Up, Up and Awayyyyy

Almost a song title...anyone guess which one? By the Fifth Dimension?

"Up, Up and Away, my beautiful, my beautiful balooooon."

We came to Statesville, North Carolina for the NC Balloon Festival having never been to a complete one before. We saw part of one in Iowa but this one we planned on taking it all in....and were not disappointed.  So colorful.

This one had images that depicted his lifetime.

In order to see them all take off at 8am, we had to get over there by 6:30 in order to get parking, find a place to put our seats and wait. It was 42 degrees ! While we waited I took a few photos of the moon.

They also had a few comical balloons.

A Scarecrow...see the bird on his right arm?

When Pigs Fly....

...and his curly tail.

Rocket Man....HUGE !!

One half was this cute pussycat....

...the other half was the Owl....get it? The Owl and the Pussycat.

This one was very special...

And, of course, the pilots and crew that worked to put it all together for us....

We went two mornings to see the lift offs. We tried to get to the festival on Saturday night for the glow but could not get near the place for the traffic. Still, we had a great time.

There were about 50 balloons in all but, when they take off, they're controlled by one guy so they all don't take off at once and bang into each other.

 

Up, Up...and Awaaaayyyy....

Pretty aren't they?

Steve and Kim.