Adirondack Balloon Festival, New York - September 23rd to 26th, 2021
Events do not have to be large and famous to be enjoyable. The Adirondack Balloon Festival is not as large or as well known as the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. That just meant we didn’t have crowds of people to fight through and there was no admission fee to get into the festival. They do take donations at the entrance, however.
Thursday was a travel day, from Wilmington, New York to Lake George, New York. Our first stop was our noon appointment at the UPS Store in Lake Placid to get a document notarized. For lunch, we stopped at a park on Flower Lake in the town of Saranac Lake. Don’t ask us why they like to name their towns with the word lake in them and the lake they are on has a different name. However, just like Lake Placid which is not too far from a lake called Lake Placid, the Upper, Middle, and Lower Saranac Lakes are not too far from the town of Saranac Lake.
For dessert, we stopped in Tupper Lake. The town of Tupper Lake is actually on part of the Tupper Lake, the part that is called Raquette Pond. Don’t ask us why an arm of the lake is called a pond! We were hoping to have ice cream at Mountain Frost Cafe which serves Perry’s Ice Cream. However, the shop was closed. Instead, we walked across the street to Stewart’s Shops. We are so glad we discovered that these gas stations have ice cream shops in them. Their ice cream is pretty good, but somehow eating ice cream at a gas station does not have the same ambiance as a little ice cream shop.
It was a pretty drive through the Adirondacks. Our route took us along Long Lake before heading east. Right Buddy (RB) chuckled as we turned onto state route 28 north and state route 30 south. How can a road be both north and south in the same direction at the same time?
As we got closer to Lake George, the temperatures rose up into the high 70’s and the trees were all green. The fall colors had not yet started there. As we drove through the town of Lake George, the streets were lined with parked motorcycles. What is going on? Americade. It is the largest single-site motorcycle expo in the country and it is going on all week.
We arrived at Ledgeview RV Park in Lake George in time to check in and make dinner before heading over to Glens Falls for the Adirondack Balloon Festival block party. One block of downtown was blocked off. There were a couple of hot air balloon baskets turning on their burners. You could feel the heat and the flames really lit up the street against the dark skies. There was also a live band and a car show. We liked the music selection of the band, but the sound was a little loud and harsh for us in the confined area. We must be getting old. It was threatening rain and there was no place to sit to listen to the band, so we didn’t stay very long.
Back at the campground, we put our awning out so we could stay outside in the light drizzle of rain. Overnight we could hear the storm pick up intensity, with thunder and high winds. It is nice to have the storms pass through during the night, so as not to interfere with our daytime plans.
The rain cleared up by Friday morning. While we were hanging out at the campground in the morning, four wild turkeys came strolling through. They didn’t seem to be too bothered by the people around, although there were not a lot of people. We drove into Albany to eat out for lunch and run some errands before our 2 pm appointment with Fidelity. Our appointment wrapped up in time for us to drive directly to the Adirondack Balloon Festival for the evening launch. Well, for when it was scheduled to launch anyway.
The gates at Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport opened at 4 pm, and we rolled in about 4:40 pm. The launch was scheduled for 5 pm. At 4:45 pm, they announced there was a half hour wind delay. Recorded music was playing. A handful of people were flying kites. At 5:15 pm, they announced another half hour wind delay. Since we ate out for lunch, we just snacked for our dinner, munching on crackers, pepperoni, cheese, tortilla chips, and salsa. At 5:45 pm, they decided to cancel the launch, but a few balloons would inflate so people could see them. A couple of balloons were in the air in the distance, not associated with the festival.
We went back to the campground and turned in early. It was going to be a long Saturday. We set our alarm for 4 am. Gates open at 4:30 am.
We were up at 4 am on Saturday. Got dressed, used the restroom and drove over to the balloon festival site. It was about 4:45 am when we got in the line of cars to enter the festival. The gates had not opened yet. We sat there for about 15 minutes before they started letting people in. There was no rush, though. There was a fog delay.
We pulled into a parking spot and got comfortable. Left Buddy (LB) made coffee, RB made hot chocolate and oatmeal. We were comfortable inside our van eating breakfast. The fog still had not lifted, so after brushing our teeth, RB got on her laptop to work and LB laid down to take a nap.
After a little while, some of the pilots started inflating their balloons. We went for a walk to check out the balloons in the fog. More delays. We hung out at our van some more. Finally at 9:30 am, the fog started to lift. However, some pilots gave up and started packing up their balloons. They normally only fly balloons a couple of hours after sunrise and a couple of hours before sunset because the winds get too strong during the day.
Finally at about 9:45 am, the festival gave the pilots permission to fly. Only a handful launched and didn’t go far. They were all back on the ground by 10 am. The launch was probably much more impressive in previous years. The number of balloons was down this year. They typically get about 100 balloons and they only had about 40 register this year. There was also not any food vendors or craft fair this year because of COVID.
We decided to head into Lake George to check out the town and buy some lunch. That turned out to be a mistake. Americade was still in full swing. First, it was hard to find a parking spot along the street. The public parking lot down by the lake was taken over by the rally. Walking along the main drag through town was grating on our nerves and gave us headaches. There was a constant stream of motorcycles going up and down the street, revving their loud engines, and blaring their radios. LB does not do well with harsh, loud noises and the lack of sleep the night before lowered RB’s tolerance as well.
We found a little gyro place and asked if we could sit inside to eat. Everyone else was sitting at outside tables. We normally like sitting outside, but we just wanted to get away from the noise. Even though the door was wide open and we could still hear the traffic noise, it was more tolerable inside. The gyros and fries were huge portions. We should have split an order between the two of us. We managed to finish most of it, but agreed to skip dinner.
On the walk back to our van at the opposite end of town, we took a path along the lake half of the way back. It was more peaceful along the lake. We left with not a very good impression of Lake George. To give it a fair shake, we need to go back sometime when there is not a motorcycle rally and we’ve had a full night’s sleep.
Back at the campground, LB took another nap while RB got some more work done. RB tried to shoot the intro for a video. However, each time she listened to the recording, there was loud music in the background. This had her perplexed for a while. Where was the music coming from? Was the microphone picking up some music from a neighboring campsite? The second time she recorded, both she and LB paid close attention. Neither one of us could hear any music while RB recoded. Again there was loud music in the recording. After a couple more experiments and some googling, she determined that she was picking up a radio station on her external microphone. Her research indicated that poorly shielded or damaged microphone cords and/or the wrong length of cord can result in the cord becoming an AM antenna and pick up radio stations. So RB grabbed some aluminum foil and wrapped the cord connecting the microphone to the camera. It worked like a charm! No music at all this time.
After grabbing a couple of ice cream bars from the camp store, we decided to go back to the balloon festival around 4:30 pm. The gates had opened at 3 pm, but the “Lighting up the Night” moon glow was not scheduled until 7:30 pm. Again we hung out at our van and watched people entertaining themselves. Kids were running around, playing catch, and kicking balls around.
Around 6 pm or so, pilots started to inflate their balloons. We walked around to check them out. There were about thirty balloons there. Some of the interesting shapes were a sun, a panda bear, and a dragon.
At 7:30 pm, the music played over the loud speakers and the pilots put on a light show. Some of the balloons lit up better than others. Perhaps it was due to light vs. dark colors and how thick the balloon fabric was. The show went on for about an hour. The dazzling display of lights was a cool experience. The light danced around to the different balloons as pilots turned the flames on and off somewhat in time with the music.
After it was over, the line of cars were backed up to a standstill to get out of the airport. We took our time, used the port-a-potties, and walked the long way back to our van. Then we got comfortable in our van, getting some work done on our laptops for about half an hour while we waited for the other cars to leave. It is so nice to have everything with us in our Red Tail Lodge so we don’t mind being “stuck” somewhere for a while. We were not the only RV in the parking lot taking advantage of having our rigs with us.
Another balloon launch was scheduled for Sunday morning. However, we did not feel like getting up early again so we skipped it. It was a good thing. There was fog again that morning and the launch was canceled at 8:30 am.
Despite not seeing a mass ascension of balloons taking flight, we had a great time at the balloon festival. There were interesting balloons that we were able to see up close. We learned more about hot air ballooning in general. The moon glow was a spectacular sight to see. If you want a more personal experience at a balloon rally, we would highly recommend the Adirondack Balloon Festival.
Check out our related video: Adirondack Balloon Festival, New York
(RB)