Early risers rewarded at hot-air balloon festival

Dazzling hot air balloons dotted the sky over Windsor early Saturday as participants in the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic celebrated the event’s 20th year.

After thick fog had grounded the dozens of balloons gathered for the rally two years in a row, Saturday’s skies were clear enough for full lift-off.

“This has just turned out to be the best morning. Wake me up at 4:30 any day!” Santa Rosa resident Jessica Boldt, 24, said after her first balloon flight ever, which she took with a friend, Megan Buser, 25. “It was amazing. It was breathtaking.”

Hundreds of folks gathered as early as 4:30 and 5 a.m. to witness the Dawn Patrol, in which glowing balloons many stories high trail fire as they rise.

Illuminated like stained glass windows against the dark sky, they’re profoundly beautiful, said Josie Floyd, who rose at 3:30 a.m. to get her girls — Emily, 2, Abigail, 7, and Nicole, 14 — out the door in time.

The best part? “The children’s faces,” she said.

About 30 more balloons took to the skies beginning around 6:30 a.m. with sponsors and passengers on board, while tethered balloons were on site at Keiser Park all morning for a next-best-thing experience.

“It felt like it was pretty cool, and I didn’t want to go down,” 7-year-old Maxine Jones of Santa Rosa said after climbing from one of the tether rides. “But there was fire up there, so I changed my mind.”

“Also it’s floaty — like you were floating,” her friend Flor Castañeda, 6, of Windsor, said, employing the most common word used to describe the experience.

“It was wonderful,” said Santa Rosa resident Kathy Mattocks, who removed her oxygen supply long enough to climb board a tethered balloon for a few minutes. “I figured I’ll never have another chance.”

She will, though, on Sunday, the second day of the scheduled event, which runs from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Keiser Park, located on Windsor River Road behind Windsor High School.

“It’s the freedom of flight” that draws so many people to ballooning, Fresno pilot Dexter “Scorch” Coffman said. “It’s like a magic carpet ride. The world passes underneath you.

“It’s positive from the time you get up in the morning, and the memories last a lifetime.”

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