While I am waiting for La Vida Nueva, my sailboat, to come back into my life, I have been busy doing things I would have done with La Vida Nueva. The Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festival was always high on the list!
I am a licensed pilot but a Balloon endorsement I do not have…nor do I plan to get. Still, to see the 600 participants lifting off en-mass reminded me of my own flying days, mostly by the seat of my pants!
Ballooning is a lot like that. Sure, there are plenty of rules. But at the end of the day, it is you and your wits and a very real chance that you are not coming home for supper that night that makes the sport “edgy”.
Today, we mourn the fallen from this festival, Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis, who likely were killed when their balloon catastrophically failed and plunged into the sea at over 50 miles per hour.
Abruzzo, 47, of Albuquerque, and Davis, 65, of Denver, were participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race when contact was lost Wednesday morning in rough weather over the Adriatic Sea. During prior yeas, the two veteran adventurists were at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.
They will be missed by those who knew them personally, and their spirits will be missed by all pilots who understand each venture aloft bears the risk of one ugly yet possible outcome, that one time when everything fails or just one thing fails, and we are forced to meet our maker doing what we love the most.
Flying, in whatever form, is full of adventure, and for me mostly full of freedom which can only be matched by the freedom one has when we shed the bonds of our lives and our bodies and move to the next life.
Fortunately, none of the balloons or dare devils who operated them, were involved in any accidents or incidents. They are simply a window into the sport for me, a moment recorded for history, a memory of my own, maybe apart from the balloon, but in my own way like these leaders, when I put it on the line and launched for heaven again!
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