The Great Texas Balloon Race is no Our Gang production thrown together in Grandpa\u2019s barn.<\/p>\n
Add the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship, which lands Monday in Gregg County, and planning and setup for the week ahead would blow Grandpa\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are major committees, and there are subcommittees,\u201d event Chairwoman Frankie Parson said, and she wasn\u2019t blowing hot air.<\/p>\n
Those committees and subs launch into action once the 17-member board governing the nonprofit race holds its results meeting in August.<\/p>\n
A finance committee provides the bottom-line for the recently concluded race. Another committee begins the search for bands, such as The Departed and Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers, who will respectively take the airport stage Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n
A pilot committee begins sending letters inviting balloonists to appear and negotiating event rates with hotels.<\/p>\n
In all, about 45 volunteers get to work, including a volunteer committee that matches willing hands with tasks that must be accomplished during the weeklong, dual event.<\/p>\n
A development committee ensures sponsoring companies get a real lift for their level of commitment, so they\u2019ll pony up again next year.<\/p>\n
And then there is operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOperations is everything from set up at the airport \u2014 that magic they perform at that dry, barren field that becomes a festival in a matter of days,\u201d Parson said, reeling off a list of operations subcommittees for KidsLand, the carnival, the petting zoo, food, commercial and arts and crafts vendors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey run all the golf carts. We rent, like, 90 two-way radios. Someone signs them out and makes sure they stay charged. We have the (emergency medical technicians) and their own unit. We have the sheriff\u2019s office and its own unit.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Aldridge, brother of Operations Committee Chairman Larry Aldridge, plants 4,500 poles, each 6-foot tall and 3 feet apart, to create the 13,500-foot long temporary fence at the airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a Kilgore committee,\u201d Parson said, noting pleasure at involving the City of Stars for a Wednesday morning race and a balloon glow below the derricks that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we took on the nationals, we really needed more space to fly,\u201d she said of Kilgore and the air above it. \u201cAnd they just worked so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pilots, including this past year\u2019s national winner Chase Donner, report there is nothing to tweak after this past year\u2019s honeymoon for the pairing of nationals with the Great Texas Balloon Race.<\/p>\n
Parson was happy to hear Donner\u2019s kind critique, but there will be some new elements based on how things went in 2012.<\/p>\n
Radar, the Belgian gelding that until 2007 was the World\u2019s Tallest Horse in the Guinness Book of World Records, will pose for photos at the carnival. A Longhorn steer also will make an appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this is very important,\u201d Parson said. \u201cWe will not be open midday on Saturday like we have been in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
The break in action from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. is likely to upset only people who like to sweat on an airport tarmac in July. Parson said vendors pretty much lost those sales hours anyway, and visitors who came midday expecting to see hot air balloons were disappointed at finding only hot air.<\/p>\n
For the past few years, Allied Waste has supplied recycling containers at the airport, but this year those will be complemented by Don\u2019t Mess With Texas bins from the Texas Department of Transportation, she said.<\/p>\n
A pilots breakfast, on Friday at Heritage Plaza downtown, is another new stitch in the event fabric.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe attempted it last year, but we got weathered out,\u201d Parson said. \u201cThis year we will have a rain location.\u201d<\/p>\n
A traffic plan that points two lanes of FM 349\u2019s three lanes toward the race when gates open and switches the scheme when it\u2019s time to go is a convenient example of past tweaks that now are permanent.<\/p>\n
The balloon race committee will start looking toward 2014 as soon as members catch their breath from the coming week. Next year is the final local appearance of the national competition, though another could be downwind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d said Parson, who is chairwoman for all three national race years to ensure continuity. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about that. Our development team is discussing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Battle Creek, Mich., held the world championship this past year after staging the national race consecutive years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a decision this year, when that came up for submitting a commitment,\u201d Parson said. \u201cWe chose to support the other U.S. city that\u2019s submitting that. We love the national attention we\u2019ve been able to acquire and bring to the area. So, from that standpoint, we\u2019ve achieved our goal, and that might open some opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n