The Great Reno Balloon Race
Posted by Karen on 13-Sep-2009
(Click photo for all 173 photos)
For we can fly we can fly
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
Balloon…
Up, up, and away…..
Lori and I drove up to Reno last night and woke up in the wee hours of the morning (4am!) to attend the The Great Reno Balloon Race with the Northern California Photography Meetup Group. We arrive in the dark to watch the Glow Show across Evans Pond; the Glow show is five balloons that work together and synchronize the firing of their flames so that they glow in the dark. The we moved over to the field where the Dawn Patrol was getting the rest of the balloons ready for lift off. This is the first time I’ve been to a balloon festival and I don’t know if they are all like this, or not, but they let us walk right on the field where they are preparing to fill the balloons–very cool! And then the Mass Ascension Launch… 100 balloons all float up into the sky at once and fill the blue with beautiful colors. It was just all so wonderful, colors galore, and everyone having a grand time. The balloons were supposed to race to pre-determined spots around town and drop a beanbag onto a big “X” and then come back to the field for some balloon games. However, the wind wasn’t cooperating, so after the mass launch, we didn’t see any of them come back! I definitely will be going back again.
Comments
2 Responses to “The Great Reno Balloon Race”Leave a comment, and if you'd like your own picture to show up next to your comments, go get a gravatar!
hmmm…when they were here, after they dropped their beanbags, they landed wherever they wanted, calling in their chase team to pick them up. People who wanted them to land on their property would lay a sheet out to indicate it was safe and acceptable to land there. The pilots would often have a gift on board (frequently a bottle of wine or a balloon related trinket) as a thank you to the home owner for allowing him to land there.
Reply
The chase teams all went out after the balloons, but the plan was for them to go out, drop the beanbag over some marked spot and then come back to the field where we were and they were going to play a game of 21 by dropping beanbags onto large cards set up on a field. But the winds didn’t cooperate and only one guy, who didn’t really go out far, came back and dropped a beanbag for the card game and he won by default! lol
Reply