Up, down and roundabout

What a day! By 10am we'd been up in a balloon and picked apples at the local orchard. I then went out orienteering while the others went for a walk in the woods. After all that, I was feeling my age and needing a nap!

We – Joan, Kara, Kim and I – arrived at Minuteman field (Stow, MA) at 6:15 for a date with Rudy and the rest of Dragonfire Balloon. We arrived, in the dawn's early light, a few minutes earlier than the vans and crew. Although we knew in advance that there would be two balloons, we were a bit surprised to find that, for four passengers, there were two pilots and seven crew! Once we saw all the work and preparations that had to be performed however, we could see that all were necessary.
Here we see the critical operation whereby the air in the balloon is heated, without the benefit of being above the burner. In a while, everything was ready and it was time to board and fasten our seatbelts, except of course there are no seats and definitely no seatbelts!

Our pilot was Mark and theirs was Rudy (obscured by the pylon). Then, without me even realizing it (I was busy photographing the other balloon) we were up! Pretty soon we were at almost 750' (about 650' above ground) which was our maximum altitude and tripping along at 8.5 mph. At that point, it was really magical – floating over ponds, marshes, woods with two Great Blue Herons below. Soon we were chatting with joggers on the ground. Then we were in West Acton and soon over Route 2. As we were coming in to land, I saw a goshawk flying up into a tree. Mark brought us down towards a baseball field next to a school, but just as we were coming down to about 50', the wind died and we began to hover over the school buses. But the chase crew was right there and soon we were down in the parking area having experienced the gentlest possible landing. The flight was 4.4 miles and took 61 minutes to complete.

We had a fantastic time –I'd love to do it again! Joan, who was the "instigator" of the trip had it on her "bucket list", but now she'd like to go again, as would we all.

It isn't an inexpensive pastime, however, so a many of the enthusiasts earn flights by crewing for paying customers. Maybe we could try that!

Finally, once the balloon was packed up and loaded in the van (maybe 20 minutes), we headed back to the airfield for our champagne and snack. Rudy and the whole team were really great. We'd definitely recommend them!

On the way home, we went to our local orchard to get some Macouns.

Finally, I went orienteering at Carlisle State Park where, surprisingly, I've never orienteered. I decided to do the difficult course and it certainly was hard – I'm not as good at finding the controls as I used to be of course (you need practice). But I had a great time and completed it.

Now, all together now: Up Up and Away...