Lifestyle

Bucket List Adventures – Hot Air Balloon Ride

June 8, 2017

My entire life I’ve dreamed of riding in a hot air balloon. As a child, I remember looking up in the sky as all the balloons flew overhead and telling myself that one day I would be in one of those balloons. I’ve always marveled at how beautiful the balloons were, and wondered how incredible it would be to be above the land that I live on every day. In fact, on my very first date with Ross I told him that one of my life goals was to ride in a hot hair balloon. Well…that day finally arrived, and it was the magic I’ve always been looking for.

Midwest Balloon Rides made my dreams come true. Tony, the owner of Midwest Balloon Rides, and I collaborated together to create this post! When Tony let me know that he had a flight ready for us to join, I may have acted like a crazy woman. I started jumping up and down and called Ross right away. I’m not sure Ross understood any of what I said other than, “hot air balloon.”

On the day of the hot air balloon ride, I woke up with instant butterflies. I was so excited, but the nerves started in too. It only got worse throughout the day. I was SO excited, but also so very nervous. I had to keep telling myself, “Katelyn– you went skydiving last year, you can surely do this…” 🙂 It also helped that I knew Ross was going to be right next to me in this journey.

When we arrived at our starting post, my nerves instantly vanished. I was able to meet Tony and his crew and they were obvious professionals. They let us ask any and all questions and made us laugh all the while. I immediately felt at ease and completely safe riding with Midwest Ballon Rides.

We all rode to a take off sight and not too soon after, they began blowing up the balloons. I have to admit, once the balloon was ready to go, the butterflies came right back. We hopped in the basket and for a few brief moments, the basket swung back and forth over and over again. It actually started becoming somewhat fun (and apparently pretty normal). Hopefully, you were able to catch me filming it on my snapchat, @katesnumberones.

As we started our rise into the sky, I had a few moments of utter shock. It was *beautiful*, absolutely beautiful. We got to see all of our city from above… cars, people, buildings, and nature. Being up in the sky is actually fairly peaceful and quiet. The only noises you hear are coming from the fuel and every now and then someone yelling from the ground. Another thing I thought was cool, was that you don’t feel wind unless the direction changes. I expected to have windblown hair by the end of the ride, and in reality, there really was no wind up there at all.

After taking some time to really live in those moments, Ross and I began talking about all the beautiful things we could see and even started recognizing some of our friends homes. Not long after, Tony pulled out little army men with parachutes for us to fly. We all had a good laugh and let them loose. It was a definite surprise and something fun and special to remember.

As the hour started winding down, I began texting my mom about our location. Lo and behold, my stepdad and her became hot air balloon chasers and were all over the road looking for us. hahaha. About ten minutes later, I saw this woman with her arms waving everywhere and shouting. I knew it was my mom instantly. We yelled back and forth, waved, and took pictures of each other as we passed. It was so fun to see them during our adventure. They are our definite number one fans!

When we began our descent down, I started getting nervous again. We did bump along the ground a few times, but it was actually quite fun. Like I said, I felt super safe, so I was just a-laughing-away the whole time.

When we landed and kissed the ground, we were able to share what we loved about the ride and all the great things we saw along the way. Midwest Balloon Rides made our dreams a reality. We had the best time ever and were able to check off another item on our bucket list. If you’re ever looking for a hot air balloon ride adventure (which you should) :), and in the Indianapolis area, you’ll have to give Tony a call.