About two weeks ago, Dinah and I decided to join some friends who'd planned a camping trip to Mississippi Palisades State Park in Savanna, IL.  Then, I planned to surprise my lovely lady by taking her for a hot air balloon ride.  At the beginning of the summer, we'd made a list of summer goals and this was one we'd yet to check off.  I'd never kept a secret from her for long, so this part was especially hard.  I somehow managed by telling a number of friends about my devious plans...  I finally told her on Saturday, just as we'd finished an arduous hike on some rather poor trails, all while dodging hordes of mosquitos and orange-clad weekend workers wielding heavy construction equipment with reckless abandon, totally unable to understand why people might want a *quiet* hike.  It was rough.  Mississippi Palisades State Park?  Not impressed.  The balloon ride, though, made up for it.

It was a sunrise flight, so we had to wake up at 5:15 to get coffee and get there on time; the flight left from Eagle Ridge Resort, outside of Galena, IL.  We woke up at 5:30, but couldn't wrap our minds around the idea of a coffee-less morning...  so we were about 10 minutes late.  After signing some papers and apologizing for our tardiness, we ran down a path to a field where the balloon was laid out flat across the ground.  The basket was tilted on its side and was already hooked up to the balloon.  It was enormous.  Our pilot, Taylor, introduced himself and explained how the balloon would inflate and how we were to hop in.  Then some farmboys with extremely dark circles under their eyes (it was, by this time, only about 6:20 in the morning and while it wasn't still dark, the sun had yet to peek over the horizon) fired up two giant, gas-powered fans and held up the balloon's opening to let air in.  The air rippled through the balloon, making the field into a sort of rainbow sea for a minute, then it took on a round shape.  There were around 6 other couples there, and everyone was taking pictures and movies...  always the guy with the camera and the girl looking pretty (annoyed) standing in front of the rising wall of rainbow.  Taylor had said we could touch the balloon...  so we ran over and felt the sides...  they're made of a very strong fabric and have to have extensive testing done yearly to see how far it will stretch...  make sure it hasn't got any holes in it, etc.  

Once the balloon was getting pretty full, Taylor hopped into the basket (it was still on its side) and fired up the propane jets.  The heat caused the balloon to rise into the air, pulling the basket upright with Taylor still inside blasting away from one jet after another.  The balloon had 4 propane jets and he'd switch from one to another presumably to avoid overheating one.  Once the balloon was upright, we'd been told to hop into the basket too.  Again, Dinah and I took the lead.  This was smart, as it put us near the pilot area, which also contained most of the equipment, gauges, etc.  Not that any place didn't have a good view...  After a lot more blasting of propane, the balloon left the ground "like a herd of turtles" as Dinah likes to say.  We hardly noticed it take off besides a vague notion that we were moving in relation to the ground.  Taylor pulled some ropes and blasted some more and we rose to treetop level.  It seemed so unlikely that we wouldn't get caught on the branches, but I'm sure Taylor was doing that on purpose...  He kept us expertly positioned just above the branches.  We drifted over some trees and over a lake.  Once over the lake, we dropped down to maybe 10 feet above the water and hovered along wherever the wind took us.  After gliding around the lake for a while, we were approaching the trees on the other side so, after some prolonged propane blasts, we rose quickly above the trees and then continued higher up.

As we rose higher and higher, the rolling hills, trees, golf courses, and farms of western Illinois spread out below us.  The sun was coming up in the East and because of the hills, it only lit up some of the ground.  It was exceedingly beautiful.  We climbed higher and higher, eventually peaking at around 3500 feet.  Taylor told us we were traveling about 25 miles an hour.  We'd never know, though, because since we were going the same speed as the wind, it was calm and peaceful (except for the occasional propane blast).  As we gradually descended, Taylor contacted two "chase vehicles" on the ground and let them know where he was and what field he intended to land in.  Someone from the van went to knock on a farmhouse door to get permission to land, but no one was home.  I suppose it's also possible that they were asleep, seeing that it couldn't have been much later than 715am.

Anyway, we prepared to land by facing away from the direction of travel and hanging on for dear life.  It had not occured to me before that landing a balloon must be difficult given its lack of wheels, landing gear, etc.  Basically, the idea is to get the balloon close to the ground where the wind isn't as strong.  Then, the balloon slows down.  Then, you just let it drop until it hits the ground and eventually stops.  There are some ropes that go up inside the balloon to flaps on the sides.  There's another such flap at the top to let hot air out.  I'm not sure what exactly Taylor did to drop the balloon, but he told us to hang on and we hit the ground, took off again for about 15 feet, then hit the ground again, then after one more hop, came to a stop.  At this point, we stayed on the ground waiting to see if it was OK to take the balloon apart in this field.  Apparently, during our landing, the chase people had found out that the field belonged to a neighboring farmhouse and had gone over there to check it out.  Apparently, if they hadn't agreed, we could have taken off again and looked for another field.  Anyway, we hopped out of the balloon and repeated the whole scene with guys taking pictures of girls...  of course...  now that we were all friends, there was some "let me take a picture of both of you" going on...   I offered to take the picture of a couple, the old man from which looked just like the guy from the "Tube Sock" Skittles commercial.  

Conclusion...    It was really cool.  Not quite a "thrill seeker's ride" like skydiving.  Very calm, peaceful, natural...    I'd highly recommend the company.  I think it was buyaballoonride.com...   they're the only company operating in the Galena area, so you can't miss them!