Hot Air Ballooning in Midlothian, Texas

We finally got our hot air balloon ride! The silent video below highlights our flight in under a minute.

Midlothian is a city outside of Dallas. We started our adventure at 5:00pm on Saturday. It began with a funny looking van in a parking lot with a 600 lb basket on the back.

Hot Air Balloon Ride or Abduction?

From there, we went into the van and they drove us away out into an empty field (sounds bad typing that out).

Wayne's Hot Air Balloons

Then we lugged out a bag holding the 400 lb balloon envelope.

Hot Air Balloon: Some Assembly Required

The balloon envelope extended a surprising amount.

Balloons can cost over $20,000

That day I learned that first step to filling the hot air balloon with hot air is filling it with cold air. Caiqian helped hold the envelope open as the operator turned on a fan.

As seen in the video above.

At the end I took Caiqian's place as the operator turned on the burners and pointed them into the envelope until the air heated up.

Not seen: flames shooting into the envelope.

Then we were told to get into the basket ("Don't think about it. Just get in!") and we were off!

Beats driving

At first we thought it would be cold up in the air, but what we didn't account for was that we were feet away from propane burners that shot 20 foot flames. It was scorching hot.

Wearing jackets is a rookie mistake.

We had a great time, floating ~1000 feet in the air in our ~1000 lb hot air balloon.

One bucket list item down!

One surprising thing we noticed was how clearly we could hear the animals (like dogs barking) that high in the air.

Sunglasses were a good idea.

We also enjoyed waving to people and covering them with our balloon shadow.

I wonder what this guy thought...

There was another balloon and we enjoyed seeing them as well.

What a beautiful day.

Eventually we had to land and put away our equipment.

Got my arm workout for the day.

We then finished with celebratory champagne.

We made it!

We had such a great time that we even had a late dinner with everyone afterward at Campuzano's.

An extra late celebration.

The food was OK, but hearing their hot air ballooning stories was priceless. Because the operator can only control the height of the balloon, they occasionally float over inappropriate areas (prisons, people sunbathing in their back yards, etc.).

For once, I don't know when or where the next adventure will be. Who knows? We'll see!