Indianola Balloon Festival and Papa John Sculpture Garden

Saturday we woke up early and went to the National Balloon Festival in Indianola, IA. One of the things they do is called the "Dawn Patrol". The gates open at 5 am and it's free to come watch the balloons take off before dawn. They put lights on the balloons so that you can see them in the air and not just when they have the fire lit in them. We didn't make it down early enough to see them take off by dawn, but we were still down there to see them in the sky.

Balloons from "Dawn Patrol"

At 6:00 they began blowing up the pictures for balloon rides. We took pictures of that. It was pretty interesting to see them blowing the balloons up. At about 6:30 in the morning they started the competition for those at the Festival. Saturday's competition was that the balloon pilots had to drop a bean bag from their balloon and try to hit a target. There were several targets and each pilot had 3 attempts. 2 of the bean bags were "gravity drop only" which means that they could only drop the bean bag. The other bean bag they could throw to try and hit the target.

The technique was pretty interesting, some of the pilots came until they were about 2 feet above the ground and then dropped it, while others dropped them pretty high up. About 40 people competed; and since the balloons came from behind us, we got a great view of them aiming for the targets. They also had a 5k that day that went around the balloons, but I didn't realize they had one so we missed that opportunity.

The theme for this year was: It's LegendAIRy! We defiantly plan on coming again next year...maybe we'll watch the outhouse tipping contest :)

On our way back to Ames we stopped at the Mary and John PappaJohn Sculpture garden. We didn't take as many pictures there but it was interesting to see the art.

We came back and later helped someone in the ward move. It's kind of sad that the summer is winding down. Guy is looking forward to finishing his last year or school and I'm gearing up for the next 5 weeks of necropsies!

The balloons for rides beginning to be blown up

Balloons for rides taking off just in time because the competition balloons are right behind them. 

The first balloon titled: "Under the big top"...it looked like a circus tent

The first racing balloon of the group. The racing balloons are shaped more like footballs.

Coming in to make the drop

Right after the "Captain America balloon" made the beanbag drop.

Watching the balloons

The yellow one with the black diagonal stripe was called "Charlie Brown #3"

Guy's favorite ballon is the green/blue/yellow checkered one on the left

Allison's favorite balloon

Bomb's away! (Allison's 2nd favorite)

One of the sculptures at the PappaJohn park.

Guy at the sculpture garden

Allison at the sculpture made with letters

Most of the balloons (phone picture sorry)