My almost balloon ride ...

I don't know if I am disappointed ... or relieved! Since last August's Jones reunion, I've been looking forward to this year's reunion in Canton where there was the possibility of going up, up, UP in a beautiful hot air balloon ... ME! In a hot air balloon! Floating with the clouds! High as the birds! Me with my camera, snapping great pictures! I love heights. I have always, always imagined the thrill of riding in a hot air balloon.

On very clear days ~ if the weather was just perfect ~ when my boys were very young, now and then hot air balloons would come near our apartment. You could hear them almost before you could see them ... we would hop in our car and ... I loved watching the boys' faces as we chased around Kent County trying to get as close as we could to them. Where would they land? It was so much fun counting them up high in the sky, waving to the people up there, wishing ... for flight!

However, as much as I love HEIGHTS, I really HATE roller coasters and just about every single amusement park ride I have ever been on. Anything that spins, twirls, zooms or dives I find horrifying! I remember being coaxed onto a ride at Michigan's Adventure ~ it was like a gigantic sideways swing and it looked kind of fun ~ all the kids were riding it and ... wouldn't I like to try it? I got on and it started swinging back and forth, back and forth, higher and higher and higher ... and soon I was begging (crying) for them to stop the horrid machine and let me off!!! I was SO sick. And then, last summer at the zoo when I rode the zip line (screaming all the way down) ... that was nice and high ... but WAY too fast. Whenever my mind looked ahead to this summer and I contemplated that balloon ride (that I officially signed up for!) I wondered ... would it take sudden drops? Twist and turn? Go too fast?!! I admit I was a little worried.

When I was talking it over with Andrew and Sabrina, Andrew said he would NEVER EVER ride on a hot air balloon (this from a man who jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 10,000 feet ... and took Sabrina with him!) ... too risky, he said. Where on earth was Andrew's sense of adventure I wondered?

Well, we received an e-mail today from Mr. Jones's cousin about the reunion this year and regrets were given that the hot air balloon rides were NOT going to happen. Sigh. I guess I'll never know the thrill ... or the adventure ... or possibly the regret of going up in a hot air balloon ~ well, at least not this summer.