I was a little suspicious of the "Propasal" flight thah Jan and Gary had
asked me to do for a very obvious reason...It was to be on April Fools day!
Would she take him seriously, Think it was a joke or tell him yes and say "April
Fools!"? So many options that the fertile imagination could conjure up.
The victims were Diane and Zacery...you got it! ...Zac and Diane!...and,
yes, the have people singing that song to them all the time. They are currently
students at MU but are actually old High School sweethearts from Salisbury that
have been dating for 6 years and 6 months to the day.Obviously not people who
jump into things too quickly but they were happy to jump right into the
balloon!
We met at the AC exit in the commuter parking lot a little earlier than we
normally would have because the winds were...and did... actually start to
increase as the evening wore on. As we introduced ourselves and took care of
paperwork another car pulled in and asked if we were with the other balloon team
and pointed across the highway at Terry Montagues balloon which was already
begining to inflate! Cool! we will have a piball afterall! (By the way Gary, You
need some more helium) We then noticed Tuckers van in the same field so we
figured it must be time to go! Drove around the corner to the little field down
by the bridge at Lenoir and began to set up.
Fortunately, Dan and I hwd recruited the help of Deanne and Phillip at the
last minute so we had plenty of crew although Zac and Diane were happy to help
where needed. An uneventful inflation took place...Philip got to do the crown
line for the first time with Dans instruction... but we had seen Terry and
Tucker kinda blowing around a bit and flying off in a direction that looked a
little different than we had expected from the flags demonstrated so we kept
weight on a little extra long so we could pop over the powerlines before we
started that direction. It worked perfectly. As we watched T and T head more to
the west as we ascended we could tell that we would have a little steerage
tonight because we were headed more to the northwest. Neat! most of the time
evening flights don't offer that much turn.
We floated along trying to stay legal above the houses to the east of the
park on rock quarry road where they do everything from mulching to
rapelling...no, I still don't remember the name of the park..and after passing
the last house made a quick descent to float along the treetops and follow the
valley breeze which took us right up the length of the park...more about that in
a few.
Now, zac, being a farm boy and educated at one of the finest farm boy
universitys in the nation..MU... was wise enough to call me the day before and
ask if I would give him some indication when we were about halfway through the
flight so that he could propose at that point. Well, having been through flights
where the propasal took place too early in the flight and the beauty of the
flight itself pretty well went to waste because the couples tend to be totally
lost in future plans...or kissing and fondeling each other...I told him it might
be best to wait till we were closer to the landing end than the middle. Well, we
got some help in putting off the propasal for a while.
Now, back to the park...
It is a great natural kinda park. We first flew over a field that, at first
glance from the air looks like a manicured field with nothing in it, but closer
inspection showed several small trees that the park people had planted and
surrounded by small stakes so they wouldn't be mowed down, I guess. There is a
gravel walking trail around the whole park and it is intersected by numerous
grass trails which I was later informed were "dog trails" for walking the dogs
away from the main trail so you wouldn't have to clean up after them. There is
then a stand of large trees and another field that is in more of a natural state
with a few cedars and unmowed weeds, brambles etc. As we passed over this field
and drifted toward the rock climbing wall we looked down into the middle of thid
field out a ways from any path and here laying in the middle of the field sorta
behind a couple of cedars is some colorful thing lying in the grass. As we
passed the cedars we were surprised to find that it was a human!
Now, from 2 or 300 feet in the air you can't tell much about a body that is
lying on the turf below but there were some things that seemed strange. He was
wearing no shirt but was lying in a fetal position and if memory serves me right
he was wearing long pants so sunbathing seemed to be out of the question. He had
a bag with him so my first thought was that it was a homeless person that had
found a quiet spot to crash but if he was sleeping he was gonna have a heck of a
sunburn when he woke! He didn't seem to respond to our talking and the sound of
the burner which was burning to take us up over the bluff full of rock climbers.
If I had of been real quick I could have hollered at the climbers and asked them
to check it out but at the time I was concentrating on getting past the trees.
INstead, I radiod the crew and told them what we had seen and asked them to call
911 and suggest they may want to check it out.
Pilots, you know how sometimes the crew keeps calling you and pestering you
with questions like "Where are you? Where do you think you are heading? Did he
propose yet?" Well, after that radio contact I heard absolutely nothing from
them! It was kinda nice actually. Romantically floating over the campus right
past the stadium and the dug up Quadrangle, directly over the top of the Frat
and Sorority house where they each live...right next door. How handy!...over the
cemetery where Gary and I caught a golf ball just before landing a couple of
years ago.
WE had almost, tho not quite forgotten about the park excitement as we
drifted along and I was thinking that this may be a good time to ask if they
were ever going to get married just to give him a jumpstart when the radio came
to life. "The police want to know a better discription of where the park is,
where the body was, what he looked like, etc." Well, that put a damper on the
romance for a bit but fortunately, we are nowhere near a good landing
spot, had plenty of fuel and sunlight and Cosmo Park in our sight on the other
side of the highway so we had plenty of time to talk to the searchers and get
back into the mood. Almost immediately after the radio went silent as we drifted
toward the colored mulch in the Mosers parking lot Zac went down onto one knee
and as I hit the burner again she bent down and he whispered someti=hing into
her ear. It must have been the long awaited propasal because the first words I
heard her say were "Are you serious? Of course I will marry you!" Followed by
much whispering into each others ears and kissing and hugging...It was
Swell!
We were then quizzed via the radio by the police a couple more times and
drifted toward the mulch site to the east of Cosmo Park. The breeze had picked
up slightly but was still only about 5K so a landing by the rusty quanset hut
would work if we kept on our current course. Unfortunately, when we got down to
about 50 ft above the trees we headed straight north which is over more houses,
a quarry with no access, and a billion acres of trees. Now, if anyone doubts the
power of prayer, Zac, Diane and I are not among them because they heard me
breath the phrase "Just a little more breeze to the left, God." and we
immediately turned to the left and had a breezy but standup landing in the field
we had picked from halfway across Columbia! WOW.
The pax pointed to the chase vehicle as it drove artound the hut and said
"Wow! there they are already!" Great Chase Crew! But as soon as the crew arrived
they were walking up talking on the phone with the police with the request
that we come down to the park and show them where we had seen the body. It
seemed that a couple that had just been engaged could find better things to do
than search for dead people so I told the searchers that I would join them
as soon as I returned the pax and crew to their cars. The crew headed for
Bennigans and I headed for the park. (Phillip offered to join me but I had no
idea what this was going to entail so I sent him and my credit card on to the
restaurant. Thanks Phillip!
Upon arriving at the park, I spotted 4 police cars and the park rangers SUV
but not a person in sight so I headed for the spot where we had seen the body.
But he was not there! Actually, as I later told the ranger and sergeant, I was
really glad he wasn't because that would have been just way too weird! I'm a
printer and balloonist and that doesn't normally involve a lot of discourse with
dead bodies. That's their job!
As we searched around looking for any sign of him actually having been
there it occured to me that they may think this an elaborate April Fools joke.
But! I had two other witnesses and Zacs cell phone number if they wanted
verification! But they were all very gracious and appreciative of our having
called them because they have found dead bodies in Columbia parks before. So,
pilots, if you spot any inert looking humans in secluded spots, don't hesitate
to call it in! After about 30 minutes of searching we gave up and figured it was
just a homeless guy taking a nap or sunbathing. As we walked back to the
vehicles I somehow managed to stab the inside of my middle finger with a weed
and it started bleeding all over my hand before I even noticed it. As I reached
out to shake hands with the young reporter from the Tribune that must have had
his scanner on and had been following the Park Ranger around he decided he didn'
really want to shake my hand. Fortunately a combination of the rangers and my
first aid kits managed to stop the flow in time for me to wash up and join the
crew for dinner.
Quite a proposal! I would like to wish Zachary and Diane a long and
fruitful marriage. They seem like a perfectly matched set that will be an asset
to The Salisbury community for decades to come! I hope their marriage is as
eventful as their proposal flight was!
Lots of Love!!!
Herb