Wednesday night, our wonderful friends allowed Emily to spend the night with them because we had to be at the balloon pilot's house (which was an hour away from our house) by 7:20am. Emily was VERY excited about her sleep over. She loves these friends of ours and their one year old daughter. Here she is with her bag and pillow pet ready to go!
We dropped her off and went to have dinner by ourselves!!! It was so weird to come home and not have her there. I missed her a lot! We have been away overnight without her but I haven't spent the night in our house without her since she was born...really weird!
She did very well at her sleep over. It took her a while to settle down (about 10:30) but overall she did very well. The next morning she was dropped off at preschool. When I picked her up that afternoon she asked when she could go back again. I think she had fun!!!!!
Jeff and I woke up at 5:30 and walked out the door at 6am for our adventure. When we arrived we met Captain Jack, his wife, and Mike, a crew member. We also met 3 of his 7 dogs!!! Captain Jack called for a final check of the winds and weather. We went outside and Capt. Jack sent a hellium balloon up in the air to see which way we would go if we took off from his house. He didn't want us to go over the river because it is harder for the chase crew to get to us. The decision was made to take off from a near by church instead.
I was amazed by how small the basket is (some are larger) and how big the balloon is. I was also amazed by the whole set up process. Here is the bag that our huge balloon lives in.
Here is the basket.
Here is the balloon all stretched out.
Once everything was hooked up as it should be they blew the balloon up with a huge fan.
Once the balloon was blown up he turned on the burner so the hot air would make the balloon rise up.
The next thing I know, Jeff and Capt. Jack are in the basket and Jeff is yelling for me to hurry up and get in the basket. I had a flashback to The Wizard of Oz when the hot air balloon was going up and he couldn't stop it and Dorothy missed her ride back home. I ran and climbed in and we were up, up and away! Here is a view of the inside of the balloon from the basket.
Now, I do NOT like heights and I was a little freaked out because we went up high quickly but it really wasn't scary. You feel very secure in the basket. It was only the landing that I was worried about when we were up in the air.
It was so quiet, except for when he turned the burner on. We could hear dogs barking. Capt. Jack said that people could hear us talking on the ground. We saw cows and deer running in the woods. Look at our shaddow.
Meet Captain Jack...
I forgot to mention that we did go over the river. Once we crossed over the river I noticed that another issue with crossing the river might be finding an open place to land because there were much more tree. Never fear, Capt. Jack had landed over the river before and he would do it again. Our flight was just under an hour.
Where we landed there were trees, a dirt road, a stream and a house to dodge but Capt. Jack landed us safely. We beat the chase crew and had to radio in our GPS coordinates for them to find exactly where we were. We landed on a hill so the crew grapped a line and we went back up and they pulled us up a bit to a flatter area. Here is our final landing spot. I was nervous about the landing but it was very smooth.
I climbed out to snap one last photo and then we got to help pack up the balloon.
Once we were all packed up we all went back to the house for mimosas, quiche and bananna bread. YUMMY!
It was such an amazing experience. I still can't believe we actually did it but I am so glad we did. If you are local and interested in taking a balloon ride, I highly recommend going with Capt. Jack. He, his wife and his crew are wonderful! Check out his web site.
A little bit of trivia, Capt. Jack met the man who flew the balloon in The Wizard of Oz and he was signed off to fly by that man's son.
We are so happy to have been able to go on this balloon flight! Happy 7th Anniversary to my wonderful husband!!!!! I love you, Jeff!
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