Up Up and Away - Visiting The National Balloon Classic in Indianola, IA

Last weekend my wife and I traveled to Indianola, Iowa for their annual balloon festival, The National Balloon Classic.  The event is spread out over 9 days with competitions every morning and then different events in the evenings.  Originally we wanted to watch the mass ascension Friday night, but due to a miscommunication we arrived at the field too late to view most of the balloons.  We ended up settling for the competition flight at 6:30 am the next morning, which is where all pictures I am showing came from.

We arrived a the field a little after 6:00 am on Sunday morning.  It was slightly cool with only a few clouds to block the rising sun.  There was a very mild breeze and due to the wind speed and direction, the balloon launch site was moved to a field a couple miles away.  This would allow the balloons to land near the viewing field where we were watching.  

There was one balloon that launched from the main field.  This was the Wells Fargo balloon.  I believe they were flying simply for pleasure, while the rest of the balloons were flying for the competition.  The competition for the day was dropping bean bags on to a ground target.  Considering that you have next to no control of of your balloon while in flight, this is an extremely difficult task.  Many of the balloons were quite a bit off the mark, but there were a few that got very close. 

In total, there were probably about 80 different balloons that were flying for the event.  The balloons were spread out a bit, since it seemed like they were launching in waves, instead of all at once.  Prior to attending this event, I had seen a single balloon in person.  One balloon is nice but seeing almost 80 balloons at once was very impressive.  We had a wonderful time and will probably make the trip again sometime.  I hope you've enjoyed the pictures, although they don't really do the sight justice.