Day to Day happenings in my life

Up, up and away

PROMPT March 20th

Share a time when your mouth hung open in shock/awe/surprise/wonder etc. What was it that made you feel that way.

I found this question hard to answer, trawling through memories to come up with something.
Then I remembered the one time I was truly awe inspired.
It took place on my birthday. The day was cloudy, the sun had yet to make even a glow in the sky as my husband and I drove in the darkness to a large shed on an industrial estate. This was not an auspicious start to something I’d been looking forward to for as long as I could remember.
We stood in the freezing cold waiting for others to arrive. After receiving our safety instructions we were taken in a truck to a large, wet, grassy field. In the semi darkness we could make out the shape of the hot air balloon we would soon be flying in.
The basket into which we tentatively climbed seemed small and fragile. The pilot placed us according to weight and size so we were fairly distributed and we set off. The ground dropped away, we were airborne. There was no sense of the breeze, just a silence interspersed by the sound of the jet of hot air which was keeping the balloon inflated. The clouds above us were oppressive, a few drops of rain fell as we flew higher until we were enveloped in the clouds. It was like being in a very thick fog. The ground was no longer visible. Still we rose, until..... This was the jaw dropping moment. We broke through the clouds, suddenly we were n bright blue sky, the sun shone, as if welcoming us. The clouds sat level with the bottom of the wicker basket and just for a moment I felt as if I could step out and walk upon them. It was as if we were in heaven.
After a few minutes we began our descent, back down to the dreary cloudy day. But my heart and mind was still up there in that moment of pure joy.