Ballooning

I remember going hot air ballooning with neighbors when I was young.  Did you have neighbors in your neighborhood that were both quirky and really cool at the same time?  These neighbors were that type.  I don't have any idea what their names were, I think there were some children that were older than I was but other than that I only really remember two things.

First, they had a DeLorean.  That's right, like the one in the Back to the Future movies. And they went to McDonald's to get breakfast in it some mornings.  I'd be waiting at the bus stop and they'd drive by in their car with the brushed metal exterior and angular lines.  Man, that car was cool.

The other thing they had was a hot air balloon.  One time they asked my parents if we'd be their "chase crew" for their flight.  I found out that meant you drove around, following the direction the balloon flew on the currents of air.  It was a beautiful sight.

They touched down in a field and unexpectedly, asked me to get in when we ran up to them.  Riding in a hot air balloon is unlike anything else.  It's utterly silent, punctuated by loud flame sounds as the burner heats the air in the balloon.  There is almost no sensation of movement as you gently float around.  It was a short trip, but it was very memorable.

So last night, I saw a hot air balloon on television and I thought to myself, "that might be something great to aspire to have one day."  You know, some people want to have a fast car, others want to have a beach house or villa in the Swiss Alps.  For a minute, I thought about how fun it would be to have your own hot air balloon.   So I sent myself an email to look into it some day to see if it would be as fun and as exciting as it looked to be.

I got in bed later and pulled up information on hot air ballooning online.  And I was stunned.  Firstly, I didn't expect them to be cheap (nothing ever is) but they're far more expensive than I had expected.  Secondly, the pilot's certification is extensive and you need a crew.  You also need that ground crew too and they need training.  I didn't think it would be both cheap and easy, but I was humbled by how much more was required to have a quaint little hobby of being a balloonist really took.

The one statistic I saw straight off was that there are only about four-thousand balloonists in the United States.  I didn't appreciate how special that little experience I had as a child in my neighbor's balloon was until I got to reading about it last night.

The Big Boy Update:  He is starting to have an understanding of how he likes things over time.  Several times now he's said things like, "yesterday. I didn't like bread.  Today, I like bread."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Could it be?  Yes!  She came home in the same pants and underpants she went to school in.  There were zero wet underpants in her bag when she got home.