The day of the flight the weather forecasts were calling for a 30% chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon -- a common weather pattern in the summer in a lot of places, although not something I was used to back in California. It was not a small concern -- even thunderstorms many miles away can generate sudden bursts of wind that can be deadly to hot-air balloons. Fortunately, Brian was familiar with these types of conditions from flying in Texas, so we reviewed the weather data on the internet together. There were thunderstorms to the west in Texas, but they seemed to be moving north; the closest rain was some showers near Texarkana, 35 miles away. The forecasts were for the chance of rain to decrease as evening approached. Based on this, we decided to proceed with inflating the balloons.

Balloons of Hope took place at the Hope Fair Park. We had use of the Coliseum building, an auditorium/gymnasium that was large enough to inflate the balloons in -- the air conditioning was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity outside. Some juniors from the local high school lent a hand with inflating the balloons, along with other fesitval volunteers.