Sunday, October 3, 2010

EARTH,WIND AND FLYERS


We biked to the balloon field on Sunday morning at 6:00 and soon after arrival enjoyed the morning glow.



This balloon led off the mass ascension today. Another beautiful morning.


A zebra giving directions to some of the pilots.We were part of the chase crew for Walter Kaiser again and today he decided to fly. He is checking out his equipment in the basket and his wife is the woman in blue.


They were looking to see how other balloons were flying and what the winds were like at different altitude.




Using the fan to fill the balloon with cool air. It took a long time to fill a balloon this large.








Almost ready for launching.

A view up inside the balloon.





Up, up , and away! The balloon is a stoneware pitcher to advertise Possmann apple wine.



It is a very tall balloon.


After the balloon was launched we were dismissed from the chase crew, for he had many German balloonist to help him (many did not bring their balloons this year). So I was just as happy not to go off on a chase, and had a ball taking pictures of all the shape balloons.
Enjoy looking at all the different shape balloons. Some of them are huge. It amazes me that they can fly.




The baby bee is a new addition to the bees this year.






















The Echo carving contest. this was just a demonstration piece done in a few hours.



This was the stump of red wood each carver was given to create a beautiful piece of art in 22 hours.



The back was as amazing as the front.This sculpture was picked by the audience as their favorite. It was hard to vote they all were so beautiful. You had to buy tickets to vote and all the money went to Make-a-Wish.




This carver decided to cut the log in half and then used one piece to make the tree and fit it into the other half, pretty clever.



We voted for this sculpture and it also was given the highest score by the judges. It earned Bob King the sculptor $5,000 and the Echo cup.
After the judging each piece was auctioned off. Bids started at $1500. Most of them went for about $2500. The money went to Make-a-Wish.
A little balloon glow was able to happen tonight before the wind, lightening and rain came.






1 comment:

  1. Thanks for all the great pictures and also the sculptures just amazing!

    ReplyDelete