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| Action at the Highland Village, Tx balloon festival 2010, image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
Part I: Balloon Festival
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After our stay in romantic little Natchitoches, La. we headed for Texas. Our destination was the Dallas/Ft.Worth area, but since we were road tripping our way there, I just couldn't pass up the "Antique Capital of East Texas" ~ Gladewater. I love antique hunting. I can look for hours...days...weeks...ok, enough. It's a tiny little town, but don't let that fool you. Go check out those shops!
Gladewater is home to some interesting history trivia, too.
Elvis used it as a base during his early career, Johnny Cash wrote Walk the Line there, and on April 7, 1931, the first Gladewater oil well blew...
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| Gladewater Texas image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
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| Gladewater Texas image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
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| Gladewater Texas image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
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| Gladewater Texas image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
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| Gladewater Texas image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
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| Gladewater Texas image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
After my Gladewater antique hunt and walk through history were over, we were ready to roll into Dallas. Since we've never taken the RV there before, we weren't sure where we could stay that would be close to the city, but still have that "peace and quiet" nature setting that we were hoping to keep. While planning the trip, we looked into several locations and decided that the Army Corps of Engineers' Hickory Creek Park on Lewisville lake sounded great. We were not disappointed! Almost all the sites are on the lake. Gorgeous views, great lake activities, and you could still see the stars at night. Loved it.
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| Hickory Creek Park image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
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| Hickory Creek Park image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
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| Hickory Creek Park image ©Cynthia Burkhardt |
Timing is everything and fortunately we got there just in time for the Highland Village Balloon Festival that was held just across the lake at Copperas Branch Park.
I've seen balloon races from a distance before, but never had the opportunity to get up close and photograph the process of getting them upacked, inflated and off!
I was hoping for good opportunities for shooting, and it was better than I had hoped for....what a fun shoot! I was able to get up close to the whole process! Unfortunately, the winds were not cooperating that morning, so the balloon teams were given the option to fly, or just do a "stand up" for the crowd. Most of them chose to do only the stand up that morning, but the opportunity to be right in the middle of them while they worked to get those balloons inflated was alot of fun, and I was able to photograph those who chose to make the flight.
Here's a slideshow and some photos that show the process from unpacking to up, up and away! (I've posted links to more slideshows of the balloons at the end of the post.)
I have too many photos of the balloon races to post here, so I am providing links to several slide shows, and my Flickr balloon festival collection. Hope you enjoy these!
Balloon 1
Balloon 2
Balloon 3
Balloon 4
Balloon 5
Balloon 6
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Fun in Texas included a day of shopping and dining in Grapevine, too.
Lots of fun stuff, including the farmer's market and wine tasting on Main St.
Some of my fave places on Main include:
Holy Grounds, Gypsy Warehouse , Weinberger's Delicatessen, Cork it!, and of course all the clothes and antiques shops and boutiques ~ who could choose just one?
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When the Dallas fun was done, we headed over to one of my fave Texas spots ~
Ft. Worth Stockyards for Texas Part II: Bullrides and cattle drives!
Yeeeee Haw, baby, see you from Ft. Worth!
