Full O’ Hot Air

That would be a good description of our weekend.

Early Saturday morning, we helped our balloonist friend, Mark, with a launch.  Once again, it was another beautiful morning.

After nearly an hour-long flight, Mark landed near a cotton field.  The farmer is a friend of ours and just happened to be in the field that morning.  He took this photo as the balloon was landing and gave me permission to share.

Photo courtesy of J. Oliver

Once the balloon was back on the ground, Motor Man and I took off on the 5-plus hour drive to Statesville, NC for the Carolina Balloon Fest. A coastal storm forced cancellation of the activities scheduled for Saturday afternoon and evening.

But, by lunchtime Sunday, the storm had passed.  Between those gorgeous blue skies with the white clouds,  and the vibrant colors of the balloons, it made for quite the photo op. There were a total of around fifty balloons at the festival; about half of them had flown early Saturday morning.

Many of the others launched on Sunday afternoon.

Not all of the balloons launched: some did what’s called a “candlestick”, where they just fire the burner. Another photo op.

Sometimes the balloonist “burps” the burner, and I was able to catch this poof of fire during one of those times.

Mark put us in contact with a friend of his who was at the festival, and he allowed me my first chance to “fire” the burner.

Then Motor Man had a turn.

There were so many beautiful balloons, including this…cheetah (I think).  The afternoon sun illuminated it perfectly after its launch.

And, in keeping with the season:

So, yes, our weekend was full of hot air….in a good way.

~These Days Of Mine~