Blue Skies Smiling At Me

Well I just got back from my morning expedition in the woods of Vermont. Apart from wrenching my shoulder climbing over some rocks I'm in good spirits and while I rest up a bit before deciding what to do for the remainder of the day I thought I would inform you about the rest of yesterday's events. As you know from previous posts my best friend Mat flies hot air balloons as a hobby. Well he and Mitch decided to pay me back in kind for the help I gave them last year. While I would have been just as excited to crew I was told that I would be going up.

Now lets be straight with something. I like to fly. In PLANES. I kind of have a thing for heights. Its not usually a good thing either. So needless to say I was a bit apprehensious at first. Of course though there was not to much time for nerves. I really kept pushing it aside until we actually got to the fairgrounds and started taking the balloon out.

This is the Freedom II. It is just about double the size I helped launch last year. The bigger the balloon the more cargo can go. For this trip it was Mitch, Mat, James and myself. This was really the last picture I could snap before things got moving to fast. Once that thing gets filled with hot air you are on the move. So before I knew it I was jumping in the basket securing my spot for flight. For those that have not flown you should know that this is (usually) the most jostling part of the experiance. With only Mat and myself in the basket there was not as much weight and that balloon wants to fly so it pivots on the point that its being tethered too and that is the basket, so we rocked back and forth until James jumped in and finally Mitch. At that point it was time to go. So the crew time let go and we were off, and amazingly all that bumping around went away. We started to fly up and since we are only going as fast as the wind. Its as if you are just floating away. Not at all like the forces when you take off in a plane. It was really quite peaceful.

See the conditions need to be just right to fly and the Balloon enthusiast community is not that big, so when its going to be a good day. Like it was yesterday, its not uncommon to have friends fly in the sky with you. There were to other balloons flying yesterday with us. The Multi-colored one whose name I did not get was piloted by a Marketing Exec from Ben & Jerry's. The second balloon that was even bigger than ours was piloted by another gentleman who flies professionally. He also happens to be the guy who will be Marrying my friends Mat and Tina on Saturday. He flys the Inn at Essex. Coincidentally this is the maiden voyage of that balloon. It had only been flown once in Spain. This was the first time here in the states so there was much hooplah around it. We flew about an hour and I took many pictures which I have posted here. There are alot of the Inn at Essex Balloon pictures. Since it was its maiden flight I thought it only fitting to have a good record of the event. Plus I know the pilot was not in the best of spirits do to an incident that occured at the Bachelor Party. I figure a good shot or two of the balloon would raise his spirits. After all when you are flying in a balloon its kind of hard to take pictures of it. Which is why I don't have to many of Freedom.

We flew for about an hour playing Cat and Mouse most of the way. All totalled we went about 3.5 miles. As we came in for our landing which is not as bad as you would think. I have heard some stories about landings. This one was textbook. Didn't even require a drop line to help the balloon come down on target. All the while we were flying we stayed relatively close to the deck since that was where most of the wind was in the direction we wanted to be heading. It allowed us to fly over alot of houses in low enough to talk to people. Once again just want to point out how friendly Vermonters are. People stopped their cars and came out of their houses and started waving. You can't help but wave back. We even passed over a house having a party and they wished us a happy Cinco de Mayo. (Remember that) I felt like we were on parade. Once you are in the air though people don't always just watch you fly by. The try and catch up with you as well. So when we landed we had a nice little contingent of fans that showed up some were of the furry variety like our pal Iko here. We were fortunate enough to land in a parking lot with plenty of room. Remember you can't steer a balloon you land where the wind tells you when you run out of fuel. We landed about 20 minutes before sunset, and were packed up by sun down.

That's not quite the ending to our story. You see for years now I have listened to my friend talk about Ballooning not once did he talk about any of the traditions. To enhance the evening and make it more special I was given a nice ceritificate for my first flight and we all shared in a glass of Champagne. However not without a little abject humiliation first. I enjoyed it all and it was in good fun, I felt like I really was initiated into the club. We had the sabreing of the Champagne. Mitch gave us (well me) the speech of the birth of ballooning starting all the way back to Roger Bacon. Then it was time for the toast. However I knew things were going south when Margaret took my glass from my hand and placed it on the dirt. As you can see from the pictures. After Mitch said is last words, I had to then drink it. Without using my hands on my knees. There was much cheering and I as documented here able to do it. We headed out for one last tradition. There is a local pizza place nearby that is sort of a post flight haunt, and we all showed up for dinner having earned it. Remembering that it was Cinco de Mayo from our flight I drank myself to blissful inebriation on Corona, and thus ended a very very fine day. I am not sure when I will be able to fly again, but I now know why it is that they do. There is an incredible amount of freedom thats felt by being up there in the sky. What once may have been a fear is now in my blood, and I'll be honored to earn my keep by crewing for another flight. "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." -- Leonardo Da Vinci