Nah! I will spare you the poem. It always takes too long to write those and
I have to leave out too much cause it doesn't rhyme. But if you don't want to
read another balloon story you better hit delete right now!I
It all started 60 plus years ago when Virgil was born then when he was one
moved to the farm in St. Thomas MO. Now, if you are thinking anything down the
lines of St. Croix or St. Louis or anything like that just get that thought
right out of your mind. St. Thomas is a REAL town! Population about 2 maybe 300,
City limit sign about a mile before you can even tell there is a town there,
German Catholic community complete with the Cathedral dominating the skyline of
the town...Wait, it IS the skyline. Most all the residents last names begin
with B or K. It is indeed an island in the middle of a vast array of farms
passed down from 5 generations or more ago. It is in the very southern part of
Cole County separated from Wardsville by 11 miles and the Osage River. The river
makes a sharp bend and drifts parallel to route B just to the west of town where
the fertile river valley makes up the border of the township.
Then after 60 plus years on or about Wednesday, Dec. 20 I got a call from
Sharon, Virgils wife. She wanted to buy a balloon ride for her husband. Sure,
said I. I'll sell you a gift certificate and he can take his ride as soon as the
weather gets nice. That would be OK says she but what she really wanted was to
do it on Christmas Eve.
Well, normally this would have caused great strife amongst our family
seeing as Christmas Eve is usually spent with the Heriford cal\\lan starting in
the afternoon and lasting till we had eaten all of Marcia's food. However, this
year both the Outlaws and the In-laws had planned their party for 2:00 on the
23rd. That was very inconvenient for party going but was ideal for Sharon's
plan. I had absolutely nothing to do Christmas Eve! All I needed was a crew!
Cheri would be busy getting ready for Christmas Day and Josh was working that
night from 2 - 8 so I called Mark, Diane and Ben to see what they were doing.
Not only could they help but Virgil and Sharon are related! They were actually
the ones who gave them my name. Joel volunteered to help so that he could earn
enough brownie points to get a free balloon ride someday and Julie, one of
Virgils 10 or so kids said that there would be plenty of them there to lend any
assistance needed.
All of the ducks seemed to be lining up nicely!
Sunday morning I rose relatively early and plugged in the balloon heaters
and woke everyone else that wasn't so we could do Christmas with Sara and Cliff
on Christmas Eve. Lots of oooohhhs and aaaahhhhs were followed by lots of laughs
as we watched the three grand dogs destroy their Christmas treats and we opened
our gifts. It was all very Christmassy even on the 24th!
That afternoon I told Sara and Cliff good-bye and headed to Schultes to
meet the crew and we headed for St. Thomas at 2:04. It is a curvy, unfamiliar
road so I didn't break any land speed records getting there but I usually don't.
We pulled into Julies drive about 2:30 just as planned.
Now, the original idea was to launch at her house, fly down to her Dad's
farm which is next door to hers and pick him up. IF the winds were just perfect
that would have been entirely possible based on the forecast from Thursday.
After climbing out of the vehicle I inflated a pi ball and introduced myself to
Julie saying ,"now, watch this." It went straight up It never turned till it was
about the size of a pinhole in the sky. Plan A is not going to work! Turns out
these country folks are pretty flexible. Sharon simply took the truck to the
farm as we inflated the balloon and brought him back to Julies with strong
instructions to keep his eyes closed til she said to open them. He seemed rather
beaming as he walked toward the balloon so I guess the surprise plan B worked
anyway.
Of course, part of the beaming may have been a result of the fact that
pretty much all of his 10 kids and 2 or 300 hundred grandkids seemed to be out
in the yard for the launch. I don't see how the entire population of the town
seems to have known about this surprise balloon ride and still kept it a secret
from him!
We got the balloon off almost expecting to hang over the yard for the next
hour but as soon as we got buoyant we began heading straight for his farm! His
current residence is about 1/2 mile up the gravel road but we managed to float
just one field down the valley from the old home he had moved into when he was
one. One of his sons was also riding along and had a video camera and got
footage of everything...several times actually. Our top speed at 800 ft. was 4.4
mph.
We actually had a little bit of steerage which I was quite glad of since up
there at 800 we were headed straight for the river and if we had crossed it two
or three problems were going to occur. Number one was that the crew would have
to go back toward wardsville to cross the river and then take a 20 mile tour of
all the back roads or southern cole co to get to us. Secondly, I could see one
field and nothing else but trees on the other side of the river and finally,
everyone needed to be at church at 5 oclock tonight. I floated down to about 450
ft and got a distinct turn to the left more parallel to the river and straight
toward Uncle David's farm. It is always good to fly in farm country with someone
who knows all his neighbors!
After a couple of landings to check where the crew could best get to us we
finally loaded up in an empty pasture between Dave's barn and the river. As we
were driving out we spotted Dave driving up ion a four wheeler. We had tried to
contact him but failed earlier so I was glad to see him. He was rather surprised
to see a trailer in his field and had missed the balloon but was totally
unconcerned as soon as he saw Virgil with us. One reason he was unconcerned was
that it wasn't his field anyway but he would pass our thanks on to the proper
farmer.
Beautiful ride, wonderfully fun time with the whole family being there and
great to find someone else who appreciates the winter flying. He even said "I
bet this wouldn't look nearly so neat in the summer with all the leaves in the
way"
See, I told You!!!
Lots of Love and a very Merry Christmas and happy new year!
Herb