The skies over the Wine Country are often filled with beautiful, brightly colored, hot air balloons that seem to ride the early morning breezes with a sedate and stately calm. Being a part of that picture was something I’d wanted to do for years and recently, accompanied by my wife Judy and our 16 year old grand daughter Natalie, I managed to make a longtime wish come true.
     It started out with a very early get up as the alarm clock beside our bed chirped a wakeup call at 4:30 AM and brought us yawning into a day with still darkened skies. We dressed hurriedly and drove to our 5:30 AM meeting place in the parking lot of Maurice Carrie Winery on Rancho California Road. There, we met our hostess from Southern California Hot Air Balloon Tours, Rachael Nicholas, who plied us with hot coffee and introduced us to Brandon and Andy, our ground crew and, Don Horst, a gentleman with 28 years experience as a hot air balloon pilot.