Hot air balloon flight

~ MaryG

Have you ever broken a bone?

I broke a toe once, really badly. I don’t even like to think about it. It hurt SO much. (I stubbed it on a futon leg while barefoot.) It was wildly out of alignment. My husband had to pop it back into place. OUCH! Doctors can’t really do anything about toes. They just taped it to the one next to it and I limped around until it healed.

Fortunately no bones were broken during our Friday night “bucket list” excursion in Ithaca. The take-off was much wilder than I thought it would be. I was holding on to the basket for dear life. But once we were floating, it was quite magical. I’ve been in a helicopter before, but this was different. It’s as close as you can imagine to being a bird. So very many shades of green. The bottom of the basket occasionally scraped on some tree tops. “No problem,” said our pilot Dar. “Basket cleaners,” he called them. And then handed us some leaves. 🍃

My husband and son got put to work on both takeoff and landing. I took pictures and videos.

Three people were already pre-loaded in the basket at this point. The rest of us scrambled in over the sides, once “Captain America” was upright.
Up we go, with Dar’s hand on the “flame throwers” (which were a bit loud, when in use)
We floated over some waterfalls in Ithaca’s Robert H. Treman State Park
The magic of floating in the air and Dar thanking his ground crew.
I really did not want to drop my phone, but eventually I relaxed enough to hand it to a fellow passenger from Pennsylvania. He took this nice pic.
Group selfie with Dar
Farms and fields and Lake Cayuga in the distance

I think we were all a bit nervous about the landing. Once he found a good spot, Dar had the heavier people, including my very strong husband, move to one side of the basket. We all crouched down with all body parts inside the basket. We dragged on the ground for a bit. My husband got out and helped hold us down, which he said was hard. (He got a rather large bruise as we attempted to “jump” the basket up and over a small ditch. Inside the basket, we actually jumped up and down.)

When instructed, I did not waste any time grabbing the bars and vaulting myself out of the basket in a move that my son described as “wildly athletic.”

My son was instructed to run out into the field and help the ground crew pull down Captain America.

The landing
My son and the ground crew pulling Captain America back to earth
Everyone helped put Captain America back in his bag.

We celebrated with a roadside champagne toast and then the ground crew drove us back to our car!

Related post:

Experiences over stuff

18 thoughts on “Hot air balloon flight”

  2. I like the phrase “basket cleaners”

    Landing seemed to be more than I expected. For some reason, I thought it just sets down and people hop out. Looks like an entire production! Great photos!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
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