Day 2: Great Reno Balloon Race

Diane: Tom S flew in from Colorado late last night. He came all the way to Reno to give us a personal send-off on our South American journey. I am honored to have him here with us, so I woke him up way before sunrise so he could join us at the “Dawn Patrol”. During this event, hot air balloons rose into the sky before dawn, lighting up as they floated past.



At some points during the event, they coordinated so that they all lit up at the same time or twinkled intermittently. Afterwards, all the balloons went up. Calliope got to go inside one balloon as it was filling with air.





Since some sponsors used their balloon to advertise their products, there were several unusual balloons.





There were also a lot of bunny ears around, courtesy of the Energizer Bunny. Sometimes I think that the “Just Say No” campaign, that teaches our children how to avoid drugs, should be applied to all those useless free gifts that vendors give away to help market their products. These bunny ears would probably only be worn for a few hours and could not be recycled. “Just Say No!”