Day Nineteen

We had a very early morning as we were going on another once in a lifetime adventure….a sunrise hot air balloon ride over Sedona! We had to meet at Red Rock Balloon Adventures at 4:30am. It took 8 minutes to get to the launch site. Watching the crew set up the 1,200 lb basket and the 600 lb balloon was impressive. First our pilot Casey filled the balloon with cool air with a fan so that the crew can walk in and around the balloon to make sure there’s no rips or damage and then he started filling it with hot air. There were twelve passengers in our balloon, three in each corner. We climbed in and off we went! What a wonderful feeling it was to drift up and away, when the pilot wasn’t doing a burn it was so peaceful and there was so much to take in. It did get a little toasty under the flame, but because it was intermittent it was ok. We were following the other balloon from the same company, which is the one you see in the pics. What a truly glorious morning! 🙂 We flew for just over an hour. We over shot our landing site so had to carry on and find another one. The crew had to bomb it down a very bumpy, dusty road….you can see in one of the photo’s there’s a cloud of dust down on the road, that’s them trying to get to us. Our landing was a little bumpy to say the least! We were brushing the tops of trees as we came down and when we touched down the basket tipped over almost all the way, there were plenty of handles to hold onto though! Casey had to keep us in place, while we waited for the crew, to help get us in a spot to let the balloon down without ending up in a cactus or tree! After they packed everything up we drove out to meet the other balloon team and had champagne/mimosa’s.

The story of why one has champagne after a hot air balloon ride “The tradition of a champagne toast after a hot air balloon ride dates back to the 1780’s when hot air balloons first took flight. The first manned hot air balloon flight took place on November 21st, 1783 in Paris, France and was flown by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, a French chemistry and physics teacher, and François Laurent d’Arlandes, a French marquis and soldier. In the 18th century, hot air ballooning was a groundbreaking science. Because most had never heard of or seen a hot air balloon at the time, many onlookers were afraid of the “dragon-like” hot air balloons, and would often attack balloons with pitchforks. Hot air balloons were also unpopular with farmers as they were not fond of balloons landing in their fields and disturbing their crops. On one of the first successfully manned balloon flights, the passengers carried along a bottle of champagne to enjoy during the flight, but instead of actually drinking it, it was used as an offer of goodwill to the farmers whose field their balloon had landed in. The champagne convinced the farmers that the balloon was far from being a fierce dragon, and acted as an apology or peace offering for disturbing the land and animals grazing in the field. The champagne smoothed things over, and a tradition was born.”

We did a wonderful hike up to Devil’s Bridge, it was about 4 miles there and back. We started at 5:48 pm and it was still 105 degrees, but because the sun was going down a good amount of it was in the shade. The trail was a little uppy downy and it wasn’t till the very last bit that we had to go up really steep, natural stone steps. What a view! We hit the timing just right with the light and the sunset and were able to head back to the truck before it got too dark. Sedona has been a wonderful surprise, so much natural beauty. Next time we come back we’ll pick a slightly cooler time of year! We’re off to the north rim of the Grand Canyon tomorrow.