Balloons

Yesterday morning, I woke up to a soft "whoosh" sound coming through the open window in my bedroom.

I ran downstairs, started water boiling for my morning cup of tea and went out to the deck to listen.  Yes, it was coming from the school grounds a little over a block away.  I finished making my tea and settled into a deck chair.

Within five minutes, the first hot air balloon was in the air.  I waved at the people in the gondola and kept waving as four more went over.

The hot air balloonists have been coming to Seymour for eleven years now, helping this little community celebrate the annual Burgerfest.  Seymour claims to be the Home of the Hamburger where the sandwich was invented in 1885.  We hold the record for making the world's biggest hamburger, over 8,000 pounds.

Today is the day of celebration, with a parade, games (including the famous ketchup slide), food, music and much more.  I will miss most of the festivities.  I leave in two hours to meet Gary in the forests.  But I will not miss the hot air balloons.

By late afternoon, my son Chris, his wife Tisha and my grandson Evan were here. The school grounds were filled with happy onlookers, eating hamburgers and greeting old friends. The children had games to play which held their attention for a while but then they began tearing around chasing each other.

At 6:00 pm, the balloonists held a meeting and decided yes, the winds were right. They began to inflate their monsters.

 The balloons come in all colors and shapes, but certainly the favorite of all the children was the octopus

When all the balloons had flown away, the children went back to playing and the adults went back to gossiping.  The crowd grew as more came to see the highlight of the evening.  The balloons had gone north, landed in fields, were packed into trailers by the road crews and returned to the school grounds.  

At dusk, the inflating process began again but not to fly.  It was time for the evening "glow".   As night fell, the giants waved above us until the chant began:  five, four, three, two, one, glow! and the balloonists lit their burners in unison and balloon magic began.  The ten behemoths radiated light as if they were so many stained glass windows.  

Then the spectators were allowed to go onto the field then to get a closer look.

 It was was long past Evan's bed time so we had to leave with the balloons with the burners still firing their final glow.

And so ended another year's wonderment.  We'll be back next year.