Las Vegas is not just a gambling mecca. I love Las Vegas and have found myself visiting there several times. I don’t gamble! What? That’s right…you heard me correctly. I’m not a gambler. I’ve never been lucky in winning anything, nor am I good at figuring the odds to toss luck in my direction, so I enjoy the area for other reasons. Twice I visited Vegas because I was nearby visiting the Grand Canyon. The desert region has its beauty and charms that are vastly different than what I’m used to. I live in the eastern part of the U.S. with green grasses, thousands of species and varieties of trees and plants, and lush green forest, so I enjoy the contrast with the desert’s different landscape and beauty.
Las Vegas has its famous shows and great dining. It has the famous light show with water set to music at the Bellagio hotel. There’s the glitzy “Strip” and “Fremont” Street. And, not to forget the grand Hoover Dam that formed Lake Meade. It’s all fascinating to see and explore whether you’re a gambler or sightseer. There is plenty of history and mystery in the Las Vegas beginnings to learn and ponder. There is something for everyone.
On the outskirts of Las Vegas are more things to see and do: Such as, ATV tours to partake in, or in my case, an adventurous balloon ride. At this point in my life’s adventure list, I hadn’t tried ballooning so I scheduled a champagne sunrise trip.
Since the balloon trip consisted of just a party of ten, (split between two balloons), it made it easier to get close up and to learn about the balloons before the actual flight (follow my pictures to see the process of setting up). There was a team of workers for unloading the balloon and basket, burner and fan, ropes and tie-downs. Many balloon ride companies offer the client a walk up, climb aboard, and sail off approach. Here, in this adventure, it was different. I got to watch the setup and learn about its construction and beginnings. I got to walk inside the balloon and take a look around. I asked a worker if he would take some pictures of me with my camera; he did so without hesitation and immediately directed my poses and snapped away. Seriously, how often would I be standing inside of an air balloon? It was a Kodak moment! Wow, it’s big in there! It’s a cool perspective in there looking out of the opening (or the envelope, as I learned it was called).
Once ready for flight, we were given safety instructions in case of a rough landing. We climbed in and prepared for take-off. Gently we ascended. It was fun watching what was happening in our basket with the pilot working the burner to elevate us at the same time as watching our sister balloon rising up within a close distance to us. It was like watching the happenings outside of myself, if that makes any sense. It was awesome! The stillness and quiet once the burner shutdown, was so peaceful and serene. All you could hear were the sounds of camera shutters clicking away. I was seeing views of the barren dirt mountains of different shades of earth (as evolution formed them), with Las Vegas off in the distance, in another direction, representing life in the 21st Century. Oh, and seeing the shadow of our balloon and basket against the dirt mountain was something I didn’t expect to see, but was pretty darn cool. A sight like that wouldn’t have occurred with the dense mountain ranges of trees in the east where I’m from.
Descending was another learning experience. The pilot lets air out and reheats the air back and forth in intervals to control the descent. It’s an art—reading the airwaves, letting out just the right amount of air, and then heating back just the right amount of air to control the descent. The pilot is trying to hit his mark—close to the spot where he took off from. Sometimes it’s perfect and most of the time, it’s pretty close.
We were pretty close. The van with workers followed us along as we were coming to the area of final rest. It was just a short distance away from our lift-off spot. We rested to the ground easy enough, and once settled, we climbed out of the basket. Workers rushed about preparing for packing up the balloon. Guess what? Part of the trip was helping to pack it up. We folded a bit, then leaned our bodies on the balloon to squeeze out as much air as possible. We continued the process; fold and squeeze until there was one huge pile of balloon material. Looking for a volunteer or two to climb on top of the balloon to squeeze out that last bit of air, brought my hand up in an enthusiastic plea to help. I think the request was just to give us riders another fun way to participate. I don’t really think any of us volunteers did anything to further decompress that balloon, but there was fun in the making, that’s for sure.
After all that work….it was Champagne time!
—thanks for following my journey—
