November 19th, 2004 - Balloon Ride

In August, 2002, Deanie asked me what I wanted for my Birthday, and I said "a balloon ride". Nothing much happened for a few months, and I asked about the ride, and Deanie eventually called around and found a place near Worcester that gave rides. She didn't want to schedule one, not knowing my availability, so nothing happened for a few months. Eventually, we scheduled a ride, for the spring of 2003. Well, to make a long story just a tiny bit shorter, scheduling a balloon ride is non-trivial. First of all, they're VERY dependent upon the weather - especially the winds - if the winds are forecast to be blowing more than 5 mph or so, they cancel. Then, since they're booked up months in advance, if you get cancelled, you can't reschedule for a few months, at least during peak season (spring, summer, early fall).

Over and over again, over the course of the next year and a half, we were cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled, rescheduled, etc. - you get the picture. Finally, we scheduled for the morning of November 19th, 2004 - 2.3 years after my birthday in 2002. (Interestingly, I had to buy myself my 2003 birthday present as well - Sid Vicious' album with "My Way" on it). At any rate, we called the night before to confirm, fully expecting to get cancelled once again (we had a lot of precedent for that belief), but we were told we were on! At 6 AM the next morning, we got a phone call telling us to be at the launch site at 7:30 AM.

We watched the crew unload and inflate the balloon, and then the 6 passengers climbed in with Mario, the pilot, and off we went for a quiet hour in the air.

I had asked Deanie to come along with me, and she had reluctantly agreed, but during and after the ride she said she really liked it a lot, and was very glad she had come along. That was the best part of the ride for me.....