We are not morning people, but when we were asked to get up at 5 am to help setup a hot air balloon we knew we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We told the boys they could come along and learn to crew for a hot air balloon, but Colin decided sleep was more important. He stayed home with Emmett and Brittany and Anthony and James came along.

We showed up at the school we were launching from while it was still dark. It was also chilly. We were bundled up but ready to work. The pilot brought donuts, so after filling up with sugar the boys were eager to help.
We were launching from a school because every year before the Albuquerque balloon fiesta starts they do Albuquerque aloft. Basically they have pilots take balloons to all the local schools so the children have to opportunity to see the balloons and get pictures and meet the pilots.

So we got the balloon out, set it up, got it inflated and right before it took off the pilot asked who was going to ride. He said he had room for 2. Since James and Anthony are only half size, he said they equal 1 and they could ride with Harmony. When we showed up we had no idea that any of us were going to get a ride. We were so excited.

We hopped into the basket and away we went. It was amazing. Probably one of the coolest things we’ve done during our travels. We were 1000 feet above the ground and we could see tons of balloons all around town. The views were awesome.

The weather was great for being outside, but not the best for ballooning. The winds were not blowing in our favor and tried blowing us into mountains, then into an airport. We were looking for a good place to land where our chase crew could get to us to load up the balloon. We headed down a couple times but it just wasn’t the right conditions for landing, so we went back up to try again.

Finally, on the fourth attempt we were able to land going about five miles per hour. Harmony and Anthony both scratched up their knees on the wicker basket and James was laughing and loving it. It was fun. The basket hit the ground, leaned over sideways, bounced up and came down again about 10 feet away then bounced a few more times before skidding to a stop.

We landed right in the middle of an arroyo, a dry river bed. It was sandy which was good for putting the balloon down in. On the sides of the sand were sharp pokey bushes and cacti which could tear the balloon. The bad news was there was no way for the chase crew to get to us.
While we waited in the basket for the chase crew to get close several people walking dogs let us know that there is no way to drive in. Our chase crew had maps and were driving all over town trying to find a way into the arroyo.
Finally we tracked down the right person and two men had found a key to open a gate leading to the arroyo and drove in and helped us load up the balloon.

It was an amazing adventure, getting to help set up the balloon, flying, and spending a few hours trying to rescue the balloon from the arroyo. It’s probably one of Harmony’s most memorable experiences and she, Anthony and James can’t wait until they get to go for another ride.