Stephanie Rides in a Balloon — And Lives to Tell About It! [VIDEO, PICS]

Balloonfest 2012 kicked off early Saturday morning, with balloons launching from Santa Teresa Country Club just after sunrise. I swallowed (teehee, I said swallowed) my fear of heights for you, the KLAQ listeners, to go up in a balloon and tell you all about it. Luckily, I lived to do so!

I'll be honest, I was terrified. My stomach was in knots as I dragged my tired ass to Santa Teresa Country Club at 5:30 a.m. Seeing the gigantic flames go off to inflate the balloons did nothing to calm my nerves. Also not helping to calm my anxiety was having to sign a waiver promising not to sue the balloon pilot should I crash and die.

Four of us, including our pilot, Barnie, climbed into the oh-so-tiny basket and we were off. Honestly, within a minute, I was calm and enjoying the ride. It was smooth and beautiful. George even came along, tied to the balloon. I wasn't scared at all until Barnie decided he needed to show up all the other balloons by going so high, I thought we were shooting for the space station.

THAT made me a little nervous and as we went higher, I found myself crouching in the basket, peering down at El Paso through holes in the basket. I quickly recovered and am pretty proud of the fact I didn't cry.

Check out pics from my flight as well as video that we streamed LIVE on the Morning Show Q Cam from the air below!