Hot Air Balloons, An Iowa tradition

100 Hot Air Balloons launching together was the backdrop last night to a magic Iowa evening. “Who knew?” is a saying I use a lot as we explore places around the world. I love the uniqueness the people of each community have, the something/someone that everyone in that town associates with.

One measure of our “presence” goal during this global experience will be how much we learn, understand and connect with this “something” in the communities we stay in.

For my hometown of Naracoorte, South Australia this is the Naracoorte Caves. Or as I would still tell you “the world famous, nationally heritage listed, Naracoorte Caves”! It is impossible to be from Naracoorte and not know how great we think the Caves are and how proud we are of them.

Yesterday, in Indianola, Iowa (~40 minutes south of Des Moines, Iowa) we found something magical. The National Balloon Classic at what is the USA Ballooning Hall of Fame in Indianola, IA. Who knew?!?! We joined several thousand people, sitting on a slope surrounded by the small town and corn fields and watched a small town’s pride and joy unfold magnificently. It left us with an unforgettable night.

We made the 45 minute drive and arrived at ~5pm. A comfortable 90 minutes before the scheduled liftoff time of 6:30pm. We bought tickets for the kids to do the blowup/bouncy castle rides. There were about 6 of them set up and the lines ranged from 2 minutes to 20 minutes. At $1 per ride it was always going to be where we spent most of this 90 minute build up period. As the crowd built so did the anticipation. The breeze was fluctuating so every time it felt OK that the balloons would take off at 6:30pm the wind seemed to pick up and the announcer would remind us that the field marshal will continue to monitor the wind and make a real time decision if the conditions allow the balloons to take off. Yep, a couple of thousand people like us were here to hang out in the still fairly blazing hot sun and watch a field with baskets and some colorful fabric laying flat on the ground on the hope that a person would allow the balloons to take off. More specifically, as we learned, we were watching the color of the flag hanging off the rickety wooden tower near us. For now it was steadfastly red. If the head person decided the 100-balloon ascension was a go then it would be changed to a yellow flag - giving a 5 minutes to take off indicator - and then a green flag to allow any balloon to take off as soon as they are ready.

We took our spots on our towel (serving as our picnic blanket) and then Whitney and I exchanged turns leading discovery missions with one or more of the kids. This meant one of two destinations - (1) the bouncy castle area to stand in line or (2) the fence line that marked the field where the balloons and their crews were setting up. The cuisine was as all-American as you can possibly achieve, a brilliant prelude to the upcoming Iowa State Fair that starts in a couple of weeks time. The picture below gives you a sense of the offerings… we did cheese curds and mini donuts…

The anticipation built over the 90 minutes and (unfortunately) beyond. The flag stubbornly stayed red and we were starting to do the cost benefit analysis of fatigue (ours and the kids) plus the increasing frequency of mini-meltdowns and the very real prospect of building to an all-3-kid cluster.

They got the band that was scheduled to play after the balloons lifted off to play a set from 6:30pm-7:15pm. That helped but only partially, we needed balloons!

Then it started to get some momentum. The band announced one more song and then lets get some balloons in the air. That caused some confusion. Was the band’s lead singer the balloon field marshal who held the fate of tonight’s balloon lift off in his hand? Did the band have inside knowledge of a pending lift off green light? Or was he just thinking his audience would be a lot happier if they get their 100-balloon experience. I suspect it was the latter but the confidence in his voice gave a rush of energy and anticipation to the crowd.

Then it happened, pictures and a brief video below will give you a sense of it. It really was an amazing site. But there was one more surprise this day had for us.

We left as soon as the last few balloons were lifting off, a few minutes after 8pm, with a 100% tired and hungry crew. The cheese curds and donuts shared between us all apparently not providing massive nutritional value or endurance. I took a right hand turn into Indianola and we saw our favorite USA restaurant type - local Mexican restaurant - we did a 5-second “are you up for this?” discussion and went for it. It was past bedtime anyway. Well Las Flores in Indianola did not disappoint. The food was great and arrived almost immediately. Best of all, at the table next to us was the captain of one of the balloons that had just taken off (his other team members were flying it!) with his family. Before their food came out we chatted for a few minutes and learned they had been coming, flying in and competing in this event since the 1970s, over 40 years. They were fantastic people and their daughter and her kids had literally come to this event with her parents since she was born and now her kids were experiencing that too. Our kids interacted for a few minutes to enable this conversation to happen. It was awesome to hear a first hand account of the tradition and attraction of ballooning, this event and the people it brings together.

Icing on the cake was that the ~40 minute drive home went smoothly and the kids were recapping the day, having some laughs and even pretending they were a hot air balloon by holding the ballooning team’s business card above their head and pretending they were in the basket (think baseball card for ballooning teams).

This reminded us of how organic we can and want to be in the communities we live in this coming year. And that we need to ask local people what events are going on and what they love to do as soon as we get to a community. There is a lot to learn, and a lot of experiences to savor together.