Somewhere between 6-8 p.m. each night of the festival the balloons take off from Heritage Park. We head down to the park around 6:30 to see which way the cars in front of the park are facing. The direction they are facing is usually the way the balloons are going to travel.
This year they were facing toward the southeast. We drove to a school near by and waited with about thirty other cars filled with people for the balloons to take off. After waiting about fifteen minutes, JDaniel challenged me to chase him around a grassy area in front of the school. Until the balloons took off, JDaniel and I were the entertainment. Well, their were a few other children running around too.
Some of the people in the parking lot had taken out chairs, picnic dinners, and coolers of drinks. These were the non-chasers. The chasers were waiting for the first few balloons to take off and then they would hustle out of the parking lot to follow them.
We as I mentioned are in the balloon chasing group. My sister and nephew ( Who were visiting us.) were shocked to learn that my family is not the only family to spend a Saturday night in May chasing balloons. As soon as we had seen twelve or so balloons, we began our chase.
During the hot air balloon chase it can look like balloon are heading one direction only to swerve off in another direction. They go where ever the wind blows them. We go where ever the roads will let us go. Sometimes we end up in a housing developments that suddenly dead end. When that happens, we have to backtrack out of the development try to find a main road that will take us the direction we want to go it.
A sign we have gone in the right direction is the appearance of a chase vehicle for a particular balloon. If we get behind one of them, we know we will end up where a hot air balloon is going to land. This year when came across one, but it was on the side of the road. Its passengers had spread a map across its hood. We decided not to wait for them to find the right road. We headed off to find it on our own.
Not soon after we did find it. There were a line of cars in front of us that had found it too. Thankfully we found a golf course with a parking lot that was open to the public to park in near where we thought they would land. Several dozen balloons flew over our heads while we got out of our car. It was amazing.
We decided not to return to the line of cars chasing the balloons instead we walked on a path across from the parking lot to follow the balloons on foot. Some of us walked. My nephew and JDaniel ran to try to catch the balloons.
We followed the path to its end and watched more balloons stream past us. It looked like we won’t be able to see a balloon land this year.
God must have heard the pleas of two boys who desperately wanted to see a balloon land. Just was we turned around to head back to the car two balloons landed in the field. The boys were thrilled. They got to run up to each of the balloons to check it them out.
What a night! Simpsonville, South Carolina is not the most hip or cool place to be most Saturday nights, but once a year it is the coolest place to be. There is something wonderful about watching a hot air balloon take off and sail across the sky. Watching a balloon traveling across a blue sky is better than any movie. I don’t know how many times we each said words like cool, incredible, awesome, or amazing.
If you are ever near Simpsonville on a Memorial Day weekend, I hope you will go balloon chasing too.
That is so cool! Will definitely jot this down as an idea for next year! My girls would love that! :)-Ashley
Very cool! We intended to chase the balloons this weekend and ended up at a family barbeque and swimming instead… but we did enjoy seeing the balloons in the sky over Simpsonville. I love looking at your pictures of the balloons!
Would love to do this sometime! I think somewhere in southern VA they have a festival and balloon rides. It’s on my bucket list! They’re so pretty floating up in the air, aren’t they?
Up, up and away. Balloons love the camera.
We’ve been to the Balloon Festival at NASA, but it never even occurred to me to chase them. We went every year for a while, but I haven’t been in a number of years now. It was in August and it just got too hot. They’ve changed the date and I’ll have to try and go again and maybe even start chasing.
fun! we have a lot of hot air balloons here in Park City and it makes my heart go pitter patter whenever i see them…
I wish there was some balloon event where I live but sadly I could only enjoy your photos. thanks for sharing.
have a sweet day.
WOW looks like such a wonderful event and I love your pictures 🙂 I never get close to those kinds of balloon. 🙂
How fun! There used to be a balloon rally near where I grew up we watched the balloons, but never chased them. I would have loved the adventure when I was younger!
that does sound like a fun way to spend a Saturday night!
that’s so cool! It sounds like a great way to discover the town, too!
Great B Post! That sounds like so much fun !! 🙂
Sounds like a lot of fun! Lovely post!
Now there is something I would LOVE to try!
Fantastic shots!
B Is For Books
I”ve never heard of balloon chasing, but what fun to see them land! I once had neighbors who took off from their wedding reception from a hot air balloon. I’ve always thought that was really cool;
What fun! The balloons are so colorful. You did a great job on the photography.
That would be so cool to watch! Especially with there being so many. Wow! I have only seen those on TV. Must be too windy around here or something. Beautiful blue sky as the backdrop too!
How beautiful the balloons and your shots are! Sounds like a wonderful adventure! Thanks for sharing. We don’t have that in Boston!
Awesome! Love the pictures. Seems like so much fun!
Love the beautiful balloons! We were in Albuquerque, NM one year for their balloon festival. Loved it!
I love this! We have the hot air balloons around here too, but they only go out VERY early in the morning. I would love to do this with our girls! Leah @ Simple.Home.Blessings.
Oh how absolutely FUN.
I would totally have a blast… i have a slight love of hot air balloons…
might just see us up there next year 😉
wow! what an awesome thing to see! they’re got one out here in iowa in the late summer that i think we might check out.
I love to see balloons fly. So gorgeous agains the blue sky.
=)
I have never heard of balloon chasing before.
They do look amazing in the big, blue sky.
And the chasing idea is brilliant.
As always, you come up with some of the brightest ideas!
Thanks for linking.
A+
Okay, we may just have to go see the balloons that are going up tonight. My in-laws have been asking for a few years and the weather was always less than ideal for kids, but today is beautiful…and you made it seem like a good adventure for them.