. . . and away

You know how having certain connections can get you some cool stuff or allow to do things no one else does? I like to think that I have a couple of those, but in reality, no. However, through a friend of the family connection, I did get to do something Monday morning that very, very few people can say they've done.

So, what were you doing at 5:50 am Monday, April 27th? Were you sitting in a custom-built armchair suspended about 40 feet in the air by 67 huge helium balloons? If you were, wow, because so was I. Let me explain.

My family lived in Albuquerque for a few years, and through a neighbor we got the chance to experience hot-air ballooning and meet people who do it on a regular basis {there's a huge hot-air balloon fiesta every October there}. One of these people got hooked up with Disney and their efforts to promote their new movie "Up" that tells the story of an old guy who ties thousands of helium balloons to his house and flies away on cool adventures.

Anyway, this promotional team is traveling to different cities over the next 5 weeks. But they don't have enough people to help them set up, so they get volunteers in each city. That's where I come in. Two of my brothers and I showed up at a parking lot across from the Franklin Covey Baseball field at 2 am on Monday. We helped blow up huge helium balloons {like, 7 feet in diameter} and then helped hook them up to a special armchair.

Here I am testing out the chair:

I was also the lucky one who got to take the test run to make sure the balloons would actually lift up the chair. The only reason I got to do that is because I was the lightest one there at the time. Since the sun hadn't come up yet, the helium hadn't expanded and wouldn't lift as much {I think - I'm actually a little fuzzy on the science of it all}.

This is our worksite. See how big the balloons are? Oh, and it was freezing cold that morning. My feet were totally numb by the time the sun came up. It all just added to the fun, of course.

So, after everything was ready, different media outlets {tv stations, newspapers, radio stations} came, starting at like 6 am, and talked to the other part of the promotional team about the film. And anyone who was over 18 and willing to sign a release could go for a ride in the chair. It was super thrilling.

Anyone driving by the ball field Monday morning might have seen a sight like this in the sky and been bewildered. I would have. That's probably why we got some random people stopping by as well.

Besides the experience, all I got was a t-shirt and a hat, not even movie passes - cheap-o Disney. But it was fun and unique and I'm glad I don't have to do it again.