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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

They’re Rising To Their Own Occasion

Ron Emerson and Sandy Lewis will start their married life Saturday full of hot air. But they already know it, which places them far ahead of most newlyweds.

At the crack of dawn Saturday, Ron and Sandy will climb into the basket of a hot air balloon in the fields behind Coeur d’Alene’s Lake City High. They’ll exchange vows in the pure silence that begins above the trees while 60 of their friends scramble on the ground below to follow the wedding flight.

“It’s going to be a riot,” Ron says, and it’s obvious he envisions a North Idaho version of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”

Sandy and Ron were ready for adventure when they met nearly eight years ago. They’d each finished one marriage and led their children into adulthood. Both were discovering mid-life freedom.

“Once the kids were raised, I felt like if I die tomorrow, I don’t want to wish I’d done something,” Sandy says.

When Ron turned 50 in 1991, the couple agreed to mark every birthday with some sort of flight. Sandy was afraid of heights, but never hesitated.

They launched the tradition in a hot air balloon that floated them skyward as gently as if they were feathers. They skimmed along the ground and greeted people picking corn, then sailed at a gentle 10 miles an hour over Hauser Lake.

At the flight’s finish, they sipped champagne.

Since then, Ron, who’s a plumber, and Sandy, who’s a secretary, have flown in a seaplane, helicopter, biplane and a second time in a balloon. It seemed only right that their feet leave the ground for their wedding.

“We wanted to do something we like that we’ve done that makes us happy,” Sandy says.

If the weather cooperates, they’ll rise into the sky Saturday about 6 a.m. with a pilot, minister and two witnesses. A two-way radio will broadcast the ceremony to their friends and family on the ground. The wind will determine their course.

“We have no idea where we’ll land,” Ron says.

But they don’t care - as long as they’re together.

Nature call

Kootenai County’s Farmer’s Market wants to beef up (veg up?) the marketplace this year. It’ll open on the corner of Prairie Avenue and U.S. Highway 95 in early May with booths of fresh flowers, herbs, baked goodies, homemade jams and clothes, candles and other great stuff.

Following the philosophy that you can’t get enough of a good thing, the market wants new agriculturally oriented vendors. If you have a hankering to sell your garden goods, here’s your chance. The market will meet with potential vendors at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Kootenai County Extension Office, 106 E. Dalton Ave.

Cat got his tongue

Coeur d’Alene’s John Austin has animal complaints, but they’re aimed at his own cat. The cat, an unremarkable animal named Kitty, came to John years ago while he lived in Rose Lake. Kitty’s supercilious smugness bugged John as much as her scratching and chewing habits.

So John hid his satisfaction when he came home one day to find his wife and children grieving over a rotting pile of road-kill Kitty. He buried Kitty with great ceremony and ignored the dogs that immediately set to work exhuming her.

But, only moments after the funeral, John heard his sons scream happily as a healthy Kitty appeared beside their house. He never figured out what kind of animal they had buried.

Kitty stuck with John for years, until she recently disappeared during her nightly rounds. John’s family wonders what happened to her.

“All I know is I ain’t telling,” he says.

What’s your strange pet tale? Scratch something out for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo