We whisper on, drifting across the Pennsylvania farmscape passing slowly under our basket. Nathe’s altimeter registers “300 ft.,” and The Turnip seems to be enjoying the early morning as much as we are. Sunny but cool; a bit misty over the ponds and streams flowing beneath us toward Summers Run. Creeks and brooks are known as “runs” in rural Pennsylvania. Runs lace the countryside together.
The Turnip is a hot-air balloon, a giant pear-shaped thing turned on its top. Turnip’s colors and nylon fabric are painted to resemble a turnip one might find at the grocer’s. When airborne, it looks like a huge root dug from the garden. Its color scheme follows a deep violet at the very top turning gradually to a buttery cream at the bottom where the basket dangles, carrying the two of us.
Painters at the factory also sprayed some cracks and crevices as imperfections and added a few clumps and seams of dirt to create the effect Nathe wanted. So, what one sees floating majestically above is indeed a giant vegetable, uprooted, surprised to be magically sailing aloft over the earth it has just escaped. . . .
Read chapters of The Boys of Summers Run blog where we post such. Click below.
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