Our Balloon Ride -- Up With 10 Passengers, Down with 6...What's Up (or Down) With That?

All my life I've looked forward to someday going up in a hot air balloon. I think it all may have started with my early obsession with the Wizard of Oz. When we were kids, there were no videos and when this movie came on TV once a year, it was a big deal. We carefully laid out blankets in front of the black and white TV (we knew that OZ was in color but it didn't matter to us), popped popcorn, and nothing could drag us away.

Last year, I bought a prepaid discounted balloon ride package from Zozi and intented to use it last summer. When William got so sick, we completely put this out of our minds. Finally, a couple of Saturdays ago, John and I finally found ourselves stepping into a big wicker basket ready to go up in a multi-colored balloon, lifted up by nothing more than hot air, to float where ever the breeze happened to blow us.

On that early morning, after a week of sky-cleaning Santa Ana winds, we met at the Perris Airport at 6 am. We got into a big Ford passenger van and were driven south and east to McCall Road where, in a large undeveloped field, four large balloons, some from Perris, others up from Temecula, were being laid out on huge tarps to begin the inflation process. The ride was relaxing and everything I’d hoped it would be. We were fortunate enough to have 4 parachutists with us...2 with "flying Squirrel" suits and two that went straight down. The two with the winged suits really soared down and out quite a way north from the balloon. It really looks like they were flying and they really took their time before they pulled their chutes.

If you watch about two minutes into this video, you’ll see just what we experienced from the balloon. (This was taken on a different flight, but from the same company we few with, Above the Rest Hot Air Ballooning out of Perris.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEhDkIhOexs

Because we had the jumpers with us, we had to climb to up around seven or eight thousand feet. We were so high that we could see the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles, Catalina Island and over the mountains into Orange County. Watching these jumpers step out of the basket, onto the wooden plank, work up their nerves and then take their plunges, made our own balloon ride so much more fun.

On a balloon ride, you literally go where the winds blow you. After about an hour long ride, the pilot has to be pretty creative on where he chooses to land (to avoid power lines, houses and other developed areas). He keeps in close communication with his ground crew so they can be there to help pack up the balloon and get the passengers back on the van. (The same ground crew picked up each of the parachutists earlier.)

When our pilot, Phil, picked his landing spot and started descending, he warned us all to bend our knees and hold on tight. We obeyed and had a blast as the basket tipped onto its side and skidded accross an alfalfa field over several yards. I wasn't the only laughing out loud through this crazy landing. (If you're crazy enough to go up 7,000 feet in a balloon and enjoy watching four of your fellow passengers leap off into thin air, you're just nuts enough to think a sideways skidding landing is great entertainment.)
I whole-heartedly recommend a ballon ride to anyone! John is afraid of heights and gets scared on a Ferris wheel, but, he didn't get a bit nervous on our high flying adventure. It really feels and is safe and is a great way to spend an early, clear morning.

What do Weird Al Yankovich and I Have in Common? We Both "Lost on Jeopardy"!

One of the crazier challenging things I chose to do this year was to go on national (possibly international) TV and very probably make a fool of myself! Each year, over 100,000 people take the Jeopardy on-line test and of those, only 400 people are selected to be contestants on the show. I was, depending how you look at it, one of those fortunate or one of those deluded people who think they’ve got a chance. But, let me tell you, being a successful, winning contestant is not as easy as it looks at home. First of all, the people you’re playing against are no dummies and those darn buzzers are impossible to master – at least for me. I went in with a fear that I’d be one of those poor schleps that were in the red when the game got to Final Jeopardy and had to leave the stage. When the real game began I was totally challenged by not being able to ring in many times (you’ve seen those players going crazy with their thumbs – I think that was me), ringing in too quickly or hesitating just a millisecond too long and missing out on what should have been an easy answer.

Putting myself out there to be on this show was a bit of a risk, but, the way I look at this experience and, pretty much life in general is, “why the heck not?”. I’m proud that I tested well enough to qualify and performed strongly enough in the auditions to be selected. The taping day at the studio was a blast. My taping date was back in November of 2011. Let me tell you, you don't get any questions or study materials before you test, audition or tape. You bring in just what you happen to know and just hope that the categories are consistent with your personal data base.

Of course, I got to meet Alex Trebek and meet Jimmy from the Clue Crew. Those of us who taped in the afternoon got to eat lunch at the Sony Canteen and see a lot of behind the scenes studio happenings in the production of Jeopardy. I got to have my make-up done by an artist and, hey, even the runners up win some money.

Since moving to California in the mid 80’s, I’ve had the opportunity to be on several game shows including Scrabble, The Home Shopping Game, Joker’s Wild, Win Ben Stein’s Money, Shop ‘Til You Drop, Crosswords and now, Jeopardy. I actually did win Ben Stein’s money in 1997; and Heidi and I won a ton of prizes and a fun weeklong ski trip to Vermont in 2004. You win some and you lose some. I’ve found I do much better when I’m not focused on winning but just focus on enjoying the experience itself.

I apologize for not posting this earlier. I was feeling very insecure about not winning and didn't want to invite the world to watch me lose, but I realize now that was a mistake. Although, it was just slightly painful for me to watch -- I know that other people are not so critical (so I'll keep a copy and try to share it in the future).

By the way, I did stay in through final Jeopardy but still came in third. Now what to do with my big $1,000 prize? (I'll report on that in a future blog.)

http://www.swrnn.com/2012/03/02/local-game-show-veteran-to-take-on-jeopardy-tonight/