I went to the Balloon Festival and Anne stayed home to watch the 23-7 MSU victory over Notre Dame.  Go Green!  I got 10 more miles. 

The balloon “race” is a game of the Hounds and the Hare.  One balloon takes off first and this is the hare.  After an interval all of the other balloons take off, the hounds, and chase the hare.  The object for the hounds is to land as close to the hare as possible.  They had some technical difficulties.  Normally, the hare is played by the Energizer Bunny balloon, a giant, four story, pink balloon, but it was scratched and the Macy’s balloon took its place.  The bunny did inflate but it was tethered.

After watching the new hare inflate and take off I repositioned to watch the hounds fly over.  I was surprised to see that after about a half dozen of the sixty or so balloons had passed over me that they started to land right in front of me.  It made for good video.  I suspect that they were landing so quickly because the wind was blowing them towards the airport.  The FAA does not allow the Balloon Festival to interfere with normal air traffic.

I hope Mouse appreciates the Rat balloon. 😉