Spirit and Adventure: Flight of the Balloon

Thursday 1 August 2013

Flight of the Balloon

Last summer as I biked or walked to work early in the morning I would often look up and see the hot air balloon soaring across in the sky and over the river. We'd really enjoyed a previous balloon ride and I expressed that I'd like to go again some day. Lo and behold, when I retired in September a gift from Dad & Elaine was a balloon flight!

It always seems to take a while for the stars to align. This was the fourth time we'd booked this year. The previous three times had been cancelled due to weather and this morning it looked questionable. We showed up at 5:30 a.m. as required but clouds in the air and a small breeze that kept shifting direction postponed things for a while. As we were setting up there were even a few drops of rain. But things settle down and away we went toward sunshine and breaks in the clouds.

It's so peaceful gliding along above the city!

Then our timing was very good. Once finished the flight and packing up the balloon we could see the rain clouds coming. As we were driving back into the city there was a short burst of hard rain before the sun gradually came out again.