Happy New Year! How is 2013 treating you so far?
My husband and I spent the beginning of the year on a road trip out west! It was a blast and truly an adventure! We went out there for a dear friend’s wedding but decided to extend our trip and make a vacation out of it.
We had a bucket list of things we wanted to . . .
- Visit the Pawn Stars Shop in Vegas
- See Coco perform in Peep Show in Vegas
- Visit the Grand Canyon
- See a Cactus in person (I’m from the east coast lol)
- See a Coyote or at least hear one lol
- Go horse back riding
- Visit the San Diego Zoo
- Fly in a Hot Air Balloon
Did we do them all?
HELL YES!!!
I couldn’t possibly share ALL of my pics but here’s some highlights of our trip!
It was a jammed packed, adventure filled, exciting week!
The wedding was absolutely beautiful with the desert as the backdrop. It doesn’t get any better than that!
So, on our last day we decided to do the hot air balloon ride with SkySurfer Balloon Company in San Diego, CA. Well, talk about ending our trip with a BANG! Did you see that hot air balloon crash with the wedding party earlier this week? Yup, my friends, we were on there! We had nothing to do with the wedding though . . . even though the news made it sound that way. Although they were all really nice people! I can just say that it was the most terrifying experience of my life!!! The minute we hit the ground (hard) and flipped over, I knew we were in trouble. I couldn’t see where we were going but I knew we were on the top of a sloping mountain. We kept getting pulled up and dropped 3 or 4 times. Each time scarier than the last. My husband was hanging on to me so that I wouldn’t fall out and just kept telling me that we were going to be ok. I don’t remember that though because I blacked out. He’s is so calm in these types of situations. Thank God for him. I was a mess.
These are some pics that he took after we crash landed. As you can see we busted through that chain link fence and the balloon landed on the home.
As I sit here typing today, I have shooting pains in my back and I still have bruising on my legs. Not to mention, I replay it every single time I close my eyes. I’m just thankful we weren’t killed or seriously injured. I honestly don’t know how any of us walked away from that. God was looking out for us for sure.
Apparently this isn’t a big deal according to SkySurfer as stated in this news article, “On Tuesday, the owner of Skysurfer Balloon Company called the incident a “windy landing” and said it happens all of the time.”
A “windy landing”?????? Are you freaking kidding me? This was more than a windy landing!!!! If this kind of thing happens all the time then why don’t you mention it on your website! It’s a little misleading when the website states, “Skysurfer has a perfect safety record. During the entire history of the company, we have had no crashes, no accidents and no injuries. Your safety is our number one priority.”
It makes me wonder how many other people this has happened to since they seem to think this isn’t a big deal and claim to have a perfect safety record! I guess it is perfect to them if this was considered a “windy landing.” What a fucking joke. Well, to those of us who never go in hot air balloons it’s a HUGE deal. It’s traumatic.
To Add Insult to Injury
I wanted to share some of my frustration with the experience since this is MY blog after all. Shortly after the accident, I found a photo of it on Instagram posted by one of their ground crew members. He posted this comment with the picture:
“Shout out to the passengers thanks for the $10 tip you cheap fuckerz”
He also used the hash tag “BUI” on a friends pic of the crash as in Ballooning Under the Influence. Don’t worry, I got a screen shot because the coward deleted his IG hours after I replied!
Nice. Real Nice. How professional, caring, kind, and heart felt of him. I’m still in shock over this. Unbelievable that they care more about money than about the wellbeing of their customers! They could have killed us all and they are worried about tips!!!
I will say this: my husband and I are far from cheap. Paying $350 to go in a romantic hot air balloon ride is not exactly cheap. AND, we specifically stopped on the way to get cash to tip the crew afterwards. Last time I checked you EARN your tips by providing remarkable customer service. Crashing into a chain link fence and a home is not exactly my idea of great service. I didn’t foresee my last day of vacation ending in terror. I also didn’t foresee starting off my new year with back pain thanks to something that should have been relaxing!
For all you smart asses out there, I know this kind of thing comes with risks. DUH! Hello!!! I signed the waiver. I get that. I’m not one that ever takes risks. I hate taking risks like this. That’s exactly the reason I did it. I’m always playing it safe and I know I can be boring. I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone and the one time I did . .. BOOM.
Also, for all you “just be glad you’re alive” people…no shit. I’m EXTREMELY thankful. You actually have no idea how much. See after the shock wore off, the anger set in. The anger at the company for not giving a flying fuck about us. For posting such greedy and heartless comments about us when the shock hadn’t even worn off and the aches and pains hadn’t even had time to set in! The anger at not even receiving a simple apology, an explanation, nada!
I am sharing this because my loyal readers deserve to know the truth about my experience. I’ve always been honest with you and I don’t want to withhold something like this. The news really pissed me off. All they cared about was the sensationalism of the story because a couple got married up there. They twisted and turned the details just to make headlines. They didn’t care about us either.
I’ve contacted many news stations several times to expose the bullshit way the company treated us and they just ignored me. So, I do what I know how to do best and get the word out there by blogging. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your loyalty to Irresistible Icing!
Best wishes for an Irresistible 2013!
Hi! I’m Aimee with 2 E’s. I'm a confidence coach that empowers women to love themselves by breaking down body image issues, so that they can lose the emotional weight and gain the confidence to look and feel irresistible...at any size.
Wow! What an experience! The way you described the first part of your accident brought me back to the car accident I had in August last year. It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. You have every right to be upset and angry over the experience – I cannot believe how they handled it.
I’m glad the rest of your vacation went well – sounds like overall, it was a great trip. Just a bit of a bumpy adventure at the end.
Yikes! I”m terrified of heights and a hot air balloon is obviously something I’ll never do but after reading about your event, now it is certain I won’t be getting close to one.
I guess my only suggestion is to contact the better business bureau. I’m not sure what they can do but maybe they can point you in the right direction. I think they take in customer complaints. I would assume if they got a certain amount, they’d investigate the company.
I really hope your back is okay. I have a herniated disc and it can be a real nuisance on life. Definitely get yourself checked out to help prevent any complications in the future. You might want to have that on record too in case you have some sort of opportunity to make a case against them despite signing the waiver.
xx
Michele
I totally sympathize with you because yesterday, in Arizona. I took my 53 yr old mother on a sunrise flight for her birthday. We crash landed into a construction site. We came in too fast, about 25mph, maybe more and we had two hard thumps then our basket tipped over and I was on my back holding onto a strap in the basket with my mother underneath me holding onto dear life for about 150 ft over gravel and narrowly missed a huge rock pile and a barbed wire fence. I am still sore, bruised and scraped. Twice during our 150 ft skid I felt the basket almost tip all the way over cause of the uneven terrain of a construction site. Thank god you guys are ok and we are too. I shook for half an hour after I was pulled out of the basket. I will never go on another balloon ride again. If you want to talk feel free to email me.
WOW! I can’t believe that! I keep hearing about these accidents and it’s scary that they happen more often than you would think. I will NEVER go on another one either. I’m so glad you are both alive and ok. It’s a surreal and terrifying experience. Was this in Sedona?