High but Dry in Rocky Mountain Balloon
We woke up at 3AM to reach Colorado Springs for the hot air balloon ride that was scheduled at 5:30 AM. In summer we have early sun rise in Colorado, and the lift off was planned at 5:30 AM with the pilot - Gary “Burner” Born. Gary owns the company called High-but-Dry Balloon Company. He came up with this interesting name after quitting drinking and taking up balloon flying. He calls it "moving from one addiction to another". We watched with anticipation as Gary’s crew unloaded the balloon from the chase vehicle, and inflated it using propane tanks. The sun was slowly starting its ascent bathing Pikes Peak in red. After many photos were taken, and recorded for posterity, we finally had lift off. We hardly noticed the ascent, and as we were busy clicking away with our cellphones we were already up in the air 500 feet above ground and moving at a gentle speed of 5 miles/hr. The city of Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak lay before us in the glorious cloudless morning with t...