Up, up and away!

Bubba’s Sis had it right! For our 10th wed­ding anniver­sary, J took me on a hot air bal­loon ride over the Ozarks dur­ing sun­set. It was SO much bet­ter than I could ever have imagined.

Our pilot is the guy who pilots the Bass Pro Shop bal­loon, so we got to take off from one of John­nie Mor­ris’ prop­erty (owner of Bass Pro). It was just gorgeous!

We floated across the Fin­ley River with cliffs on both sides, over miles of for­est, cat­tle farms and horse farms. Peo­ple are incred­i­bly friendly when you’re in a bal­loon! We had peo­ple stop on the side of the high­way to wave! Then again we stayed about 500–800 feet off the ground so we were pretty dang close to them.

The fun­ni­est part was when I asked the pilot where we were going to land. He said, “Oh, well…just keep your eyes open for a large, nicely-mowed yard, k?” Appar­ently it’s not the eas­i­est to just have a set loca­tion when you’re at the mercy of the wind, so we wings his land­ings! He’s done it like that for 20 years and only one guy was hacked enough to want to get his gun. (Won­der what he was hiding!?)

The fun but painful part was our land­ing. Usu­ally the land­ing would just feel like a bump, but if there’s about 8–10 mile an hour wind then you can start bounc­ing across the ground. Just as we started to land, the wind picked up to 12 miles an hour. We bounced hard 3 times and my knees have got the bruises to prove it!

Even with the crazy land­ing (which I loved!), I would do it again in a heart beat. Next time though I want to do it in the win­ter time…that would be such a rush!

Let’s see…I’ve got that marked off my bucket list, now what’s next?  Oh goodie, a tat…now where to put it…

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14 Responses to “Up, up and away!”

  1. mjgolch says:

    I think that is why I enjoy terra firma so much. Hugs and God’s Bless­ings to one and all! Mike G. said that (its an A.A. thing)

  2. Shut up! That is SO cool! When did you guys do this? After the party I’m hop­ing, because no one breathed a word about it while you were at my house.

    As for the tat, I’m in.

  3. Hidden Monk, Crouching Sag Gun says:

    That is so cool sis.
    How fun is that?

  4. Sharon says:

    Oh that looks like so much fun!

  5. D... says:

    Fun! Fun! Fun! I’m so glad the weather held out for you. I’d LOVE to have a hot air bal­loon ride myself.

    A tat! More fun! What do you want?

  6. Bubba's Sis says:

    How totally awe­some!! What a great way to cel­e­brate your anniver­sary! Con­grat­u­la­tions again!

  7. Susan says:

    That is so wicked cool. So what will the tat be? And where?

  8. Mark salinas says:

    Fan­tas­tic! The bal­loon ride is on my list as well. How about climb­ing a mountain.…deep sea div­ing in Hawaii? Good post and con­grats on the 10 year! :)

  9. Erin says:

    I’ve always wanted to try it.. love your bucket list com­ment.. Loved that movie. Makes me think about writ­ing a bucket list. Hummm in ref­er­ence to your pro­cras­ti­na­tion link, maybe i’ll do it tomor­row :P

  10. D... says:

    P.S. When­ever you get a chance, come to my blog to pick up an award. :)

  11. MizFit says:

    *waves hand*

    havent done my OWN list yet but have a num­ber of tat ideas :)

  12. Ahaw­some! Ah.Some! Stinkin’ beautiful.

  13. Kim says:

    Okay…so I’m read­ing through your blog…as you might have guessed…and I’m won­der­ing if you are close to what I con­sider home…Springfield MO?

    Been on that prop­erty before and Ozarks at sun­set is just beautiful!

    Sounds like you had a great time…even if it had a bumpy ending.

  14. Kim says:

    Oh…and HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY! :)

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