I Can See for Miles and Miles

Life List #18: “Ride in either a helicopter or hot air balloon.”

Crossed off!

Hot air balloon ride, check!

Chris and I were invited to come out to Reno, Nevada for the Great Reno Balloon Race, and also spent 3 1/2 days exploring Reno and learning more than we ever thought possible about ballooning and the Reno area.  Super massive thanks to Olsen and Associates for the Balloon Race, and to the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority (RSCVA) for the time spent showing us around their fantastic city!  (More on everything else, coming soon)

Weather Permitting

There is no steering wheel on or in a hot air balloon.  Pilots maneuver their baskets and balloons according to what the wind wants to do that day.  That being said, the ideal time to fly is early in the morning, before the warmth of the sun has changed any of the wind patterns and when light breezes are easy to float into and on.  Pilots control ‘up’ and ‘down’ in a balloon by the heat, and ride the wind for the rest.

We didn’t get to go up on Media Day as originally planned because the winds kept changing and the pilots we’d been matched up with decided not to fly.  However, Becca is wonderful and she and our girls at the RSCVA helped us rearrange things a bit so that we could fly the day of the actual balloon race.  As in, the day almost 100 balloons lift off within about a half-hour period.  It’s incredible, and this is what that looks like:

Patriot

We met Gary Peterson and his crew for the Patriot – his red, white, and blue balloon.  He and another pilot needed to prepare for their 9-11 tribute to happen the next day, so we not only got to ride with them, but we got to first experience “tethering,” which means we go up as far as a tethered rope will allow, hang out for a few minutes, and then come back down.  We did this because these two balloons lifted side-by-side with an American flag in between the two of them and they need to run through that once on Friday before the tribute on Saturday.

Long story short, we went up and down before we went up for the ride.

I’ll admit, I was a little nervous.  I’m not a huge fan of heights, but I refuse to let that stop me from saying yes to experiences like this.  And I’m so glad I did!  The ride was brief, but incredible.  People kept telling us how gentle and how peaceful the ride is, and that’s absolutely true.  We rode gentle winds over the event park and could see mountains in the distance and a great view of downtown Reno.  I am already daydreaming about doing this again.

Photo credit: RenoBalloon.com

{Photo credit: these are mine!}

A Thousand Words

Clearly, seeing the experience will do far more justice than me telling you about it, so check these photos out for a little before and during part of the balloon riding experience.

The Event

Set-up, inflation, lift-off, mass ascension and more colors than I’ve ever seen in one place at the same time:

{Photo credit: these are mine!}

The Ride

{Photo credit: these are mine!}

Breakfast, Champagne, and the Ballooning Community

The balloons are beautiful and the ride is fantastic, but my most favorite thing about the ballooning experience is the community that surrounds it.  Gary and his crew* insisted that we join them for breakfast, champagne, and a special ceremony following the ride.  I’m not one to turn down champagne (or the chance to spend time with really great people), so we gladly accepted.

Gary’s team cooked breakfast for everyone right there in the park in the morning sunshine.  We set up tables and chairs and had more bottles of champagne than we knew what to do with.  While breakfast was cooking, Gary conducted a “ceremony,” a custom for all their new riders and flyers.  He explained the story about how champagne became a part of ballooning (legend goes that early French aeronauts (the first hot air ballooners) carried champagne with them so that when they landed on someone’s land, they could appease angry property owners), shared with us the Ballooner’s Prayer, and christened us Official Aeronauts.  We even got keepsake champagne glasses and cork-balloons to commemorate the occasion.

It was an amazing experience, and I hope to be able to fly again someday!

*The crew is a crucial part of the ballooning experience.  They’re the ones that help set up, blow up, take down, and pack up the balloon and the basket.  They’re the extra hands it takes to inflate the balloons and the muscles it takes to pack a balloon back up.  They’re amazing.

Disclaimer: we are so grateful to have been invited to experience ballooning, the Great Reno Balloon Race, and the community around the entire event.  Many, many thanks to O-APR for making this possible.  The opinions and photos in this post are my own (some photos are Chris‘), and we were under no obligation to write about the experience in exchange for the invitation.  Also, huge thanks to Gary and the Patriot crew for taking us up and for sharing breakfast, champagne, and stories with us!

Tagged as: champagne, great reno balloon race, hot air balloons, nevada, reno, September