I LOVE BALLOON RALLY WEEKEND!!!

[patelyne]

So this last weekend was a blast for me...



Kept super busy at work on Friday and Saturday, but I only got see the balloons on my way in and peek out the windows at the stage and watch the crowds on the street. Unfortunately, I missed night glow on Saturday. Last year I was there with friends (and early even), but the pilots said it was too windy so they only lit the burners. This year it started an hour before I thought it was supposed to and so I missed it. You can’t see, but I’m using my pouty face right now. Lura said they only lit up three balloons and it was really short so I didn’t miss that much though, and she took a bunch of pictures for me.

On Sunday (day off – woo hoo!!) I woke up before the sun and went down to the airport to see them set up and take off up close. It’s the closest I’ve even gotten to them, usually I just take pictures from down by the river. I was completely geeked out and excited, because I LOVE THE BALLOONS!!

I was supposed to help crew for the balloon that the anesthesiologists sponsored, but I never did find their balloon. I forgot to ask where they were going to be set up and didn’t have a phone number to call, so I walked that field over a bunch of times looking but never came across them. Since that meant I didn’t have any actual work to do, I wandered around taking pictures.

Donna, a customer who is the wife of one of the sponsors, was trying to get me a spot on the balloon. Unfortunately with Sunday being the only day I could go they couldn’t give me the spot, it had to go to a raffle winner. This might have been a good thing anyway since I’m a bit scared of heights. As much as I want to go up in one sometime, I am worried I would get about half way up and start to panic. Add to that the fact that those baskets are really small! I am still hoping for better luck next year, and I’ll be working on fighting my fear by looking over tall balconies in the meantime.

Even if I didn’t already like Coke better than Pepsi, the niceness of the people from the Coca-Cola balloon team might have been enough to make me convert. Laurie (the pilot for their white Boise balloon) was my favorite, she let me half climb into their baskets and lit up the burners for me so I could take some pictures.

I really liked watching the whole process – from pulling everything out of the trucks and laying out the balloons, to blowing in the cold air and then lighting up the burners and straightening up before takeoff. When I see the people from the anesthesiologist group tomorrow (two of them are regular Tuesday – Saturday customers) and explain that I didn’t purposely flake out, I’m going to tell them if they sponsor again next year I want some better meet-up instructions so I really will get to help crew, seems like it would be tons of fun.

Comments

[morgia.livejournal.com]

Hooo what a great pictures! Its looks like a lot of fun !!! Im happy for you (me to I have some fear about the heights......)

Hoo!! I thought about you I wrote an another fic with the squirrels!!!!!

Take care !

[misswinterhill.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing these -- they're just beautiful!

[debitha.livejournal.com]

You've got some great pictures there!

Hot air balloons are great for taking pictures of. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25053127@N00/tags/hotairballoon/)