LIVING IN OUR NEW HOME IN ANDERSON, SC

Freedom Weekend Aloft

Freedom Weekend Aloft is a large event held each year over the Memorial Day weekend at the Anderson's Sports & Entertainment Center. Admission if FREE but there is a $6/car parking fee.

The main attraction are the hot air balloons the "fly" each morning and evening. You can read about this event at Freedom Weekend Aloft. If you attend the event you can ride a tethered balloon.

Each year the organization brings in top music acts. These concerts are free. In 2005 such stars as Dezeray's Hammer, Gavin DeGraw, Ryan Cabrera, Molly Hatchet, Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels Band, John Waite and Edwin McCain performed.

Naturally, there is food galore provided by Fuddruckers, Sticky Fingers Barbecue, Brusters Ice Cream, Coffee Underground, Papa John’s, Atlanta Bread Company, and more for reasonable prices

Fortunately for us, the wind direction is generally to the northeast during May-June so that the majority of balloon launches result in them drifting over or nearly over us.

Sometime there can be over 50 balloons in the air at one time. It really is strange to hear the "whoose" of the propane burners early in the morning and walk out on the driveway, look up and find a huge balloon slowly drifting above the house.

Each year the balloons have a type of "hare and dog" contest. This involves someone driving in a car to a particular location just before the launch and leaving a large X at an intersection. Then the balloonists would be given a map to the location and it was their job to "fly" over the X and drop a sandbag with their name on it as close as possible to the X. One year the X was just to the north of us one block so we could easily walk up to the location and watch.

The balloonists try to get a low as possible, e.g. tree top level, to drop the bag with more precision. Sometime, as shown on the left, they seem to get almost too low!

(Click on any of the photographs below to see the full size image.)

It is really something to stand out on your dock and see so many balloons "sitting" in the sky. The photograph of Jeanne on the dock watching the balloons was take prior to 2005 when, from 2000-2004, the lake was down so far that we only have a stream and the entire bottom of our cove was all overgrown with weeds and grasses. You can see more photographs of the low lake level HERE!

Naturally, the balloons have to land sometime and somewhere. The "somewhere" is exactly that. They always try to pick out a large, open area to come down in and, hopefully, as close to a road as possible. This makes it easy for the "chasers" to help secure the balloon once it has landed.

The same year as when the X was just a block away, several of the balloons came down just another block away so it was easy to walk over and watch them. Of course by the time we arrived at the "landing zone" the chasers, who traveled in cars with 2-way radios, had already taken up their positions.

No matter how many times the balloons float over us we are always in awe!