Ever since Momma and my uncles were little they have been getting up at the crack of dawn on the Saturday before Memorial Day and heading out to Point Mallard to watch the balloon races. Lots of the time, their cousins from Tennessee would come down and they would make a day of it, watching the balloons in the morning and playing games out in the fields in the afternoon. I told Momma that she should scan a picture into the computer yesterday while we were at Ahna's and Grumps's so I could show you but she didn't, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

We didn't get to go on Saturday morning though, because it was raining, and Grumps didn't want to drag us all out there if we weren't going to get to see them go. Instead he showed me some balloons from last year in the paper. I knew exactly what they were and pointed them out, but I really was hoping to get to see them for myself.

Lucky for me it dried up enough Saturday afternoon for us to go out and see the balloons that night after we ate supper. We sat around a little and then Grumps and I walked all over the place while the others sat and visited.

When they started filling up the balloons we headed over to that area of the field. They were really big, and I was so excited to watch them stand up. I kept getting closer and closer and closer, and then all of a sudden they shot fire up inside and I decided that I could see them fine from where I was. They only pulled out 7 that night, but I thought they were so pretty lite up with fire from inside as it got dark. Grumps said maybe I can come back next year and see all 100 when they go off.

We admired the balloons awhile before heading back toward the car. On our way back, this crazy man ran up to Grumps and started hollaring at him that a balloon was falling down. It didn't seem to matter to him that we weren't in the way, but he wanted us to go elsewhere and go faster. Uncle Benji ran in to save the day and asked the man "Can you just chill out?" The crazy man then yelled "No, I can not!" A different balloon man came and apologized, but it didn't bother Grumps any. It just made for a really fun story to tell Ahna when we got back to her.

It was a very exciting day, and we got to see lots of pretty balloons. I hope we do get a chance to go again next year, because I would like to get to see them take off and fly next time.