You only live once.......

(Photo by Matt Reid.)

About 14 years ago, at about this time, yrs trly took a ride in a hot-air balloon.
It was at the annual Finger Lakes Balloon Festival at the Canandaigua Airport on Brickyard Road.
The balloon was “Dream Chaser,” which may be based in nearby Bloomfield village — I see the trailer.
But the pilot was Joe Doerer of New Jersey.
My relationship with the mighty Mezz began as an unpaid intern after my stroke.
But I so enjoyed working there I wanted to join the staff.
The balloon ride was shortly after I started employ.
I had been writing a weekly column for the mighty Mezz, and I was also writing a “Yesterday’s News” segment.
The Festival was planning a Saturday night press balloon ride.
Editors were fishing for volunteers, so I told them I was interested.
No one else volunteered.
I was unable to do the press balloon, due to a work conflict, so I would have to do my own balloon ride, 150 smackaroos.
What I remember most is editor Kevin Frisch wailing “Oh, the humanity” through cupped hands.
Reprising radio announcer Herbert Morrison’s description of the Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, NJ, in 1937.
There was just one problem.
Unlike the Hindenburg, which was filled with extremely flammable hydrogen gas for lift, a hot-air balloon used heated air for its lift.
Non-flammable.
I’ve often wondered if Rush Limbaugh could be harnessed to fill the hot-air balloons.
Railing about liberals (dread).
But I don’t think he’d be enough.
We might have to add Bob Lonsberry.
Our balloon bag was filled with air blown in by a small Briggs & Stratton fan.
The air inside was then heated with a giant torch from propane bottles.
Off we went; clear up to 2,000 feet. The rattan basket had an altimeter.
It was just Joe and me.
From that high we could see the dome of the Ontario County Courthouse, the Bloomfield water-tower, Canandaigua Lake, and the faraway skyline of Rochester in the dewy haze.
Also deer sneaking into the woods below, the abandoned railroad grade of the “Peanut Line,” and a dog barking at us.
You don’t much tell a balloon where to go.
It goes where the wind carries it.
And sooner-or-later the hot air in the balloon cools, and/or your propane runs out.
Soon we were landing softly in an abandoned cornfield off Cooley Road.
We were welcomed by chickens and ducks and another barking dog.
The landowner was presented a bottle of champagne.
Would I do it again?
The balloon-fest is gone, but I would if I could.

• “Matt Ried” (“reed”) used to work at the Messenger newspaper. (The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over four years ago. Best job I ever had.) For a while we both drove the newspaper’s web-site; until I retired, and then he drove it himself. He has since quit and moved near Denver, CO.
• We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester. Nearby is the small city of “Canandaigua” (“cannon-DAY-gwuh”). The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away. The Canandaigua airport is on “Brickyard Road;” a rural two-lane north of Canandaigua. The city of Canandaigua is within Ontario County, as is West Bloomfield.
• The “Finger Lakes” are the long north-south lakes that dominate central NY. Called the Finger Lakes because they look like a hand was impressed in the terrain, so that long finger impressions were left that filled with water and became lakes. —Canandaigua is at the top of a Finger Lake, Canandaigua Lake. There are at least seven or eight finger-lakes; some quite small and some quite large. Canandaigua Lake is smallish, but still fairly large.
• East of West Bloomfield is the rural town of East Bloomfield, and the village of Bloomfield is within it. —Long ago “Holcomb” (“hole-CUM”) seceded from Bloomfield village, because a railroad went through it. The railroad was abandoned in the ‘70s (the “Peanut-Line; see below). Holcomb merged back into Bloomfield not too long ago, and the name “Holcomb” disappeared.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993.
• “Kevin Frisch” (“frish”) is an editor at the Messenger newspaper.
• “Bob Lonsberry” (“LAHNZ-berry”) is a conservative talk-radio host local to the Rochester market; who takes his cue from Rush Limbaugh — continually railing against liberals.
• The “Peanut Line” is the original independently-built Canandaigua & Niagara Falls Railroad, eventually merged into New York Central Railroad. It was called a “peanut” by a New York Central executive because it was so tiny compared to NYC’s mainline. It is now entirely abandoned, although a short stub out of Canandaigua to Holcomb remained in service into the ‘70s.