What to Do?

As much as I would like to go to the E Street Band show in Tampa on September 12, the only tickets left are for the lawn at the top of the amphitheater, or are good seats, but priced at $98.  Seeing as I’d need two or three, the latter seems out of the question.

Up, Up and Away

When I was a four- or five-year-old boy, I was startled one morning by the sound of a roaring lion right outside my bedroom window.  I didn’t lift the shade to verify the source of the sound, but I was certain it had to be a lion.

When someone did come to protect me from the lion, and took me to the window to see the beast, I found something completely unexpected.  The fearsome roar was, in fact, a hot air balloon flying low above the woods across Fletcher.  I was in awe.  Since that day, I have dreamed of riding in a hot air balloon.

Today’s featured Flickr gallery highlights the recent Biennale Mondiale de l’Aérostation, and the pictures are incredible.

I suppose that I will someday ride in a hot air balloon.  But when I do, I want to do it right.  It needn’t be in some spectacular place like the Grand Canyon or the Loire Valley, but I wouldn’t want to just drive out to Palatka and soar majestically over a bunch of rotting mobile homes and deserted strip malls.

Glynnis Ritchie has some wonderful photographs of a balloon ride over Virgina.  A voyage above rolling hills followed by an excursion to Monticello seems truly delightful.