Since I have committed myself to a life of adventure, I have signed more than my fair share of releases of liability where I have allowed a company to be without blame in the untimely event of my death or dismemberment. All that’s in the release for hot air ballooning, but my friends at Great Escapes threw me a new one. There’s one part of the release that states something to the effect “I understand that I may be guilty of the crime of trespassing while hot air ballooning and will wave the company of all wrongdoing in the event of my arrest and/or prosecution”.

Whaty what?! I was just planning on floating around in a balloon for my wife’s birthday. I didn’t know I was going to roll out in Temecula with a graffiti crew. Trespassing? How could that happen?

Here’s what we found out from our aeronaut John. It turns out that once you’re up in the balloon, you’re basically at the mercy of the winds. All the balloonist can do is take you up and down. There’s always the chance that you’ll land in someone’s yard and get arrested.

Once you get airborne, you float gently through the air. And I mean gently. This is really a great activity for type B people.

See that truck? The driver has an important job. He keeps his eye on the balloon and makes his best guess at where you will be landing. Lucky for us, he guessed correctly.

The most amazing thing about a trip in a hot air balloon is that a place like Temecula really looks beautiful from a few thousand feet up. I would really recommend that you give this a try out. There are many companies out that that charter flights. I rolled the dice on Grape Escapes, and I was impressed by their service and their price.