Saturday Morning Balloons Over Casper, Wyoming

Early Saturday morning I was walking across my living room, sipping on a cup of coffee, when I heard a very distinct sound.

Imagine a very loud gas flame erupting in short bursts.

I've heard that sound before.

HOT AIR BALOONS!

They only go up on the most perfect of early morning hours, when the temperature and the wind are perfect.

I grabbed my phone and ran outside.

My house is right across from one of Casper's golf courses.

The balloons launch from a park, over the other side of the course and Casper Collage.

They rise up from a park down below and the gentle morning breeze usually takes them right over my house.

My front door faces west, so they will drift that way, most days.

I waved like an idiot and sometimes they wave back.

The morning is so quiet I can hear every word that they are saying.

They are usually just a few hundred feet above the ground.

The burners are like now and then, with that very distinctive sound.

YES, that's an elephant with a crown.

It's interesting the way air moves.

The breeze close to the ground pushes the balloons quickly toward my house.

Just a bit higher they slow down.

A little higher the breeze causes the ballons to drive back toward the west.

A bit higher, still, and they are heading east again.

Don't worry, they were never close to those powerlines.

There are a lot of things to worry about when floating this low, at the mercy of the morning currents.

Many people wonder how they can pick a landing spot when they can't control where they are going.

That is a risk and an art.

The folks in this balloon were screaming in delight when the pilot kissed the golf course with the basket then lifted back up again, sailing over my house.