"Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high"

I had never been on a hot air balloon. Until Saturday.

Now, I'm pretty scared of heights. But, I knew with the biggest Albuquerque event of Balloon Fiesta they would make us (me and others at the station) cover the event and possibly go on a balloon ride. I sure didn't want to do that for the first time in front of people that I work with.

So, we got a press release saying, as members of the media, they would provide free balloon rides at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. I thought of Jason (since he just moved here) and forwarded him the email to see if he wanted to go. He said "yes" so we put it in the planners.

Two nights before, I dreamt of about 20 ways I could possibly die in a hot air balloon. I dreamt that a stiff wind pushed the balloon into power lines. I dreamt that a condor hit our basket and flipped the balloon over (which defies physics) and we fell out. All sorts of silly ways.

Then, it was Saturday morning. I knew I couldn't back out because of Jason and I had already RSVP'd. So, I went. So scared.

It turned out pretty well.

Here's our balloon:


Our balloon crew was called the "Chain Gang" because of the chain design on the balloon. The pilot, Jonathan, was really nice...at first. Turns out I was only scared at the basket moving rather than the heights.

Jonathan found it hilarious that I was so scared. So, he steered the hot air balloon towards the bosque (in other words, all the trees near the river):


So, he said, "Why don't we get you some leaves from the tops of these trees?" I begged. I screamed. They wouldn't listen. They thought it was hilarious that I was so worried. Jonathan's reassurance phrase to me was "Ya know, the tops of trees are rather soft and forgiving. We won't crash."

I ended up with a souvenir:


As if that wasn't "funny" enough, Jonathon mentioned that they often do something called a "splash and dash." What that pretty much is when a balloon gently touches the water and rises back up. Unfortunately, our pilot thought it wasn't enough. We touched down and it was super fun. Because I liked it so much, Jonathan thought we should go again. Well, this time, he warned Jason behind my back and they jumped up on the side of the balloon. And this is what happened:

I was soaked up to my mid-shin in Rio Grande River. Gross.

But, besides Jonathan trying to acclimate me and make fun of me, he was really nice. I know he was just giving me a hard time. And I had a blast.