DISCOVER GEORGIA: Helen Hot Air Balloon Festival

It's been a very long time since I put up a Discover Georgia post. This is my travel series that highlights different places and events in Georgia, as there is so much more to do than just visit Atlanta. In this post, I'm sharing a few photos from the annual Helen Hot Air Balloon Festival, which is held the weekend after Memorial Day. It's a three-day event that starts with the only long-distance hot air balloon race where different teams race from Helen to the Atlantic ocean. Fun fact: I've blogged about Helen in a different Discover Georgia post.

According to the official website, "The people of Helen believe that Helen, Georgia is the center of their world and in Columbus' day the Atlantic Ocean was the "edge of the Earth".  Thus, Pete Hodkinson came up with the concept for the Helen to the Atlantic Balloon Race.  The race begins in Helen and the finish line is I-95 (anywhere between Maine and Miami).  The shortest distance is 225 miles and the race usually takes two days.  It has been done in one day, while some races have taken as many as four days."

We weren't trying to catch the actual race but we took a day trip out so we could see (and possibly) get on one of the tethered hot air balloon rides. We made a few mistakes though: We parked in the town center, and the launch field was a very long walk from where we parked. Considering that we had children with us, and it was hot, we should have looked for parking closer to where the balloons were. Additionally, when we finally made it to the launch field, we were so caught up in watching the balloons being inflated, that we didn't notice lines forming to get on the tethered balloon rides. By the time we were aware of the lines, the waits were over 1 to 2 hours long, and we needed to head back home from Helen. 

It's my dream to take a hot air balloon ride, and every time I've tried, I have not succeeded. I hope that one of these years, I'll get to take a proper ride - maybe somewhere exotic like in Cappadocia, Turkey or within the US at the New Mexico Hot Air Balloon Festival. There are a lot of hot air balloon festivals in the US and all you need to do is do a Google search to find one close to you. I hope you enjoy the photos. Let me know if you've ever been on a hot air balloon ride... or if you're too afraid to try.

 

Have a great week, and do something special for yourself :)