Hot Air Balloon Ride-Calistoga CA

     After a couple of glasses of wine, everyone is fearless, I guess, and my retired Cop husband tells me that this is why the blood alcohol limits for drinking and driving are seemingly low; it's because, after just a couple of drinks you make irrational decisions about how fast and reckless to go in your car and if driving the Internet, you might book and pay 5 LARGE for, a HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE when you actually have a fear of heights! AND book it at 6 frickin' A.M.!
   

 Fortunately, I do not actually wake up for a couple of hours after I'm walking about anyway, so the balloon was already getting inflated before I started trying to come up with strategies for getting out of the commitment; and by strategies I mean, ones that would get us our money back without going on the ride.

 At the same time my fear and anxiety was, not completely disarmed but reasonably softened by the slow, steady and competent ways of our Pilot, Jim. He looks like John Denver, which was also quieting to my mind (beCAUSE I forgot he was killed in the crash of a small private plane he was foolishly in!)
     Jim and his team of 3 Mexican men barely had to speak to each other as they methodically prepared the alarmingly small amount of equipment for our ascent above Sonoma Wine Country. There was only one other couple joining us and neither seemed afraid so I ACTED cool. About half an hour into the ride and after many conscious attempts to breathe all the way into my diaphragm and relax my muscles, I began to enjoy the gentle floating motion. ( as long as I did not look straight down).

The experience further clarified my theory that it isn't an actual fear of heights that I have developed in middle age, but more a dependence upon having control. Once I felt that Jim was in complete control and that I could trust him, I relaxed and enjoyedtheride. I have always especially enjoyedwarching a team of humans working as well together as Jim and his crew do and watching them, under the stress of a wind shift that had us headed for a landing in a vineyard, complete with young STAKED plantings, had them running about below us like purposefeful ants! Renaldo, a man of about 60 ran like a gazelle having chosen the correct row between plants that we would float over.

     The ground rope was tossed, Jim worked the fuel fire and while the one obviously very strong man held us in place, the other two ran and hurdled and ducked under planting lines until all three had the rope and dragged us to a safe landing. It was as exciting to watch as the ride was it's self. Afterwards, we celebrated with a champagne breakfast.

Since it was only 10 am by then and we were already started, we headed up country to our favorite sustainable/organic vineyard, Fetzer-Bonterra in Mendocino County.