Hot Air Ballooning

If you haven’t ridden in a hot air balloon, you should do so immediately if not sooner.

As a kid, I was fascinated with balloons after reading Jules Vernes “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” I mean, who wasn’t?? Sometime after that, I saw that movie where Baron von Munchausen escapes in a balloon made out of sewn-together ladies underwear….

And still, it’s been all this time, and I never got to go up in a hot air balloon. On Christmas day, Mario and I decided to wake up early for a sunrise balloon ride at Eloy, Arizona where we were skydiving. “Burner,” a guy who looks quite a bit like Santa, flies people up (and some people down) in his enormous balloon every day.

The propane burner made it warm in the basket, though it was a pretty nippy morning. Everyone around was elated with the wonder of seeing an enormous sleeve of nylon blossom into a giant, floating balloon! Drifting up off the ground seemed like a tiny miracle, watching the shadow of the balloon move further and further off into the desert below. There aren’t many ways of gaining altitude that I haven’t tried at this point, and a hot air balloon has to be the most delightful. It makes you feel like you’re five years old, eyes wide, as you float into the sky holding the string of your red balloon….