Best Of - DE3

"Would it be all right to land in
your backyard?" our pilot, Rick
Behr, shouts across the grass at the
squinting figure of a woman standing
on her patio, over the sound of four or
five hound dogs barking up at our balloon. This question does not indicate
an ill-planned rogue landing. It is in
fact the apex of a delightful, cloudlessblue-sky hot air balloon ride, drifting
just outside Charlottesville, Va. with the
best possible view of the Blue Ridge
Mountains. With ballooning, landing in
a stranger's yard is just what you do.
The woman - and her dogs - don't
really mind.
"That ride was the best you'll get,"
the crew tells me later, glasses of sparkling cider in hand (champagne
after a balloon ride is traditional, but it
is only 9 a.m., after all). They tell me
with satisfaction that we traveled
about 14 miles in the hour-long flight
and rose at our highest to 3,400 feet
above ground level.
My eight fellow balloon riders,
around me now at the Boar's Head Inn
lounge, are all marking birthdays and
anniversaries with their first hot air balloon rides. Thus the mood is already so
celebratory that I suppose we can't truly
appreciate the perfection of our ride,
having nothing to compare it to anyway.
DE 3 | BlueRidgeCountry.com

Hot air balloons exist in a
magic world where the rules of
reality do not apply - see
Phileas Fogg in "Around the
World in 80 Days," Dorothy
in "The Wizard of Oz" or even
Winnie the Pooh floating up
and away.
But come to think of it, it did take
some effort to attain such a smooth-sailing experience. I learn that hot air balloons are very susceptible to weather.
Behr is professionally cautious. He goes
up only in the mornings, only when the
weather is just right, and only when
enough other people are going up too.
So, not being a part of a group or party, I
called Rick each day of the week in
hopes of a ride the next morning. "The
weather has been mind boggling, how
bad it's been," he says on the phone.
Apparently the East coast's weather in
general is not ideal for ballooning, but I
would say the bird's-eye view of my
Standing tall
It's difficult to appreciate the sheer size
of a fully inflated balloon until you're
standing next to one for the very first time.

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