| Balloning is a high brow activity. Heralded as an elegant time floating about the earth, sipping champagne, palpabale romance in the air. Here, we are greeted by our flight attendant, Dude. (you can call him Mr. Dude-er-ino) |  |
| You can't take off from behind a grocery store, so after monitoring the winds for a few minutes, we loaded into our vans and headed towards a launch sight. Our balloon wound up in a strawberry field and here is what it looks like when a balloon crash lands, or when they are just getting it ready to fly. Take your pick. |  |
| Technically we weren't supposed to be taking off from this private strawberry field. But on the suggestion of our pilot, we all went and bought some juicy strawberries from the nice, non-litigenous, farmer man. |  |
| Cindy was all bubbly with excitement. I was getting a little bit nervous. It took 3 guys to lift the sack containing the actual balloon from the back of the truck. There was a lot of action around the basket, it almost seemed hurried. I told them to just take their time and get it right. A stitch in time saves my life. |  |
| The birthday girl. "Enough strawberries...When's this party gettin' started?!" |  |
| Once the balloon was laid out and hooked safely to the basket, it was time for inflation. Inflating the balloon is accomplished by first blowing cool air into the balloon. I wasn't sure if the guy was trying to create a trap for bunnies until this finer point of ballooning was explained to me. Oh, and that little white rope on the left side of the picture is tied to the back of a Chevy half-ton pickup. Our pilot said sometimes just before take off, winds gusting the balloon can pull the truck along. Built Ford tough, eh? |  |
| More bunny trapping! Shoot, that's not right...more cool air. See the truck? |  |
| Say cheese! I've enhanced the photo to remove all sweat stains from under my arms and dribbling off my head. |  |
| The balloon was getting bigger and we moved to the other side of the truck, just in case. We were just chatting and the next thing I knew, our pilot was near us and said to me," Hey You! Drop the strawberries and come with me, now! Jump into the basket!" |  |
| Holy crap! I was in the basket while all these guys were running around, trying to get the balloon in just the right position to start the burners. The hot air comes from two very larger propane(?) burners. Inside the basket there are several canisters with the gas. And inside the basket there was also a very nervous Christopher. It reminded me of chemistry class in high school. The smell of gas, a bunsen burner striker, lots of cussing and not knowing whether this was a hydrophillic or hydrophobic reaction! |  |
| **spark**spark** *CRACKLE* *BOOOOM**WHOOOOSH* That's pretty much what it sounded like when those burners finally caught. There was also the sound of the cool air fan running so it was a violent and noisy scene. I was slowly coming upright in the basket as the pilot waved everyone over and into the basket. |  |
| A few minutes later, our ground crew were hanging from the basket, trying to keep it steady as we prepared to take off. 6 passengers finally aboard, pilot getting the balloon ready. Cut the rope! And we were off. There was a road about 1000 feet from where we were taking off and our pilot milked the drama for all it was worth. "I hope we can get high enough...to get over...the road." Of course we made it with plenty of room! Here is our pilot enjoying the view. |  |
| "Now this is a party!" |  |
| A much happier view of the balloon and the jets. Once aloft, the ride was very quiet and peaceful. The jets only were fired when we needed to climb to get over power lines, buildings and other vertical obsticals. Or as I like to call them, "stuff in our way." |  |
| The view was amazing! Here is a shot out over the coast and onto the sun setting into the Pacific. We could see Catalina Island and Santa Barbara Island which are far north from San Diego. |  |
| We also were flying over some of the most expensive houses in America. Bill Gates was just one of many illuminaries whos house we were able to spit on out of sheer envy. This house is owned by the man who allegedly gets a cut of every Lexus and Toyota imported west of the Mississippi. He gave it to his daughter as a gift. Can you see her sunbathing nekkid? No? We didn't either. |  |
| Here's the view back east, the mountains, another balloon, and way in the distance, New Jersey! |  |