Saint Valentine's Day Hat Trick

No, not an ice hockey hat trick - it was a Valentine's day hat trick. Like in hot air ballooning, geocaching. It'll make sense. Read on.

Here's Jennifer pretending not to be cold. (She's so very polite.) Notice the lovely knit hat.



Reading this, you are comfy warm. Jenny is standing next to a fan blowing 20°F cold air into the bottom of what's about to become a HOT air balloon.



Despite the cold, it was a lovely way to start this special day.



Can you notice what's different about Jenny now? She's not warmer...



She lost the beautiful knit hat.

It was like slow motion. Jenn looked up toward the top of the balloon, and as her head went back, off and overboard went the hat. We leaned over the rail helplessly and watched it fall away like a very expensive leaf. Unfortunately, it disappeared into a line of trees. There was no way to land or find it.

Jenny went into this pathetic story of how the hat meant so much to her because it was hand knitted by an eighty-two-year-old dear friend explained losing the hat wasn't a big deal because the balloon flight was so special to her.

The wondrous flight continued to the traditional Champaign toast. It was a nice day.

That night, I got to thinking about geocaching. Geocaching is an emerging hobby where people hunt for things using a GPS. I thought I could make my own geocache hunt. I'd use Google Earth to remember where Jenny's hat fell, locate the spot and program those coordinates into my GPS.



This would be my first geocache adventure! I could hardly wait for morning.





The coordinates - calculated and converted for the GPS turned out to be only 8 feet off! And THAT eight feet, I tell you, can be accounted for by the height the hat was in the tree! MY calculations were perfect! PERFECT!



Jenny poses near the Controlled Hunter Access Point, nearby where the hat was found.



The hat truly was special, fashioned especially for Jenn by eighty-two-year-old Dorothy.



The landowners came home to find us popping another bottle of Champaign in their driveway. Fortunately, they welcomed the intrusion and joined us in the happy toast.