Katiegirl

Kate
2017-07-19 14:34:34 (UTC)

Balloon Festival

I recently went to the Balloon Festival in Goshen.

The BAlloon Festival is held in Goshen every year on the Goshen fairgrounds. THere is also a food truck festival and arts and crafts festival as well.. Tickets were $14.00 for adults and kids under 5 got in for free. For those who are 55 or have Handicap ID’s got in for $8. It started on Friday at 2 and ran until ten or 11 first night but the hours for the rest of the weekend were 11 to 10 on Saturday and 11 to 8 on Sunday. They had balloon rides and tethered rides as well (for those of us afraid to go flying). WHen I told my sibs about it they both asked me if I was going to go up in one. The only answer I gave was not sure. It depended on if the rides were extra or not.

I was under the impression Dave was out of town but I got a message from him saying I could meet them up there. So when they left they called me (I had been ready since 10:30) I headed out the door to the bank and got money and headed to Goshen. It was an hour long ride so we agreed to meet around 1 at the front gate..

It took me about an hour and half to get up there and it was a beautiful ride. There were only two concerns I had...the direction in which to go when there an option to go to Danbury or to the right way. The other was this huge hill right before Litchfield Green. They have a stop sign and the traffic was heavy. I was afraid that I would be rolling the car back down the hill..

It was sometime after 1::30 and let them know I was there. I was able to park in the handicapped parking lot for a lot less than I thought.. At least I didn’t have as much mud as my friends did. We met at the agreed location and chatted and began our trek for some food..

We looked at the various trucks offering a huge assortment of we stopped at one place that had italian food and I had a sausage and peppers panini and soda. I think it came to about $7.00.. I was actually quite pleased that I didn’t go through the entire Food truck Festival like a tornado. I did get apple cider donut for $1..00.. I got some water and another soda too. The lines were pretty long but moving. There was only one truck I recognized and that was Lenny and Joe’s fish truck from New Haven.

While we ate our lunch we sat and listened to characters from disney shows perform various songs from the movies and sing-a-long. Early on Dave and I managed to get a picture with Ella from Frozen.. We also listened to a local country band Jay Southerland for awhile until we decided to explore the arts and crafts area..

During our walk we saw many different vendors for curb appeal, inside decorative and house management. We also met up with the owner of Circle K Animal Farm from East Hampton CT.. We had a lovely chat about the varied sheep, and goats.. I even cooed over another couple’s fur babies.

As the afternoon grew to end the weather had definitely changed. It had been very breezy and we came to the conclusion the balloons wouldn’t be going up anytime soon. It became definite (at least for me) when the skies turned dark. The clouds come from what I am assuming is the lower berkshires and NY. I decided then I would be leaving for home. Dave was hoping I would stay longer in case they did have the balloons go up. I am glad I didn’t.

It started to pour as I was leaving and the traffic from the Fairgrounds was long and occasionally tiresome.. What would normally take 8 minutes to drive down 63 took me a freaking hour! It was just about then I called mardi and chatted with her so I wouldn’t go ballistic. It was also just about then that the rain storm was subsiding into sprinkles and occasional sun beams.

I still had another hour and half to go once i made it to Litchfield Green. I also had to go to the bathroom really bad too. I was really glad to be home by 8. I was ready to go to bed by then.

Before going to bed though I had gotten a few more text message from the guys. I had sent them warnings of traffic and visibility and such. In the end they stayed until the storm passed and were able to see the balloons go up. The downside of waiting was being stuck in a field of mud for five hours as was anyone else that parked there. A greedy tow truck Driver was charging $100 to get people out of the mud..

Overall I would go again and maybe wait a little bit longer for the balloons to go up. For $8 I was expecting to see the hot air balloons setting up at least and be there throughout the day.. I was relieved though to be in bed at 1 am instead of on the road at that hour..




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