Hot Air Balloons in the Dark

On Saturday and Sunday the events begin at 5 am at the Reno Hot Air Balloon Races.  Again, EVERYONE knows that I don't do early am.....and most definitely NOT before the sun rises....much less two hours before sunrise.  I made an exception for this one, good choice.  I read raves about the Glow Patrol and Dawn Patrol, all happening in the dark.  The Glow Patrol, meh, the Dawn Patrol is AMAZING.

We leave the hotel at 4 am...well 4 something...I'm really not sure because I was not fully, or maybe even partially, awake.  Right away we can tell this is not going to be as laid back as Friday.  The lobby is humming, there are lines for the free shuttle, strollers are packed with dazed little ones (I'm not going to take my little dudes to this for a few years.  I think I would be asking for it.  I was cranky so I'm pretty sure they'd be cranky).  We hit the street, in total darkness, to walk up that hill again.  One member, who I shall not name but they know who they are, checked the shuttle...but then boldly made the walk.  There's traffic, college students joined us on the walk as we went by the University of Nevada, Reno housing, buses, and lines of cars.  Here's what it looked like.......

Isn't this a wonderful photo?  Taken by DAVE!!!!!

We get to the park, buses are unloading, we can't see in front of us (although I did have my trusty little purse flashlight that my SIL gave me and BSF taught be to carry at all times) and I ask "I wonder how many people fall at this event since you can't see a thing and there are curbs?"....just then, one of us goes down!  Not to worry, all is well.....it does make me a bit nervous with our medical team goes down though.

I was able to learn some new tricks with the camera....although there's some weird water spotting marks  (you can see them on the last photo with the moon) that I'm not sure about.  Dave took some iPhone photos, not so great.  Bret took SPECTACULAR photos on his little point and shoot.

We can HIGHLY recommend this event.  Make room on your schedule to attend this next year.