Woke up to the alarm today and quickly got ready for a trip into town. Before leaving we could see some hot air balloons above the hills, so we weren’t early enough to catch the mass ascension.

As we headed into town more balloons came into view. There were dozens! We weren’t entirely sure where to buy admission tickets (they actually had a separate ticket office) and so we planned on stopping somewhere with a good view over the lake where the balloons were launching from while looking for directions. We found a crowd on Mulberry Street, gathered in an empty stretch of property with a fabulous view. So we pulled in and watched the balloons flying around.

They were heading from the lake generally toward us. Some were skimming over the lake, dipping their basket just into the water on occasion. Others were really high in the air. One really “jumped” straight up in the air, rising quickly for a couple hundred feet.

Tobey called and we chatted for just a moment or two before one came very close to us, less than 100 feet away. They yelled “catch the balloon!” and we thought they were joking. But they repeated it a few times so Ashley, myself, and a couple of others headed down the hill to catch them. I told Tobey that I had to go catch a balloon and we hung up. They were landing before heading into the city and their powerlines and wanted some help. We held them down so that they weren’t scooted across the ground by the slight breeze. Then the pilot lightened the balloon so we could move them out into an open area for the take-down process.

So we stayed and helped hold the balloon in place while her crew made their way to our location, then helped to disassemble everything. So we had plenty of time to look into the basket, up inside the balloon (that flame provides plenty of warmth when it’s going!) and chat with the pilot, Elaine. She was very personable.

There were 50 balloons at the event, they actually had to turn people away because there wasn’t enough room for them all. She’s been piloting for 25 years now. She and her husband crewed for someone else and then decided to get a balloon of their own for him to pilot. They ended up getting a sports car and the balloon in the same year so their kids said, “Dad’s going Bananas” and thus they named the balloon “I’m Bananas.” Eventually she got her own balloon, the one we helped with, and named it “I’m Bananas2”. How fun!

There was an educated owl balloon (made Ashley think of the tootsie roll pop owl, 1…2…3…crunch!), a firetruck, a balloon with a chinese dragon wrapped around it, and some others that we didn’t get a good look at. We also saw a ReMax balloon – made me wonder if that’s someone’s job, to go around to the different balloon festivals and fly their balloon.

Once the crew arrived we helped them deflate and lay out the balloon. Then they “milked” the air out of it and we helped to fold the balloon into a big canvas bag for transport. Once back in the bag we headed back to the motorcycle. By now most of the balloons had landed, or they were off on the far side of the city.

Next we headed onto the island (riding across the London Bridge) and parked in the free parking area. We walked in to the entrance to the festival. On the way we passed the skydiving landing pad, just as some divers were touching down. It seems like they come in awfully fast, and it’s surprising how loud the wind in their ‘chute is!

At the entrance we looked at the festival food trucks that we could see, glanced at the tops of the carnival rides, and generally decided that we weren’t intrigued enough to buy the passes to get into the park. We got to see the balloons flying en masse and got to help land one! That’s better than we had expected already. The only other thing we really want is to fly in one, but that’s $200 each, so we’ll be waiting on that particular experience. They did have tethered rides, flying up for about 50 feet in a balloon that is tied to the ground, but that isn’t quite the same.

So we moseyed back along to the motorcycle and then toured around town, exploring the northern half that we had yet to visit. Found a Yamaha dealership and stopped in to check on the cost of a new set of front blinkers – way too pricey! So I’ll be ordering a set online somewhere in the future. Visited what we thought was a book store, but it had music, instruments, video games, movie rentals, etc. Plus books! I saw the Nerd Fitness book on the shelf, but they were asking full price and it’s about 45% off online so I’ll be waiting to pick that up. Exciting to see, though!

On we went to the coffee shop. Ashley wanted to update the website with a new about page and I’ve been wanting to add a landing page for some time. So today’s the day. She started writing while I called Tobey back. Had a delightful chat! I listened to some Cousin Curtis music online, a one-man band who is half of a couple about our age who is wandering about the country in their home-made trailer for a year – great music! Then we worked on the website together – updated about page, new what we’re doing page, new how we’re doing it page, and added a landing page that introduces everyone to our current quest. Looks a lot better now and is hopefully more approachable. Took quite some time, though, so we actually stayed until the coffee shop was closed. (Since we were there through lunch we split their Mufaletta sandwich – it was fabulous!)

Back home we baked some potatoes over which to pour some left over chili, exercised for the day, and hiked up the hill to see the view.

Absolutely fabulous day!