Desmolicious wrote:
Love these pics, especially the first one. The last one - are you tethered into the gondola?
Hah, no tethering. I screwed up my courage and leaned out. I think we were well over a mile up at that point; in my memory I hear him saying we got to 10,000 feet but I can't vouch for that...I certainly didn't feel any need for oxygen. We were flying for an hour and a half. When the gas jet wasn't burning it was unbelivably quiet. And on takeoff he told me that sound travels upward; I could hear a jackrabbit's feet hitting the ground before I spotted it and we could hear people's conversations below us.
The takeoff was smooth but the landing was bumpy because we hit the side of a hill that he hadn't quite noticed until the last minute. He told me to crouch inside the gondola and hold on and we went bumpity-bump down the side of the hill, coming to rest about 50 feet from the chase truck.
The thing he didn't warn me about was that it's a tradition for the pilot to put a handful of dirt in your hair after your first balloon flight, and then pour some champagne over the dirt on your head. And then we drank the rest of the champagne, which made up for the indignity.