Hot Air Balloon Ride

You guys, I did it.  I went up in a hot air balloon.

I've always wanted to, but thought when the time came that it would be very possible for me to get too nervous and not actually go through with it.

I was nervous, but I did it.

And I'm so happy I did - in between my nervous bouts, the ride was peaceful and gorgeous.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest, I can explain how this opportunity arose...

Foley has a hot air balloon festival each year and the company Dusty works for does advertising for them.

Luckily I was at his office the day it was asked who wanted to shoot footage of the event...I heard hot air balloon ride, looked at Dusty with my pleading eyes, and it was done.

Dusty and I would be covering the event...awesome.

Our day at the festival began with perusing arts and crafts vendors, listening to music, and then watching the 'world famous' frisbee dogs.

I'm a sucker for dogs doing tricks.

After the show, it was time for my ride.

We only had one voucher to go up in the balloon and Dusty didn't have a desire to go...it was my lucky day :)

Waiting for everyone to blow their balloons up was giving me a little too much time to think about things...

but once we were up, things were pretty smooth sailing.

Smooth sailing if you don't count the radio malfunction, nearly having the bottom of the basket touch the water, and then passing the huge, open field intended for us to land on, and landing in someone's backyard instead.

The above photo is of the other balloons landing in the big, open field while we are still sailing farther along in our balloon...I was not nervous at all.

Once arriving back at the festival, the sun had set and the pilots were putting on a bit of a show...

 

And lastly, a short video put together of what Dusty and I shot...