COLORFUL, HOT AIR BALLOONS FLOATING OVER THE VALLEY! GRANNY GEE WAS 'FLOATING' WITH THEM...

COLORFUL, HOT AIR BALLOONS FLOATING OVER THE VALLEY! GRANNY GEE WAS 'FLOATING' WITH THEM...

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES aka GRANNY GEE

I was looking out the big windshield of the tractor-trailer I was driving. On both sides I could see 'forever' in the distance. I was in the desert, all was 'brown'. This was the desert I didn't like... imagine hundreds of miles of 'brown' sand. It will make you cry to not see colors of any kind. I did, I thought I couldn't take it anymore. The landscape was flat here... but, looking 'out', I could see the huge, 'brown dirt' mountains in the distance.

Here, driving along... it was easy to imagine the wagon trains you see in the western movies... the movies are filmed in the deserts of California. You wouldn't believe the different landscapes of California... I have been amazed... over and over so many times... even when it was 'brown'.

I was on Interstate 10 West... just inside the state of California. I knew it would take hours to begin climbing mountains, mountains like you have never seen unless... you've been out west.

Driving in California is so different. I would always have the sensation of gravity 'pulling' the truck downhill so fast. One had be very alert driving on those mountains. On a tractor trailer... a driver couldn't afford to get the brakes hot. Skip taught me how to safely drive up and down those mountains... drive them... I did! Oh... when you 'looked down below'.... houses looked no bigger than a matchbox!

Another special thing about driving in these mountains... one could see where the rainbows disappeared to!

I was on top of a mountain, I looked to my left... amazingly, I saw a sight that I'd never seen in my entire life, nor in a photograph! I was seeing such bursts of colors 'everywhere'!

The colors came from hundreds of .... colorful hot air balloons! Yes, hundreds of hot air balloons! The mountain I was on was even with them floating in the sky!

Imagine the interstate highway on the highest mountain (close your eyes and 'see'!)... look to your left in your mind... see hundreds of big, colorful balloons (some with colored stripes, some with colorful characters on them!)... they are all floating in the air.... 'along side' of you as you are driving down the highway... on a big tractor trailer! Do you see it?!!! :))) Isn't it a wonderful feeling?

I imagine the people who waved back so happily at 'me'... were surprised to see a young, pretty Granny Gee driving that tractor trailer.... waving, smiling so big... back at them! I was breathless with such a 'special moment' in my life. How many people get to do this!

I could see there was a big valley beneath the balloons. I could see people in those balloons! I waved, I felt that happy feeling I experienced when I was sixteen years old.... when I 'chased' a beautiful hot air balloon in the sky.... through the tall, green grasses of the pasture on our land!

'I ran with the wind, waving.... smiling bright as the sunshine until.. the wind left me behind, a gray cloud drifted across my face'... I felt now, just as I did when that colorful balloon disappeared over the treeline.... I was leaving the colors behind to see more 'brown'.

I had let my eyes drink in that wonderful color... they were starved for color after coming through the 'brown' desert! I knew as I drove ahead, the colors in my mind would have to last me for many more miles. In fact, those colors have lasted in my mind, my memory for many years... so that now, I can tell you about them!

Colorful, hot air balloons floating over the valley.... floating evenly with me on the mountain! People waving back as I waved to them... smiling. I can 'see' it all... now!