The Great Reno Balloon Race

The second weekend of September has been The Great Reno Balloon Race http://www.renoballoon.com/ now for 27 years. We attended the first year we lived here and had a great time. That was four years ago, so Allynn talked us into going again. She really had to talk The Dad into this adventure since it entails getting up at 4:00 am to get to the park by 5:00 am. The need for such an early start to the day is going to see the Glow Show and the Dawn Patrol. Both of these are spectacular sights of the fire lighting up the balloons.

Unfortunately this is the best picture I have of the Glow Show, since every time I brought the camera up to my face, Kelsey would stick her face in front. This group of balloons is from the Bay Area. I am sure we may have seen them flying over San Martin and Morgan Hill before we moved here.

After the balloons glow on the ground for a few minuets, each one lifts off into the sky to glow some more. The challenge of the Dawn Patrol is to fly in a formation. These balloons don't have steering wheels, so they have to find wind currents to push them around. There is also the art of adding and releasing hot air from the balloon to move up and down in the sky. My pictures don't really give this event justice, so you are all invited to come experience this for yourselves.

After the Dawn Patrol finished their show, we watched more than 90 balloons get rolled out in the field and set up to take off for the Mass Ascension. After watching a few of the crews set up their area,

(Notice the brown feather looking balloon in the background.)

we hiked back up to the car to watch over the whole area. The announcer mentioned the eagle stands taller than the Statue of Liberty.

The Eagle balloon flew the American Flag just below the basket while Miss Nevada sang the National Anthem to begin the race.

The balloons continue to fill as the Hare balloon takes off to lay down the target. (Rules for the race - Hare & Hound - http://www.renoballoon.com/EventInfo/Competition&Results)
The Hare Balloon sponsored by Wells Fargo.

Eventually the balloons start to pop up off the ground.

And then take off, until they are all in the air.

Once there was room on the ground again, the Energizer Bunny popped up above the trees.

The Great Reno Balloon Race is surely a spectacular sight!

This event is more than just the Hound & Hare event, but this was about as much as we could handle for that morning. We had been up since 4 am and left the park around 9 am. We were hungry, so we went home for some breakfast. Next time, I will think ahead and take donuts and hot chocolate. Yummy!! The kids fell asleep during our 40 minuet ride home. (30 minutes of that was taken up trying to get out of the parking area.) The day was pretty much shot for anything more than watching movies. It was a very relaxing day. Around 1:00 pm I came downstairs to get some lunch for hungry children and found our Kelsey had fallen asleep again.

Certainly not the most comfortable place to sleep.

After this picture she sat up to watch the TV again. I left with Allynn to look for something for Mema at Ross. The Dad came in to check on Kelsey to find that she had adjusted her position and gone back to sleep. Poor baby was very tired. But we all had a great time and are glad we got up at the butt crack of dawn to have a family adventure!