Yet another activity that I put off for a long time, a hot air balloon ride.
So with living in Yuma, AZ for so many years you see at least one or two hot air balloons float through the sky, especially in the lead up to the annual Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival. I would often get up and walk to my car as I prepared to head to work and would see the balloons dancing across the sky and think to myself that has to be a great view up there. During the CRC Balloon Festival, there were plenty of opportunities to do a ride, but I found many a reason to put it off to another time.
But 2019 Garrick doesn’t put things off so I did an internet search and found a few companies in Phoenix that offered rides. So on a Wednesday morning in July I booked a sunrise ride with Rainbow Riders Hot Air Balloon Ride Co. for Saturday. Maybe that was a bit impulsive, but sometimes you have to seize life to make sure you are actually living.
So Saturday arrives and I admit I’m a little nervous but I make the drive up to north Phoenix to the Rainbow Riders building. The Rainbow Riders building is bustling with activity as the workers prep their gear and vehicles and half sleep customers shuffle into the waiting area to cross an item off their bucket lists. Each person is greeted at the desk asked for their name to confirm their reservation and then given an information sheet, waiver and name of their pilot for the upcoming activity. Once the gear and vehicles are ready, it’s go time. Passenger vans pulling trailers with the gear pull up in front of the building and the pilots introduce themselves so the people know where to go. Everybody is loaded up and we drive to the take off point. Pulling off the asphalt road we hit a sandy gravel road to a rather desolate spot not that far from a residential area. After the vehicles park the workers fan out in a very coordinated manner and start the setup. I enjoyed the fact that we got to see the full setup that has to be done to get the balloons prepped for take off.
After the setup was completed, we climbed into the basket and went through a quick safety briefing by our pilot Jesse. Once the briefing was over, our hot air balloon was released by the ground crew and we slowly drifted into the air. For over an hour we floated in the air between 100 and 5000 feet up as our pilot told us about the hot air ballooning and the surrounding area of our flight.
After a silently bumpy but safe landing, we gathered for a post flight champagne toast. It was a great morning and another great adventure!
