Hot  Air

  What would you call a Hot-Air Balloon Festival with no balloons? Personally, I would call it a "rip-off" (to use the colloquial vernacular), but that's just me. I paid two dollars to park, and six for the entry fee for my editor and I, expecting to see, and take a ride in, a real hot-air balloon.

  We walked and walked in the hot sun, searching for a hot-air balloon. After about an hour, we asked the people who organized the "festival" about the tethered balloon rides.

  "Oh, he shut down early this morning because he wasn't getting enough customers".

HE?

  "He" was the only one with a balloon? Where was the mass flight of beautiful balloons rising in the air? I had planned to get some great shots of brightly colored balloons soaring in the blue summer sky.  "He" had shut down.

  Oh well. It was no accident that one of the sponsors of the "event" was the Rainbow River Ranch. Once again, misrepresentation and empty promises. I should have known better.

  Nonetheless, there were some interesting things to see, like the Citrus County Young Marines (Hoo-Rah! - God bless the U.S. Marine Corps) and the Marion County Sheriffs Pipe and Drum Band. The "Scottish Games" consisted of some weight and hay bale tossing. We couldn't wait for the caber toss - it was 1000 degrees in the sun. The Dunnellon Kiwanis Club was there, serving up some tasty dogs and burgers (at a reasonable price), and the kids, as always, were wonderful.

  All in all, it would be inaccurate to say that it was a "festival". It was a run-of-the-mill 'event' with the same hawkers and the same food vendors one would expect to find at a county fair. My only real regret was having advertised it on Dunnellon Online, and told some friends who had always wanted a ride in a hot-air balloon about it. I hope they didn't travel just to attend this "event".

  Supposedly, a portion of the proceeds will go to the Dunnellon Boys and Girls Club (which is why we advertised it), and we hope that this actually happens. It is a most worthy cause. We will continue to do anything we can for kids, even if we have to hold our noses while we are doing it.

  There are photos of the First Annual Great Balloon Festival below. Hopefully it will improve next year, but we will have no way of knowing, as we will probably go fishing that day. It's much more exciting.