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| Irene Crowe, Winsome McIntosh, Caroline Gabel |
My dear friend Irene Crowe has been "cooking" this idea up for almost a year and we finally nailed down a date that we and Caroline Gabel (close friend too) could drive to the Pennsylvania border with Maryland and fly free with the wind. It was a wonderful experience, starting with our meet-up in Harve de Grace at an exceptionally "funky" and wonderful B&B for the night of "women talk" and dinner.
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| Best Friends Forever bracelets! |
Up at 4:30 am and in the car traveling about an hour to meet our pilot, Mike.
Strangely, it was hot, but also foggy. We had to wait for a time for the fog to lift before we could start the process (actually in was Mike and Jason who did the work) of sorting the "flight deck....a basket for four" and inflating the canopy/balloon.
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| Caroline's new Volt |
The flight was glorious. Who knew that you didn't "feel" wind at 1000 feet? Your sense of height is minimized by the lack of sense of movement. We were drifting with the currents. We watched our shadow move below us, animals warily watch us above, get used to the sound and heat of the flames above us used to keep us afloat, and wonderful talk with our pilot. Mike was a Navy pilot with a hobby of ballooning that turned into a very fine business in retirement. His love of flight is enhanced by his love of poetry and quotations.
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This is what you see when you look up from your basket
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Our shadow passing below
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Once packed up and ready to be returned to our cars/starting point by the chaser call, we stopped in a local state park by a lovely stream and toasted our journey with sparkling cider. What a lovely morning we had before the long drive back to DC. Thank you, Irene, for the celebration like no other!
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| Caroline, me and Irene grounded again! |
