Day 1: Great Reno Balloon Race

Diane: We are in Reno for five days, primarily to see the Great Balloon Race. The first morning, I walked down onto the field to get up close and personal with the balloons and their owners.



The balloon material billowed in the brisk morning air. The bright colors were not yet apparent due to the darkness.



First the eagle went up. This was closely followed by the two little bees, which are actually enormous.



Wells Fargo Bank is sponsoring these two lead balloons. Although they came with a cadre of bank employees, they didn’t seem to have enough people to untwist each wing, leg, arm, and antenna as hot air filled the unfolding sacs. Calliope and I jumped in to help. We held the openings to each appendage and then untwisted the fabric as it filled with air. At one point, I was totally covered by the fabric, attempting to open one of the wing openings that was especially recalcitrant. It felt like a gentle, non-threatening, wrapping sensation that would give way as I moved through the material. As I was more successful, the expansion around me felt like a giant hug. As I made my way back to fresh air, one of the other helpers asked which branch I worked at. Oops.

Here are some more shots as the balloons enlarge, fly, and return to land –










At one corner of the park, they were holding a tethered balloon rides for some of the children. Calliope was fortunate enough to go up about 30 feet in the air.







After the balloon race, Calliope, Tom, and I headed out to the Camel and Ostrich races, held annually in Virginia City, Nevada. None of the animals had much interest in racing, which I found disheartening. I optimistically assumed that camels and ostriches must love to get out there and run as fast as they could; otherwise, why would there be races? A bit naïve.

I met one young woman, who had a thing about camels. She came out all the way from New Jersey last year just to be a camel jockey. She liked it enough to return for another go at it. This afternoon various journalists (most of whom had no prior experience with racing camels) raced the camels (several of whom had no prior track experience). Some of them also raced ostriches. Although I might describe the camels as irritated with everything around them, I would describe the ostriches as totally pissed off that something was sitting on their back. All of the ostrich jockeys were dumped, before the end of one lap.

I also spoke with one of the folks that helped put on the races. She has been attending for years. I asked her which was more comfortable – riding a camel or riding an ostrich. When the camels actually put on some speed, the riders bumped up and down in the air. This looked excruciatingly painful. But the veteran assured me that it was MUCH more uncomfortable on an ostrich; it was like trying to balance on a large egg. Hmmm.

Calliope took the first audience-participation opportunity to race an emu. Believe it or not, the participants were given a broom to use to push the emus into a pen. It turned out that the hard part was keeping up with the emus, who could move very fast when motivated. I can only assume that no self-respecting emu has any intention of being whacked from behind with a broom.