Our pilot, Kristen, explained that we had to pay attention and be able to step up on the ladder to get into the blimp. It was strange, because I kind of assumed that the blimp was tethered down and remained stationary. It is actually tethered to a mast in the center of a circle of concrete and rotates constantly around the mast. There is a kind of wheel thing it sort of rests on. Someone is there, watching it, all the time to make sure nothing bad happens (like with inclement weather or loss of pressure, etc).
We flew over the Port of Los Angeles and got to see the coast. It was really strange to look down and see our shadow on the water.
It was beautiful to see the world from that perspective as well as fascinating to get to see the Port of Los Angeles from that angle.
It was amazing. The ascent was utterly weird- it was a really quick jump to the cruising altitude, and the whole blimp sort of rocks from the front to the back in the wind. It is hard to describe it, but it was something like riding a giant rocking horse, or a... um. Like a Something. A space whale. That's the best explanation. If there were whales that lived in space and you could ride them and the lack of air was something they could kind of swim in... Er, yeah. Space whales.
I was really excited to knit on the flight. I was dorkily excited to do this. I had these visions of Kinnearing the pilot, but I really thought she might think I was too weird, so I didn't go that far. I did make R take my picture. This is me, in the back row of the cabin, knitting a sock.
Who knows, I might be the first person to knit on the Goodyear Blimp!
4 comments:
you rock! wanna know something funny, yesterday i was thinking about blimps for some reason and i was pondering how funny the word blimp is and so i ended up reading all about blimps on wikipedia and today i see your post. and i am jealous that you got to ride a space whale!
I can't believe you were looking up the blimp- how totally random!
I so want to be a blimp pilot when I grow up now. Can you imagine getting to tell people that was your job? I mean, really!
When I was very young, I wanted to be a subway motorman, so that I could see all the different stations. (At one time, New York City subway stations were decorated with beautiful tile mosaics.) Blimp captain would be a step up, though.
There's something ineffably romantic about travel, isn't there? I think subway motorman sounds lovely, too.
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