Spirit of Boise

The week before school began, I had a few days in Boise hanging out at the Godwin's. The night after my first day of class, I went over ot their house ad wat chatting with Brooke and Kevin. He mentioned that it was Spirit of Bose with the hot air balloons and he asked fif I had ever been up in a hot air balloon before. I said no and he asked "Do you want to go?"

The next morning I was up at the crack of dawn, literally. I drove down to Ann Morrison and waited (im)patiently to figure out if the weather would work to let us go up in the air. It was freezing, the dew seeped through my canvan cloth shoes, all I had on was a pair of shorts and a borrow fleece from Brooke but watching the balloons open up and see the sun come up from over the foothills was beautiful. In the end, we didn't end up being able to go up so I headed back to the Godwins, napped, did some work, read for class, etc., and got ready to do it all again the next day.

The following day was still cold but much more fortuitous for going up in the air. I met up with our pilot, whose crew was made up of family members (daughters, brothers, nieces and nephews and son). I also met Anna, who was writing a piece for a magazine down in Los Angeles. We watched tem inflate the large balloon, we hopped in with our cameras and up we went!

The biggest surprise was how quiet everything was when you were up in the air. There was a slightly whoosh when gas was applied to the flame but otherwise, it was so silent and we were able to gaze down and take pictures at the beautiful views of Boise. The sun was over the foothills, the river was flowing and I loved being able to point out things I drove past every single day. What an incredible experience.

 

We landed in a parking lot by BSU and the crew showed up to put the balloon back into its case. We helped fold the entire thing up and then headed back to the park. The pilot and crew would also do a big breakfast and they invited us to join them for this absolutely delicious egg dish with Italian sausage and some bacon and a side helping of grapes. We were toasted with champagne to celebrate our first flight in a balloon and our pilot told us the history behind it: at the turn of the 20th century, in France, they would take balloons up and not really be able to control where they went. This was before they knew that it was heat that kept the balloon up so the balloons would land in fields, smoking like crazy. The peasants would get scared and converge on the balloon with pitchforks so the pilots would bring champagne from their region to appease them. So we were toasted with champagne and give the tops of the champagne cork, while looked like a little hot air balloon.

It was an unexpected, incredible experience that I am so lucky and appreciate to have had!