Saturday sunrise launch on Campus View a beautiful sight to behold

[August 28, 2023]  Early on the morning of August 26th, hot air balloons were inflated and launched from Campus View Drive. The morning was quiet and cool at first, but people from far and wide quickly began to show up.

Two women, Sheri Dhabalt and Kathy Sutzer, drove from Springfield for the show. The atmosphere was one of fun, but also great anticipation. It was about 6:30 a.m. when the teams of “balloon people” began to show up, a term used by Cassidy of Dream Inc., one of the members of a rainbow balloon team.

As the balloon teams arrived, they began to choose spots with enough room for their balloons to be set up. Once the balloon people got to work setting up their balloons, things began to move very quickly. The teams rolled out their balloons and secured ropes at the bottoms of the deflated balloon to their basket.

Each team then had to hold the bottom of their balloons open so the burner could warm up the air inside. The heat from these burners was very intense and could easily be felt from several dozen feet away. The balloons quickly began to inflate, and once inflated enough, slowly began to rise into an upright position.

One by one, the balloons began to lift into the air. One might not expect a hot air balloon to move very fast, but these individuals would be incorrect. Within just a couple of minutes, the balloons went from a large and imposing presence on the ground to not much more than a brightly colored speck in the sky.

The teams of balloon people quickly got into their vehicles to chase their respective balloons, and as quickly as they appeared, the balloon people were gone. Those in attendance were left with a grand view of all the balloons spattered across the sky, both the balloons from Campus View Drive as well as the other locations around town that could also be seen.

[Matt Boutcher]