Four-thirty in the morning. My night full of summer heat and feverish dreams about being late. Shower, get dressed, wolf down my coffee and a sandwich and jump into my friends car for an adventure. If you were having your coffee yesterday out on your porch in Tracy, California and you happened to look up you would see our air balloon.
My good friend’s uncle Jerry air balloons. JoAnne and Dean often crew his take offs and chase him down after landings. I was thrilled to find out I would get a chance to go up in the ballon. Ground crew jobs were divided – two men on ropes at the top of the balloon=envelope, two at the throat, one on the fan and one supervising. Our youngest and most excited team member was Sam. He has an impressive knowledge of aircrafts. Sadly he has to wait two more years for his first flight with Jerry. I traded my spot behind a vent to a much more familiar one behind camera and got busy clicking.
Within minutes the envelope was full of cold air . About two minutes later Jerry’s burner turned into a fierce fiery dragon. Before I knew it, balloon was full of hot air and we were off. Take off is a silent and surprisingly calm affair, there are no butterflies, no jitters. Only when Jerry said we were 1000 feet off the ground I broke into cold sweat. Holy guacamole, I am floating in a basket 1000 feet above Tracy! I knew I was in good hands because Jerry brought his instructor Larry. Guys impressed me with their shop talk about the mass, wind speed and direction, pressure, different kinds of “puffs” and other technical stuff. Their main point being – pick your spot where you want to land and hope the wind gets you there. This was my lucky day – Jerry was going to practice landings. Gulp. First landing was smooth – just one sore eye. Up we went again. I really enjoyed myself up in the air. Larry and Jerry played in the wind a bit, practiced their long and short puffs and began scouting the next landing spot. A couple locations were dismissed because of power lines and sharp branches. They settled for an old cherry tree orchard in between railroad tracks and a tomato field full bunnies. Wind picked up and a couple short and frequent fire puffs later the ground was coming up fast. This landing was described as “a tad hairy”. I ducked, squeezed my eyes shut (or kept them wide open in terror ;who can tell at this point?), held on with all my might and hoped I wouldn’t be thrown out the basket. We landed sideways, my side on the bottom. Fear is a peculiar thing. I did not know I was terrified until I stepped out of the basket and realized that my knees were shaking. I was relieved to find out that this was our last landing for the day since the wind had picked up to 6 miles per hour. I got all the adrenaline necessary for one morning. Guys deflated the envelope and we settled in to wait for our “air ballon chase team”. Hugs, champagne, special first timer ceremony, delicious muffins and happy good-byes concluded my very first air ballooning experience.
Would I do it again? Anytime!
