VIDEO: Here’s How A Hot Air Balloon is Broken Down After It Lands
This week has been full of hot air, thanks to the Casper Balloon Roundup.
The roundup's first year occurred in 2005 and it's been a fixture of a Casper summer ever since (minus a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19).
This year, it came back with a vengeance, as balloons from a ton of different businesses graced the skies on Friday and Saturday. There's just something about looking up into the sky and seeing these bulbous, aerodynamic works of man floating through the air, ya know?
But! There's also something about seeing these things broken down once they land.
Luckily, because of Laura Redmond with Heart of Wyoming Photography, we can do just that thanks to a video she sent in.
"This balloon came down near 24th street [in Casper]," Redmond told K2 Radio News. "The owner's name is Seth Rauch. All the neighborhood kids came running out and he put them to work. He had the kids help pus the air out, then the parents of the kids picked it up and helped stuff it in the sack. It was so much fun for everyone."
Rauch, along with his pilot Pat Newlin landed their balloon, Same Day Came, and the whole blocked gathered together to help take it down.
And, really, that instance sums up the entire purpose of the Casper Balloon Roundup: to forge community. It exists, like so many events in Casper, to bring people together and to make them happy. It's a simple thing, really. But its beauty lies in its simplicity, just like the balloons themselves. There's not much too them; some rubber, some wicker, a little bit of fire. But together, it makes something beautiful.
Photos and video of the hot air balloon breakdown can be seen below: