Up, up and away… !
- Posted by greybird on October 19th, 2004 filed in Blogger Import
All I can say is WOW. I almost canceled the balloon ride yesterday. The weather was overcast and shit-hit-the-fan at work. I was struggling with whether to try postponing until Saturday. We’d already been postponed once because of weather and it would have been too cold and too late to see fall foliage after our vacation to New Orleans if we’d gotten canceled again this weekend.
Then the balloon guy said that flight conditions were really perfect despite the clouds, so I ran out of the office mid-afternoon and left my problems behind. I’m so glad I did that.
The ride was about an hour and a half long over the southern part of western NY. It wasn’t scary at all, the whole balloon and basket assembly was very stable. And it was so peaceful… it was dead quiet except when the propane flames were shooting to create more hot air. We just sort of drifted along in a westerly direction over a few hills and into a few valleys. Near the end we could see Lake Erie and downtown Buffalo off in the distance.
We’d been so worried about missing the spectacular fall foliage but you’ll see from the photos we pretty much hit the peak! What an awesome birthday gift from Mel. I so want to go again!
October 20th, 2004 at 2:26 am
Gorgeous! I’m so glad you took the time. Sometimes we have to slow down and smell the ro ..er.. see the trees.
October 20th, 2004 at 4:50 pm
I am orange and yellow and rust and red and green with envy.
October 21st, 2004 at 3:52 am
WOW! That’s so gorgeous. And what perfect timing, Michigan was not quite that spectacular, but I love fall color. I’m so in tune with the subtle color shifts of the desert that when I see fall foliage like this, I’m blinded and awe struck. My mind has a hard time processing it!
October 21st, 2004 at 6:44 am
Beautiful picture!!!!
I miss fall…
October 21st, 2004 at 11:10 pm
It looks like that here, too. It almost doesn’t look real.
October 23rd, 2004 at 2:31 pm
Absolutely breath-taking!
October 24th, 2004 at 5:46 am
Ex-quis-ite. I miss those colors. And happy b’day, belatedly!
October 26th, 2004 at 3:47 pm
Yeah, are those trees??? Ours don’t really change colors as much as just go from green to kind of brown to leafless.
Beautful.