Balloon Fest

This Saturday we woke up at 5:45am and left our house at 6:30am with the destination of 71st Ave & W 10th St Greeley, CO, where there was to be the event of a Hot Air Balloon Rally, The ‘Great from the Ground Up Hot Air Balloon Harvest’. When we got there at 7:00, they didn’t have any balloons set up yet. They were serving a free breakfast of pancakes, syrup, juice, and bacon for attendees!

After we ate we sauntered ourselves down to the launch field and watched them set up the first balloon that would take off. The first thing they did was stretch the balloon out over a length of ~200 feet. Next, they hooked the balloon up to the basket which was laid on its side so that the balloon would have an anchor. They then started a fan which inflated it partway, making it possible to inflate it the rest of the way with the burners. Slowly as the balloon was filled with hot air, it tipped the entire apparatus upright.

We watched as it lifted off, a very dramatic event.

After that balloons were lifting off right and left.

Interesting designs included the Dragon

and the Tetrahedron.

After we thought we had seen enough of taking off, we went back home to do our housework, go to the Quilt Show, 'Stitches in Time'(see later post), then we went back at 6:15pm to see the Harvest Glow. There were quite a few countdowns, after each of which the various balloon pilots hit their burners, causing the balloons to glow.

The balloon below is the Circus balloon which is scheduled to go to Europe for a balloon exhibition in January.

After that we went to Culver's, a restaurant, and had variously flavored shakes; most had Pumpkin Spice, which tasted exactly like pumpkin pie.