The Great Prosser Balloon Rally

September, 2007
Prosser, Washington is in the southeast corner of the state on the dry side of the state. We had read about The Great Prosser Balloon Rally in the AAA magazine and thought it might be a fun weekend. Of course, one of the caveats of a balloon rally, regardless of where it happens, is the takeoff time. Dawn is the normal balloon takeoff so you have to get to the launch field before dawn to see all of it. Another fact to contend with is the weather, especially here in Washington. They often don't know if they are going to launch until just before time to set up. Rain is fairly predictable, but wind plays a big part in the event and too much wind is not a good thing.

There are typically launches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings with a Night Glow at the high school football field on Saturday evening, but since we had to work Friday we drove over Friday night and got a hotel. One thing... get your hotel reserved early. We waited too long and had to stay in a less than optimum location some miles from Prosser. The Saturday morning launch was scheduled for 6:30, so we were out the door by 5:30. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful morning and it was.

There was a lot of activity with over 30 balloonists settings up, testing equipment and explaining to those of us with no clue what they were doing. Lots of people around and lots of things to photograph (more pictures here). One of the interesting things they do at this rally was to dip their balloons in a spot in the Yakima River. I'm not sure why they do this except that it looks cool and makes for an interesting picture. We then followed (chased?) several of the balloons over the southeastern Washington countryside. One of them landed in the middle of the road and deflated across a barb wire fence, but the chase team was able to gather it up without ripping it. Seems they don't always land where you want them to.

Saturday night we went to Night Glow where they line up several balloons in the football stadium, light them up with the burners and turn off the stadium lights for a very pretty sight.

We woke up Sunday morning to a big rain storm so there was no launch. We went back to bed and after the rain had a leisurely day wandering around Prosser. They had a street fair going on. All-in-all, it was a pretty fun weekend and made me wonder at the spectacle of some of the larger balloon rallies (Albuquerque has hundreds of balloonists). I would certainly recommend it. It happens in late September every year.