A Slice of Life
Bill LItes
For those of you who have followed my most recent blogs, you will be familiar with the major players in my wife, DiVoran’s family. For those of you who are just joining me, her father is Ivan and her mother is Dora. Her younger brother, David, rounds out the family members. I became a member of this wonderful family when I married their daughter, DiVoran, and have enjoyed the pleasure of their company for over 60 years now. I would like to share with you one of the more delightful times we had with this family.
Sometime in early June of 1985 DiVoran and I flew to California to take part in this family’s celebration of Ivan’s 70th birthday. DiVoran’s father, Ivan, her mother, Dora, as well as her brother, David, and his wife, Susan, all lived in Vista, CA at the time, so that turned out to be the gathering place for the major celebration activities. As part of the celebration, on one of the days, David had made arrangements for us all to take a balloon ride. None of us had ever been up in a balloon, and the southern California area is one of the many locations where the weather is favorable for flying balloons; cool clear mornings with little or no wind.
We were all up early that day, rushing around in order to have our breakfast and still have time to drive north some 50 miles to the launch site in Paris, CA. We met our pilot, Steve, and he asked us to help him unload his balloon from its trailer. It was a beautiful clear crisp morning and the unfolding of the balloon was very interesting. Steve was very particular about how we handled every part of the balloon and its hardware. He had us position each part of the balloon, basket, guy ropes and burner in a systematic way so he could assemble everything quickly and correctly. Once everything was ready to begin the inflation process, he had us hold the bottom to the balloon open and he used a large fan to start filling the balloon with air. In the photo below, you can see Ivan supervising the initial inflation operation.
At some point Steve fired up the burner, pointed it toward the partially inflated balloon and blasted hot air into the balloon, and it began to rotate off the ground and rise to an upright positon. Once the balloon was vertical, we each had to hold onto a rope, attached to the basket, to keep it from ascending before Steve was ready. He climbed into the basket and asked us who was going to be first. We all pointed at Ivan and said, “The Birthday Boy!”
We helped Ivan climb into the basket. Steve went over the operation and safety rules for Ivan, loud enough for all of us on the ground to hear. I was amazed how Steve was able to keep applying the burner just enough to keep the balloon upright and still keep the basket sitting there on the ground. When Steve was ready, he told Ivan to hold on, and he applied a long blast from the burner; they slowly lifted off the ground, and they began their ascent.
Note: I forgot to mention this was one of the smaller balloons and the basket was only large enough to carry Steve, the pilot, and one other person. And because there were several of us that wanted to take a ride, the duration of the flights were a little shorter than usual.
Steve had instructed us that they wouldn’t be flying more than 1000 feet high, and for us to follow their flight path, so we would be there when they landed, to hold the ropes. This would allow the passenger to exit the basket and the next passenger to climb aboard (a quick and easy transfer). If it looked like the wind wasn’t going to carry the balloon far, we would all run to the next landing spot. DiVoran said, “There goes my 70 year-old white haired mother running after a balloon!” Dora told DiVoran later that the running was fun, as she hadn’t done that in years. When the wind picked up, we would all jump into Ivan’s pickup truck and follow the balloon to the next landing spot for the next passenger exchange. When it was my turn, I couldn’t believe how quiet it was when the burner was off. I love to fly, but I had never had the opportunity to fly that low in all my flying experiences. I could just imagine how thrilled the two French brothers, Joseph Michel & Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, known as the aviation pioneers who launched the first confirmed piloted ascent by man with their hot air balloon, Annonay, in France on June 4, 1783 must have felt. It was a really wonderful experience!
DiVoran remembers, “During my ride we flew over a junk yard, and when Steve applied a blast from the burner, to keep us high enough to clear an obstacle, I saw hundreds of rabbits running from their hiding places in all directions!” When everyone had a turn, we helped Steve deflate, disassemble, fold and load his balloon onto his trailer. We thanked him for an exciting morning of sight-seeing and headed back to Vista, where we each had something to share that was special to us that morning. That was a wonderful ‘Birthday Gift’ that we were all able to enjoy. It didn’t dawn on me until years later; that I had scratched off another item from my Bucket List and hadn’t even realized it at the time!
—–The End—–
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 63 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is: John 10:10
Old Things R New 
What fun you all must have had! Thanks for sharing the story.
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This is delightful.
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