- Oct 3, 2007
- 1,539
It's been a while since I've posted on hearth.com because once the furnace goes cold for the season my mind turns to warm weather stuff. Recently I was thinking that I needed to get back on here because summer isn't all that far away, and then this happened... My brother-in-law pulled into our driveway, walked in and said "Ummm...there's a hot air balloon hovering over your house..." We told him that it happens all the time, because this time of year it does-Hunterdon County is the hot air ballooning capital of New Jersey and it's not at all uncommon to see them floating around on a summer night. This time though we went outside and saw it sitting literally over my neighbor's house-then I saw a Suburban pulling an enclosed trailer fly by-I figured it had to be a chase vehicle. The next thing we knew it was getting lower and lower. The whole neighborhood crowded into the backyard while the basket touched down. I never thought they could land in such a small space, but they sure did. It was a couple celebrating their second anniversary-they had planned to land in a large field on the other side of the state highway, but there just wasn't enough wind, so they looked for a yard with the least amount of trees. My neighbors were happy because they got a bottle of champagne (apparently they always carry one with them and present it to a property owner if they land somewhere unexpected)-it was pretty neat. Here are some pics:
Touchdown
My BIL standing next to the envelope
Deflated
The basket
All rolled up
Touchdown
My BIL standing next to the envelope
Deflated
The basket
All rolled up