Another day at the Balloon Classics..........

Yesterday's blog was photographed mainly to the right of this photo.  The whole staging area for the Balloon Classic was set up on the side of this rolling Iowa hill.  The road comes from the top of the hill and goes down and around to the other side.  You can see the basket of one of the balloons in the back of that truck.  It took over 6 people to stage the inflation of each balloon.

If you didn't see yesterday's blog, I was very much occupied watching the balloons that were being used for rides being filled and sent off into the air. They were close to us, in front, to make a good showing.  Although I should have noticed the commotion going on there were actually two other sites where the balloons were being readied.  Over the hill one could see these sleeping giants growing in size. Be sure to click on this to get a reference to how big they are compared to the people. Yes, it is a little out of focus.

At the top of the hill were these two other balloons that were getting the air and heat that they needed to take off.  In front now was a third balloon that was following the two I had shown yesterday.  Some balloons were there for advertisement and didn't do anything else but show their stuff with the sign on the side.

Back down the hill the sleeping giants have progressed to taking off for flight.

Here is the red, silver and black one that has risen above us.  The announcer told us that the woman in the balloon was having a birthday that day.  She was 90 years old and waving her arm off at us. Click on it and you sort of can see her leaning out, no, not falling.

This balloon is also from the sleeping giants. It was the one on the far left that had a six pointed star on the top of it.  I had cropped this picture originally and I decided you needed to see all that sky to get the full effect of how high it was in the sky.

Also on the hill was this last balloon to take off.  The other balloon was coming from the down hill location.  The wind was in the northwest so things were floating over our right shoulder.

Here is the crowd that was located on the crescent shaped top of the hill looking down on all the activities.  The balloon you see here is one that was described as a racing balloon. They are more slender to make them be faster floaters.

Here is the final take off of the last hot air balloon from this site. It was beautiful even though it had an advertisement stuck to the side of it.

Here is another shot as that same balloons as it fades off into the horizon south.

As the final balloon is headed over to the southeast I am thinking to myself, is that all that there is.  My understanding of hot air balloons tells me those that we just saw lift off so magnificently are not going to be able to come back against a 6 mile per hour wind.  I knew the wind was dying but they still were not coming back.  I had decided that the show must be over for now.  Remember, I didn't buy a program and I have never been to this before now. Also the crowd wasn't leaving so they must know more than I do.

I guess everyone was thinking about taking turns at these leaning towers of porta potties.  Yes, they were placed on the hill and they all leaned to the right. The doors closed automatically because of the force of gravity.

But wait, look to the north......more of this story tomorrow.........

Thanks for stopping in.......