“May the winds welcome you with softness. May the sun bless you with its warm hands. May you fly so high and so well that God joins you in laughter, and sets you gently back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.”
– Our captain, John, offering up the balloon captain’s blessing, on our gentle settling back into Mother Earth’s loving arms
In my head, I keep a list of things I will “never do.” On Wednesday late afternoon into early evening, accompanied by my wife and daughters, I did one of those things.
We rode in a hot air balloon.
It was spectacular!
Prior to Wednesday, I was skeptical. Not a fan of activities where one possible outcome is “plummeting to earth in a basket also occupied by 30 gallons of liquid propane,” I am now a fan of this one. Not the plummeting part. The peaceful, almost serene feeling of floating above the trees and fields part.
John, our captain, was simply excellent. The sky was clear and the winds, borderline too stiff to a few minutes before lift off to allow us to take to the skies, welcomed us with softness. She, The Eldest, The Youngest and Dad all had a wonderful time. We saw deer, who appeared fascinated by the humans in the basket under the fancy balloon above them. We landed in a pasture next to a farmhouse, occupied by people who had no idea that three hot air balloons, three captains and 20 or so of their new closest friends were about to arrive. We learned that our balloon, the smallest of the three flying along together, would hold 166,000 fully inflated basketballs. John assured us that doing so would adversely affect the flight quality, however, so we didn’t ask him to prove it.
It got me thinking. “I will never…” might not be the best way to start any list.
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