Hot Air Balloons

Who doesn't love to see a beautiful, bright hot air balloon floating through the sky!

What is even better is to see them up close on the ground.  And, it may even be better to see them from the basket of one floating in the sky, but that's not part of my story.

Our city hosted its third annual Red River Balloon Rally this past week.  It is part of the U.S. Hot Air Balloon Championships.

This past Friday night, was the big Faith & Family night of the festival and held on one of the local college campuses.  Our church was one of the sponsors.

I will let my pictures tell their story.

Dick found a couple Duck Dynasty stars to pose with.

It truly takes a crew to get one of these huge balloons upright.  It was so fascinating to watch this whole process.

This one was tethered and only took riders up a short distance.

Before we realized what was happening, other balloons began to appear all across this large field.

I decided it was time to leave the comfort of my tent and chair and walk among these giants.

The highlight of the festival is the "Moon Glow" when all of the balloons fire at the same time.

I cannot begin to tell you how thrilling it was for me to be right in the middle of these 40 plus full firing balloons.

My pictures do not begin to do it justice.

Another spectacular scene is when they all do the "twinkle" lights where they fire at different times.  It was like being among giant fireflies.

Our church sponsored these two Star Wars balloons and they were quite the hit.

As if this was not spectacular enough, the evening ended with ten minutes of sky filling fireworks.  What a show!

We will not miss this amazing spectacle next year for sure.