It’s that time of year – the Adirondack Balloon Festival! There are just so many great things in our area and this is one of them. The crowds are quite large and traffic is a nightmare on one of the main roads near our house. There are 6 scheduled launches starting Thursday night small launch, but they are all weather dependent. No flights were cancelled this year, although Thursday night they didn’t fly because of breeze.
We were able to walk to the Thursday night launch at Crandall park, which is so nice because we didn’t have to worry about parking and whatnot. We waited for a long time while they decided whether to launch or not. The breeze was just a bit much, but the balloonists inflated up. I don’t mind the not flying because my favorite part is getting up close and personal with the balloons.
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It’s so neat to be by the balloons. It was really hot in this part because of the burners:
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More on the Folds of Honor in a bit. There was one shaped balloon at this launch:
Turtle!
While the balloons didn’t fly, a couple did a small lift over to the next field on the other side of those trees. One balloon actually hit a tree limb, but they were fine.
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The Adirondack Balloon Fest was the introduction of the Dreamship balloon. Folds of Honor is an organization that provides scholarships to children of fallen service men and women.
The balloon is made up of drawings from children who have received scholarships. They drew a picture of their dreams and the balloon is them taking flight.
Very inspiring and moving.
Until next year, balloons!
So much fun! What a lovely sentiment on the Folds of Honor balloon. Looking at your picture I can see the crazy crowds.
Sounds like you guys were getting some winds from Jose maybe? Right where I live is where the residual winds were the worst. It was relentless from Tuesday to Saturday. Almost felt weird yesterday when it finally calmed.
We were getting some during the week, plus some clouds. No rain, though.
I’m so glad you told about the Folds of Honor! I saw that balloon in the first picture and I wanted to know about it. Its almost like some quilts that have been made for special events. How fun that you live close enough to walk to an event like this!
I love seeing the hot air balloons inflated but still on the ground like this – you really get a good look at them this way! Awesome that you could walk to the event; I’d do that, too, versus fighting traffic for parking. Just another nice thing about being fit, right?
The Folds of Honor balloon is really wonderful…love it so much!
How pretty! I bet Logan would love that!
I love when you post about this every year!!!! So beautiful & touching too!!!!!!