he pulled us away from the group?), I was trying to figure out what the next trick would be! Turns out there wasn't one. My loss! I think I was convincing enough, though, to let him think that I was listening. I just laughed when Keith laughed. Think it worked? ;)

The end.

Now, here are some miscellaneous shots that I took...Enjoy!

These three pictures are of the dash inside the balloon that measures the temperature and the distance in the air. You can see how it varied! I wasn't thinking about it at the time, but I should have taken a picture of what it was when we were still sitting on the ground!! Errg. Oh well! I didn't get the highest temp, either. I still wasn't thinking about it at that point. But I know that our pilot tried to stay below a certain temperature because if he didn't, he'd have to get the balloon officially checked out more often to make sure it met code. By keeping it under that certain temp, he doesn't have to have the "officials" inspect the balloon as often. I'm not sure what officials have to come and inspect it for safety, but our pilot checks it after every flight anyway. I trusted him. No worries, mom & dad. :)