This morning my wife and I woke the kids at the break of dawn and loaded them into the car to go meet the hot air balloons at our annual balloon festival. One of the largest gatherings of balloons in the United States, the Greenville South Carolina Aloft festival is a chance for ballooners to show off their skills and compete in a weekend long event that everyone can enjoy.
Yes, yes I know this has nothing to do with fishing but the art of piloting these balloons is something that is quite blog worthy. I'll save you a whole lot of reading and just give you some of the top pics of the morning. We saw a lot of great balloons and even got to drive miles of backcountry roads chasing them. The kids had a blast but so did I and if you look closely at the last photo you will see yours truly helping to ground one of the balloons after a very long flight over the South Carolina countryside.
If you are interested and are in the SC area, the Aloft festival goes on all weekend and they will continue to have balloon launches - weather permitting - in the mornings from 7-9 and in the evenings around 5-8pm. If you have the drive to wonder around the maze of country roads while looking skyward, head out soon after the launch for some fun chasing them. If you think texting and driving is dangerous, try driving while looking at balloons and finding roads to get you to their landing fields. Now that's FUN!
I can only think of one thing better than balloons on a long holiday weekend.
ReplyDeleteLove to watch the Ballons raise in the eary morning
ReplyDeleteBeautiful to look at, but I couldn't take a ride in one--thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteHoward - I know what your thinking but have you ever tried wrangling a 5 &7 yr old on a river while trying to cast to trout? Lets just say after we leave my kids have added to the rock count on the riverbed.
ReplyDeleteBarb - so do we. Kids loved it.
Bill - its all good as long as you Don't look down. We however spent the morning looking skyward.
How cool!
ReplyDeleteLooks like lots of fun.