Beemster Hot Air Balloon Ride

The Lady and I are both friends with Michael from Beemster Cheese. He’s the friend who sent me the three Beemster mice that I spend endless hours playing with and enjoying. His cheese brings endless hours of pleasure to The Lady, The Man and especially me. Imagine my surprise when The Lady got a phone call from Michael last night inviting her (not me) to ride with him and DuRyan, a DJ from “jammin’” 107.5 radio and member of their popular “Playhouse” , in the Beemster Hot air balloon, leaving this feline foodie and the three Beemster mice behind…
And to add insult to injury, when she returned, she told The Man that cheese was served during the ride…now that’s just wrong, wrong, wrong…why does The Lady get to do all the fun stuff and I have to do all the work reporting her various cheese antics???
Here’s the 411 on how the ride went…she arrived at Cook Park in Tigard at 430am. In her excitement, she locked her keys in the car…teehee…
The Lady was required to sign two release forms that warned that hot air ballooning was a dangerous sport and might result in bodily harm and/or death (the second form was a bit more subtle and used the word “fatality” instead of “death”). The Lady signed both and became an “official card-carrying” Crew member on the Beemster Hot Air Balloon. Kelly, from Food Match which imports most of the items The Lady sells at the Olive Bar, offered to take custody of me in case that “death thing” occurred…like I would ever leave The Man…but Kelly, I appreciate the offer and the sentiment that accompanies such a kind gesture.
First, the crew prepared the balloon for launch by unrolling and blowing cold air into it to inflate it:

After filling with hot air, attaching the gondola and climbing in, Michael who turned out to also be the pilot, DuRyan and The Lady were off:

The ride took them over the area around Tigard and DuRyan broadcast from the balloon via his Blackberry. The in-studio had a trivia contest and The Lady answered two questions correctly: 1.) Who is Heather Mills’ ex-husband???  (How would The Lady not know that…) and 2.) What was Sally Ride the first woman to do?
It was overcast but the ride was fun and The Lady was only nervous once when the tops of the trees came a little too close for her comfort as they began their descent.
You can view more pictures of her adventure by clicking here.
The Lady thanks Michael and the Beemster Balloon for including her on this adventure…and the cheese snack as well…maybe next time this feline foodie will get to ride along as well…Michael, consider that a hint…after all, how often do you get to fly around with a cat in the gondola???

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