Special Event Canceled, Bummer -- We'll Try Again

(Wauchula, FL)  Hi 77 Lo 46 --  Well, our "special event" was cancelled, but we won't keep you in suspense any longer.  We were scheduled this morning for a hot air balloon ride with Thompson Aire in Kissimmee.  Jim bought two ride tickets for a great discount through "Living Social," the website that works much like Groupon.  We spent the night in the Best Western Lakeside, which is the meeting place for the pre-flight briefing.  We had a very restless night.  Our bed in the hotel was harder then we're use to and the heater was noisy, which kept us awake.  That, and we were very excited!

We got up at 5:15am to make sure we got to the hotel restaurant by 6.  When we left our room and saw the whole area was blanketed in fog, we got a bad feeling about our chances of taking off this morning.  We were met by Jeff Thompson, the owner of the company and the chief pilot.  He said the fog was not expected, and wasn't predicted in any of the forecasts he uses.  In fact it didn't get foggy till after 4:30am and kept getting worse.  After all five couples arrived we signed the release forms while Jeff briefed us on what to expect.

The flight wasn't cancelled right away.  He had two of his ground crew members go out to the launch site on a scouting mission to see if the fog was localized or widespread.  After the briefing we all went outside to where the vans were parked and watched them send a couple of small balloons up into the air to check the wind.  It didn't take long for them to disappear in the fog, so it wasn't looking good.  :(  There were 10 of us, split up into three balloons (one couple paid extra for a private flight).  So we were going to ride with one other couple plus the pilot.

This is what it looked like just before sunrise.

While waiting to see if the fog would lift, Jeff talked about how hot air balloons work, and how the different layers of the atmosphere have different wind patterns and how that all affects the balloon's flight.  He explained flying a balloon this way:  Imagine you're driving your V-8 powered car on only two cylinders, with no brakes, no steering wheel, and it takes about 20 seconds to respond to your throttle.  Sounds fun, eh?

The scouts called back with bad news; the whole area was fogged in.  So after waiting about 30 minutes to see if the fog would magically lift (it didn't), the flight was cancelled.  (And we were right next door to the Magic Kingdom.  No magic for us, I guess.)  Needless to say, we were very disappointed.  We immediately re-scheduled for this Thursday.  We'll drive up to Kissimmee early Thursday morning this time, rather than spend another night in the motel.  We took out our disappointment on the hotel's breakfast buffet (which was very good!) and then headed home. So, again we WAIT.

We both were too tired to do much, and took short naps in our recliners.  Jeff called us late this afternoon and said the forecast for Thursday is fabulous!  Now if we can just keep the fog away.