Hot Air Balloon Ride and Races and Johnny's Restruant

Well it has been about five weeks or so from my last post. Remember I told you there was a lot to do in Reno, well for the last five or six weeks I have been doing it. I had a great time but the blog suffered.

We will start with the Balloon Races. I was going to pass them by this year. I have gone for about four years now, and getting up and out at about 2:30 am to see them again I thought I could just look at all my past photographs. Then it happened, my friend Melissa who owns one of, if not the BEST coffee house in Reno ( Walden's Coffeehouse Mayberry Drive 775 787 3307 ) asked if I would like to go on a hot air balloon ride with her. She had two VIP tickets with VIP parking and and everything else that goes with it. Now 2:30 am did not sound too bad. It took me all of about three seconds to say yes. I would have been quicker but I was still a little shocked.
I set my alarm got up nice and early and  drove over to Melissa's house to get this great adventure started.There is always tons of traffic but since we were going to the VIP lot, we had a special route. After parking the car and dragging ourselves out into the cold morning we started making our way to the VIP tent. They told us which balloon we would be in, our pilots name and as soon as it got a little lighter out they would walk us over to meet him. We needed more light because there are hundreds of people sitting on blankets around the fields waiting for the start or what they call the Dawn Patrol.

This is the dawn patrol ready to get the show, on the road, up in the air.

If you ever go, take a flash light or you will make a lot of new friends as you are walking through the field, that is full of people on blankets. There is no charge to go to the Balloon races, some of the parking lots charge you ( money maker for service clubs).

We found our balloon and was introduced to our pilot and captain.

The tall handsome guy in the middle is our pilot, Jeff Ebel, the short handsome guy to his right is me, and the smiling lady to his left is my friend Melissa. The first thing we did was sign insurance wavers, the second was to learn what was going to happen, and third learn the safety features like, ( never grab hold of anything colored red, this is for the captains hands only. ) I have to admit I had some trouble getting into the basket. The people in the basket were pulling and the people outside the basket were pushing, to the untrained eye I must have looked like a passenger who was trying to back out at the last minute.
The basket is not big and there were four of us in it, along with fuel tanks on the floor and not wanting to move and do something wrong it was a bit uncomfortable, but exciting. One minute you are on the ground and the next couple of minutes you are several hundred feet above the ground all with little or no sound.

    As you know there is no steering wheel, gas peddle or brake. We were at the mercy of the wind, our pilots expertize, and the balloons around us. We found out that the balloon below you has the right away, so we had to look out for them. It is so quiet we could talk to the people in the other balloons.

At one point we wanted to move a bit so Jeff asked the pilot in the balloon next to us for a "kiss"(the only time I was worried in the balloon), but we found out a kiss is the touching of the balloons and we sort of got a little push.  There are many games that are played during the races and the one we were going to do was dropping the bean bags. On the ground is a big X , the object is to move the balloon into a position over the X, lower the balloon and drop a bean bag on the X. Just to keep it interesting there are large playing cards around the X. There is a 10-jack-queen-king-and-ace, the idea is to drop two bags and try and get 21. If you think it is hard in the casino give this a shot. 

In a bit Jeff called his ground crew and from several hundred feet above them he told them where he was going to put us down, remember no steering wheel. Well he did it and all with out a hitch.

I have to say I have been in a lot of different air craft including a blimp but this was by far the BEST.

Melissa and I figured when we got on the ground and out of the basket we would say a nice thank you, a good bye, and hope to see you next year, well Jeff his family and ground crew had other ideas. We  were invited to break bread with them and drink some very nice champagne. As we were eating Jeff told us how hot air balloons came about and why champagne was a part of the experience. 

 Jeff asked his crew 

if they thought we were good guys and worthy of joining their club? We crossed our fingers and held our breath waiting for their answer. It was one thing to fly in their balloon and to break bread with them but their club, that would truly make our day. As we stood their waiting we heard the loudest "who-raw" ever and we knew at that point we were members, but not that fast, there was a ceremony to preform. The plot thickened. Not being able to go into the whole ceremony (very very secret) I can tell you it it was part swearing in and part champagne.

When it was all done we were the newest members of the "Brotherhood of  Aeronauts,"  this is something that both Melissa and I wear very proudly.

We just want to thank both Jeff and his two families again. One is his real life family and his second which is his balloon crew family and say it was great being part of the crew, and for sure we will be by to say hello next year.

This story was longer than I thought it would be so I will post a review of Johnny's Ristorante before the week is out.