Our big day aloft

I usually don't set an alarm clock as I'm awake and up by 6:00 am every day, due to my internal clock.  This morning was different as we had an appointment across town at 5:20 so I set an alarm for 4:00 am.  That appointment was with our hot air balloon ride pilot.  The lift off was scheduled right at sun rise and we needed to get the rig to the take off point and get it set up.  The temperature was 34° at the start and near 70 at the finish so therefore the shedding of our coats.

There was one other couple going on this ride with us that was celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary.  We told them they only had 54 more years to go to catch up with us.  There were two men and one lady on the ground crew but they recruited me and the other man in our party to assist in filling the balloon.  Jo and I took several pictures plus the lady with the crew was taking pictures and she will provide us with a CD of those pictures that we should get tomorrow.  Below I have posted our pictures from today and when I get that CD I will post a bunch more.  It was a super enjoyable experience as we lifted off on the rim of the Rio Grande Gorge and then flew down the rift and lowered to the river following the prevailing wind currents through the gorge.  Our pilot told us the intention was to drop down to the river and just touch the basket to the water before rising and traveling between the walls.  The wind currents didn't cooperate so we didn't get to experience the touch down on the water.  We did see a deer along the way and at the landing there were two big horn sheep and our photographer did get a picture of one that should be on our CD.  The touch down was exciting as we bounced along dragging across the sage brush for a bit.  Then all hands, their crew plus all four passengers, assisted in folding up the balloon envelope to get it back in its storage bag.

Following a long time hot air balloon tradition we had a champagne toast and a nice brunch that was set up on a table at our landing site.  This tradition goes back to Paris France and the very first mans flight in a balloon.  We also got certificates of our adventure and Jo found a very pretty set of balloon ear-rings to commemorate the occasion.

After the great ride we drove to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and took a few pictures there.

Click on the text below the image to go to our album for today.  When you get to the album just click on the first picture to then step through all or go to slideshow.

 

click to view our pictures 

click here to view pictures from the CD