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Tuesday, May 6, 2008

May 3... Just Floatin Around


Today's new thing. Incredible.

The picture says a thousand words. I rode in a HOT AIR BALLOON.

My amazing friend Richie is always keepin his options open for new things for me to try, and he asked me to go about a month ago. It was an incredibly nice thing for him to invite me out, and I was more than happy to oblige :) We left at the crack of dawn (about 5:30) to Park City, where our crew drove us to our take-off areas. There was Will, who was from Austria... and a woman and man (I can't remember their names but they were really friendly!) The weather was really excellent; we picked a super awesome day to do this! They let go of a little balloon to see the pattern of the winds, and we finally settled on a nice place next to a mountain. There were three other balloons taking off as we got there, so we got to watch them float away!!! It was positively amazing. Then we helped with our crew to get our balloon up and running, they fill it full of air with a giant fan at first, and then use the burner to get it right side up. Then we all get in, and slowly lift off. It is incredible! Plus our balloon was the prettiest... green and blue.

Once we were up in the air, things were just like a dream. It was so peaceful and quiet up there. Nothing but the beautiful scene below, and the sound of the wind and the burner on occasion. The view underneath and all around us was incredible. The earth is such a naturally beautiful place. The rivers and mountains below looked so little yet defining...

It was definitely interesting to see the places where houses were built. Looking at those structured houses sitting on top of these square yards really made me think about life. We live in these things, these little boxes, we drive these little cars, and we think humanity is the greatest. Sometimes I think we need to get out, see from a different perspective, to truly realize the beauty of life. The simplicity of it all. The earth is beautiful, and we need to remember to keep it that way. We need to remember that life is not about those squares we call yards, the money we make. Life is about hot air balloon rides. Haha that probably makes no sense, but I sort of had a revelation while floating above that beautiful earth.

Anyways. We floated for a long time, but eventually had to come down. Our flyer, Will, landed us right next to another balloon on an elementary school field. It was perfect, fairly smooth, and totally awesome. A big thanks to Richie for holding me as we hit the ground, because I would have flown right off and hit the pilot! Haha! Afterwards, we packed up the balloon (it all fit in a bad about 2 feet by 2 feet!) and got ready to go. We got out the apple cider bubbly, and toasted to an awesome flight. A beautiful prayer was quoted by Will:



"The winds have welcomed you with softness,
The sun has greeted you with it's warm hands,
You have flown so high and so well,
That God has joined you in laughter,
And set you back gently into
The loving arms of Mother Earth."

Mmmmm... How do I get so lucky? I left my heart in a hot air balloon.

It was really great being with Richie after all this time, a big THANK YOU for making this awesome thing possible!

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