If you ever need a place to unwind because you own a vacant condo during a crappy housing market and almost all of your possessions are either in storage, on a ship in the Indian Ocean or in a warehouse half way around the world, go and stay a few days in Asheville, North Carolina. If you don't do drugs or drink excessively but need a peaceful and calming way to ease your nerves because you've been a vagabond/drifter/tramp/rogue/hobo for 2+ weeks, take a hot air balloon ride! This was our reason for spending the weekend in Asheville and going ballooning!
One cool and unexpected thing that happened during the flight was closing my eyes for a few seconds when we were more than a mile high. The balloon was sooo still. When you close your eyes, you feel like you are still on the ground. You hardly feel any wind because the huge balloon carrying you is moving with the wind. There is zero turbulence as well (unless you jump in the basket). I'm not usually scared of heights but looking down the side of a wicker basket 6500ft in the sky made me slightly freak out! I think that is why I closed my eyes for a bit! Anyway, here are some pictures from our ride. As an add on, I'm happy I didn't search YouTube for balloon disasters until after the trip! Check them out...they are quite interesting!
