Centralia Balloon Fest 2019


Photo credits shared between John O and Jess Esposito.

Laura: We sent a message out to friends to see who wanted to join us to the Centralia Balloon Festival.  We hadn't been to a balloon fest since Johnny surprised me in Canada with a trip to Gatineau, Quebec to see their festival/ . We got three lovely friends to join us: Jess, Bri, and Kate, and loaded into Dusky, my Ford Fusion.  This was our first time meeting Bri; we were glad a new student was getting out and making friends and soon found out she is great and hilarious.  We did a bit of a detour to hit up The Custard Stand in Sesser, Illinois.  Consensus among the foodies was that the atmosphere and prices were excellent, but the custard was not reliably good all around.  Some flavors were much better than others.  Next time, I will try a scooped custard, rather than a malt made with soft custard.

We arrived at the festival later than we were hoping (right when the evening race was scheduled to take place) and were worried that the balloons would be taking off before we saw them.  But, it was perfect timing!  They were just inflating the balloons and then they started taking off over the treetops and disappearing over a hill.  The park was beautiful with lots of open fields, a pond and trees.













The children in us had seen on the schedule that there were tethered balloon rides available for $10, so after the takeoff, we headed in that direction and got in the long, winding line.  A couple of us went for a walk and saw the tethered balloon and were super bummed.  We reported to the rest of the gang, in line, that the balloon wasn't even going up over the treetops!  What a ripoff!  So, we got out of line and in search of fair food.  The food options were big and varied and we indulged in shakeups, giant corndogs, porkchop sandwiches, street tacos and homemade fries.  Yummy!

Then, as evening approached, the scene got even more beautiful and the balloonists started inflating the balloons for the Balloon Glow.  I had never heard of a balloon glow, but it was really pretty, especially around the pond.  The festival organizer was on an intercom, introducing the balloons and balloonists and calling out for them to do different sequences of flames, including quick and slow bursts.  What a sight!





After the glow and walking through the giant craft fair, we headed towards Dusky.  We had a bit of a kerfuffle because Dusky's backseat seatbelts wouldn't come out.  I folded the back seat down on one side to try to fix it and then the seatbelt cinched it down!  So....our flexible friends, Kate and Jess, decided they would just lay down on the seat with their feet in the trunk for the 1-hour ride home.  It was really hilarious and they were giggling the whole way back.  Overall, a great evening with friends!

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