Hot Air Ballon Festival - Tennessee

It’s so much better to be a volunteer than a spectator. I’m doing it that way going forward. When I arrived at the event I parked in the line of cars in the grass and started walking to the office, and this woman from North Carolina asks if I knew where to go and I said I’m heading that way, you can follow me, so we get there and are told that it will be an hr before we get started, so I go walk around, she goes to a picnic table and I eventually find myself at that table. From then on we were buddies, we stuck together to be on one of the teams for one of the balloons. It was awesome.

Being a volunteer you get everything for free and you get to be in the action. Going up in the ballon, standing the ballon up from the ground, which a good way to get roasted, I had to check my face for my eye brows after that, helping passengers in and out. It was fun and strenuous work but worth it. You also meet some pretty cool people. Turns out my new buddy is also a dancer and from a place my ex lived, that isnt a very well known place. Small world. Three of the women on our team are here fleeing from Ukraine, the other two guys are retired pilots. It was a good group.