Dale always checks out what’s going on in the area where we vacation. This time he found street markets and a hot air balloon festival. Well, a street market is a street market, no matter where you are, but a hot air balloon festival is an event. He talked it about several times before the trip and then again just a couple of days ago. I agreed, it sounded like fun. A ride in an untethered balloon is very expensive, but to watch them inflate at the park was just $12.00 a person, and that included a pancake breakfast. Sounded like a plan.

Then came the kicker, the balloons started to inflate at sunrise, and in Cathedral City,  a few miles east of Palm Springs, that’s just after 5:00. In the morning. You know, where the little hand is on the 5 and the sun isn’t up. And to get there at sunrise, we had to get up when the little hand was still on the 4, because it is a 15 minute drive from Palm Springs to Cathedral City. Uh huh. Up at 4:50. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the middle of the f@€king night. But it was Dale’s vacation too, and the night before at the Palm Springs Street Market I had bought two gorgeous hand-made dusters with ruffled sleeves, made with complimentary and contrasting materials, any way… I agreed. And woke up, at 4:50 a.m., and got ready in jig time. By 5:05 we were out the door and on our way. The traffic was light, duh. Who in the hell in their right mind is up then? We found the park, it was the place with all the lights on, and went in.

There were several balloons in the process of being inflated. There wasn’t much of a breeze so things were going well for most of them. It was neat to see the burner light up, changing the colour of the envelope in the dark morning sky. I wished the burners were closer to us, it was rather cold and I had only my big sweater, which at home is plenty warm enough, but not so much for a desert morning.

We watched some other balloons go up and then got in line for breakfast. We were able to eat inside. The festival was being held at a ballpark and the concession/restaurant area was open. We lingered a bit, trying to get the circulation back in our extremities, and then went back outside. I felt like the morning was colder once the sun came up, but it probably wasn’t. I may have been starting to feel the effects of the allergy tablet Dale had given me. All week I’d been sneezing and stuffed up, and Dale finally remembered he had allergy tablets in his shaving kit. I found out later, they were Benadryl tablets. And by later, I mean 4 hours later because when we got back to the hotel around 7:30, I went to bed and that was that, for four hours. While I slept Dale went to a car auction, not something I was interested in going to, come on, I’d already fulfilled my supportive spousal role by getting up in the middle of the effing night to stand in the cold morning air watching hot air balloons inflate. I joke, but I was rather cool, but I’m still holding Dale to his comment that it was a once in a lifetime event. Because the festival is on tomorrow too, and tomorrow the balloons are supposed to leave the park. That would be a great sight. Wonder if I can find it on YouTube?