Ruby Goes to

Posted March 14, 2006

The Riverton Balloon Festival

Mike and Jim stayed up late every night, talking, and then slept in as late as possible. Friday night, they turned deaf ears when Trice excitedly asked who was going to get up early and go see the balloons take off. Sam and I weren't much more enthusiastic at first. We would both have been content to wander out to the back yard at our usual wake-up time and just wait for the balloons to mosey overhead. But we found Trice's energy impossible to resist, and agreed to get up early and go with her.

The Riverton balloon was already in the air as we parked and walked into the field where the festival took place. Other teams were scattered all over, a balloon or two standing upright, others lying over on the ground in various stages of inflation, others with their balloons still packed up.

I watched in astonished delight as one crew dragged a bag the size of a steamer trunk across the ground, and a colorful balloon billowed out of it, puffed up by a large fan and seeming impossibly huge to have ever fit in that bag. I kicked myself as the balloon came free and the crew began the next set of chores - I hadn't taken a single picture. Another one rose gracefuly just at the edge of my peripheral vision, and I felt torn to run to it and try to get a shot, and I could see myself running around like a chicken with my head cut off, always just a moment too late to get the shot I was racing after.

Then a calming thought struck me. What one crew had done, the next crew would repeat. And sure enough, close by was a crew just getting ready.

I rushed over. I missed a few steps, but I got what I think is a decent sequence of the balloon coming out of the bag and taking off.

After that, we wandered around, our attention caught now by one balloon and now by another one, invigorated by the bustle and the bright colors and the lovely morning light. And everywhere we turned, there was the chuff of flame igniting or the steady purr of gas fire.

I kept trying to get a photo of the flame in the burner that heats up the air. The first time I ever saw a balloon in flight, I heard an odd noise while sitting in my living room with the windows open. I went out into the street and looked around, but saw nothing. When the noise came again, I looked up, and a stately yellow balloon drifted along, well above the roof tops. Ever since then, that huffing sound has seemed like magic to me, but I'd never actually seen the flames before.

However, the flame shoots up into the belly of the balloon on a long transparent tongue. It's only visible at the mouth of the burner for a moment when it first ignites, and I didn't think I was getting any shots of it.

"I'm going over to the tethered balloon!" I told my friends, and they nodded and waved me on with big smiles.

One of the balloons was giving brief rides, just up to the extent of the ropes that tethered it and then back down. Even so, there was a long line. I took shot after shot, hoping to catch what I was going for more-or-less by accident (I hadn't figured out the continuous capture mode on my camera yet.) Finally, I thought I had it, and I trudged back to find my friends.

They weren't where I left them. I looked around in panic, to see their retreating backs near the parking lot. "Wait!" I cried. "Trice! Sam!"

They laughed as I hurried to catch up. "We thought you'd gone on to the car!"

"There may be a glow tonight," said Trice as we got back in the car. "Do you want to come back?"

"Sure!" I said. "What's a glow?"

"They tether the balloons after dark, and the flame lights them up so they glow."

"Cool!" I said. "They'd be like enormous Chinese lanterns!"

"It's great! But of course, if it's windy, they can't do it. Too much wind will blow the skin of the balloon into the flame, and they go up like tinder."

"Ouch!" I said.

Unfortunately, it got windier as the day went on, and the glow had to be called off. I'm hoping there'll be a rally closer to home this year that I can get to, and that it will have a glow.

Ironicaly, considering the amount of time my friends waited on me while I stalked the tethered balloon, when I got my photos downloaded, it turned out that I'd already gotten my best shot of a flame on a burner as one of the balloons drifted overhead.

These are the rest of my good images of the balloons.

By Ruby Jung, even the background. All rights reserved to the story. If you care for the background, you're welcome to copy and use it.