Where the Wind Takes Me (Nashville)

I have always been intrigued by the hot air balloon, so naturally I was thrilled when I got my Groupon for Dream Flights USA. In fact, this flight was the very reason for my trip to Nashville and this excursion turned out to be full of surprises.

I had always imagined the hot air balloon as an intimate ride for two – four people so consider my surprise when I arrived at the launch site to find a decent crowd of onlookers and massive basket sitting in the field that could probably hold two – four well behaved grizzly bears.

Prior to witnessing the crew set up the balloon, it had never occurred to me how this contraption transforms from a basket and a pile of cloth like this:

To this:

I guess the answer is pretty obvious but I’d just never thought about it until I saw them actually do it.

Filling the balloon with high powered fans before heating it up

Just to give you some perspective about the sheer size of this massive balloon:

Decent sized venue for a rock concert perhaps?

Prior to takeoff I was completely unaware of just how HOT this ride would be. Being a little bit taller than your average rider I found the jets of flame just a little too close for comfort. I spent much of the ascent protecting my neck by leaning as far over the edge of the balloon as possible without toppling over the side #delicatebalance.

While this was going on we passed over this much smaller balloon:

When was the last time you saw the top of a hot air balloon?

Apparently our launch site and time (6AM) is quite popular with the local ballooning community. There were 4 other balloons launching along with us and the guy we leap-frogged.

As we ascended, our pilot Richard kept commenting about the lack of wind and how rare such conditions are. We climbed about 1500 feet and had not drifted more than a few yards from our original position. Certain that we would eventually find wind we continued to climb to well over 3000 feet. After nearly 45 minutes in the air, Richard informed us that he’d only seen conditions like this about 6 times in the last 25 years and we were going to start our descent in search of any winds we could find.

View from about 1500 feet...hold on tight to your camera!

I’m sure it would have been amazing to actually move in some sort of horizontal manner, but the view and sensation of being at such heights with no belt, harness or net was spectacular and incredibly exciting nonetheless.

As we we slowly lowered back to Earth we caught a tiny bit of wind that took us towards these trees.

Awesome shadow

We got so close we could actually feel the branches brush our feet!

On the other side of the trees...that's right...cattle

Luckily they left us alone as we softly landed in their pasture.

Started in the bottom left quadrant...Landed in the smallest field in the top right quadrant. Only a 5 minute walk back.

The landing was so soft that if you weren't looking you'd think you were still in the air

Richard had us pull the balloon to the bigger field next door for an easier time taking it down. The first lesson of impromptu balloon crew...watch out for cow patties!

The experience was incredible and I can’t wait to do it again. As cheesy as this sounds I felt a unique bond that morning. A bond with the very nature of balloon flight…the unpredictability, the spectacular views, the excitement & no safety net.

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