#13-21 Our Hot Air Balloon ride 9-25-2013

Inflating the balloon before dawn.  We had to get up at 4:30 am!!!!!

Dawn, now we can fly!

 

A little crowded in the basket, but our pilot says we can fly just fine.

We are up, up and away!  And we are not the only ones in the sky.

As the sun rises so do we, our pilot tells us we are about 1000 feet above the city.

Then he takes us down close enough to see the petrographs on the rocks.  It feels like we are going to crash into them.

Our shadow on the ground.  Coming in for a landing we could almost touch the roof the the apartments.  We land in a little park in the middle of a housing development.

Deflating the balloon, rolling it up and packing it into its bag.  We sit on the bag to get all the air out of it, while chase “wife” and pilot pack up the basket.  We are then driven back to the park, where we started, to have our champagne, get hats and tee shirts and have snacks. 

What a wonderful experience.  The noise from the burner keeping the air hot inside the balloon was hard on the ears.  I have the ear muffs on for that as well as the chill of the early morning.  You can tell we had a great time.