A Relatively Exciting Night, I Suppose

I'm such a nerd. I have always loved chasing things, particularly firetrucks. The last time I was at my parents, my dad's little monitor went off for a fire call down the street. My sister grabbed the dog and I threw AJ in the stroller. We jogged down to the bottom of our hill where the street was closed off. My uncle and dad are volunteer fire police, a pretty sweet job since they get to see the action but no longer enter burning houses. They mostly hang out with the other fire police closing off streets, directing traffic and forcing annoyed motorists to turn around. They let us onto the "scene" to admire the firetrucks and enjoy the excitement. (Don't worry, it was a very small fire - no injuries and little damage). It was a classic family moment for me, a rare throwback to childhood. My experiences watching fire scenes is what led to my interest in local news (...and eventually network news, where I met my husband, and now we have the child...and here we are!)

So normally I chase ambulances, firetrucks and maybe live (news coverage) trucks. Tonight's "rush" was a little different - I chased a hot air balloon rescue truck. Has last week's birthday turned me into a senior citizen, you ask? Or does chasing a hot air balloon make me a country gal? I am not sure of the answer, but I do know AJ had a lot to do with it. First of all, I believe Dora has an episode about hot air balloons that has peaked AJ's interest. Second, AJ very clearly remembers the day last fall when a hot air balloon went directly over our house (picture below). So when we saw that same balloon tonight landing nearby, I knew it was something she would love to see. I threw her in the car and off we went.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the balloon wasn't just landing....it was practicing landings. So in the 40 minutes or so we spent chasing it, we saw it land and take off five times. We were sitting in a church parking lot (with a couple of other cars, mind you) when the rescue truck pulled in. When they left the church parking lot, the rest of us followed along, and soon there was a line of four cars trailing the rescue truck. Luckily we were out on a country road, so everyone could kind of pull off and watch what seemed like the world's longest balloon flight.

We saw the rescue truck pull down a dirt path into a cornfield. But instead of deflating and waiting to get picked up, the balloon decided to bounce its way across the cornfield to the rescue truck. So we are sitting there for 15 minutes waiting for this balloon to stop bouncing. Finally I called it. AJ was disappointed but growing tired. The promise of a popcicle meant that missing the final deflation wasn't such a big deal.

It's early in hot air balloon season, so maybe we will see some more balloons in our neighborhood. But I'm hoping APY will discourage me from lengthy chases in the future...'cause it wasn't that exciting.