Call of the wild still beckons 91 year old

Dorothy Nemmers, in the front of the basket, flew with this hot air balloon to celebrate turning 91. Nemmers rode with her son, Dave Nemmers, and Le Mars pilot Kim Rosenboom. Dorothy said she loved the flight and hopes to go again. [Click to enlarge]

She soared in a hot air balloon.

"It was one of those things I'd always wanted to do," Dorothy said. "I never thought I'd see the day when I'd do it."

Joe Olson, Jacob Loutsch and Tony Loutsch, family members of 91-year-old Dorothy Nemmers, point up to the sky to the hot air balloon where she's soaring above northwest Iowa in celebration of her birthday. [Click to enlarge]

The trip was a surprise, arranged by her children.

At 5:45 a.m. one late summer morning, her son Dennis Nemmers came to pick her up.

"He got me up so early, I wondered where in the world we were going," she said. "We drove out by the airport, and I said, 'I've been on a plane before.'"

Her son's answer: "You're not going on an airplane. You're going on a balloon ride."

Before Dorothy climbed in the basket, her kids gave her a winter coat, hat and mittens to wear.

"I felt like I was going to Klondiche and back," she said. "That's a German saying my parents used to use."

Nine of Dorothy's 10 children, along with some of her 30 grandchildren, watched her take flight.

The takeoff point was at the airport, and Dorothy flew with her son Dave Nemmers, of Bristal, Ill. and the pilot, Kim Rosenboom, of Le Mars, for about an hour.

The balloon rose to about 4,200 feet.

"It just seemed heavenly," she said. "It was the quietest ride I ever had. You could hear cows mooing down below."

The balloon landed in the front lawn of one of the homes in the housing development near NIPCO, south of Le Mars.

"It was a nice landing, then he just tipped the basket and I could walk right out," she said.

"The first words she said afterward was, 'I'd to this again,'" Dennis Nemmers laughed.

After the flight, the Le Mars pilot invited Nemmers' family to share a bottle of champagne while he told them the history of the hot air balloon. He finished by getting on his knees and saying a prayer thanking God for a safe trip.

The 91-year-old Dorothy grew up in Remsen, the daughter of Theodore and Anna Nothem. She married her late husband Orville in Remsen, and the couple moved to Le Mars where they raised most of their children, returning to Remsen for a few years.

Now the family meets on Sunday at Dorothy's for brunch after church. Along with her 30 grandchildren, Dorothy has close to 20 great-grandchildren, but that doesn't mean she's slowing down.

"I like to do things kind of crazy once and a while," Nemmers laughed. "I rode a jet ski last summer. I'm willing to try anything once."

She's gotten more adventurous as she's grown older, she said.

"I'm not afraid of anything," Dorothy smiled. "Someday I'll let my son give me a ride on the back of his motorcycle."