Up, Up and Away

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to go on a hot air balloon ride. While I was a little apprehensive to be risking my life in the air, I thought what the heck, this is a once in a life time opportunity. So off I went with my brother and his girlfriend, Amanda, in to the big blue sky!

Uncle Neal and Brody watching the balloon inflate

Brody posing by the big balloon

There were a few things that occurred prior to take off that led to this facial expression: 1. the need to fill "tanks" very last minute 2. the flame went out in the balloon and it seemed to take just a little too long to relight!

Lift off!

It didn't feel like we went very high in the sky, but looking back at the pictures, I guess we really did.

A view of corn that you don't often get!

The view looking up from the basket

The fields made beautiful patterns when looking down on them

The trip was not uneventful. As we were looking for a place to land...we ended up in some trees. I don't think I have been quite so scarred and unsure of what to do in my life. Fearing for my life I hit the floor in the basket while Neal and Amanda battled oncoming branches/trunks. After we finally cleared the trees everyone turned around to find me crouching in the basket! Looking back it was quite humorous...at the time I was scared to death! I didn't let go of the basket for the remainder of the flight!

This picture was taken after the tree incident - proof that the balloon kept us afloat!

We ended up having to land in a field of weeds, but luckily there happened to be mowed paths leading to our location so everyone was able to come and get us.

After we landed Jim thought he would help out by making sure one of the ropes didn't get caught in the brush..

He didn't know that this would lead to him running as fast as he could with the rope to deflate the balloon!

It's hard to see Jim's face in this picture - but if you look closely you can see that he is in disbelief that he just had to help bring the balloon down