What a great beginning for the month of October .. the month of my birth!! October began on a Saturday .. and what a gorgeous Saturday it was here in Missouri!! The sun was shining .. a wind was blowing .. cool enough to wear a jacket but beautiful sunshine all day long!! It was a weekend I was greatly looking forward to.
There was to be a large tailgate sale at St. Pius Catholic School. Shirley and her friend, Carole, are setting up a booth there . AND a Hot Air Balloon Festival at the Festus Airport. Madonna's husband Mike is President of the Jefferson County Woodturners group and Mike and two other guys from the Woodturners group were setting up booths at the Balloon Festival. Mike had told Madonna she could set up a table in his booth if she wanted to so she spent the month of September making hand-crafted greeting cards .. magnets and bookmarks to sell. As soon as I knew about the Hot Air Balloon Festival and M & M being there I put in for that weekend off!!
BALLOON FESTIVAL ON OCTOBER 1-2
Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Oct. 1, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 2.
Admission is free, but parking will cost $5.
Airplane rides will be offered for $35, and helicopter rides for $45.
Skydiving exhibitions will be held.
A car show will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 1. Entry is $10. Those who enter a car will receive a T-shirt and goodie bag.
A balloon glow featuring six balloons will be at 7 p.m. on Oct. 1.
The GTO band will perform at 5 p.m. Oct. 1. Then, a barbershop quartet will perform during the balloon glow, followed by more music by GTO, said Stephanie Woerndle, the CAEE events coordinator.
Vendors selling food, crafts and other merchandise will be at the event.
Also, raffles for cookie jars filled with various items will be held.
A bouncy house will be included.
Proceeds will benefit the airport group and will be used for general operations, Woerndle said.
For more information, go to www.FestusAirport.com.
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We got an early start on Saturday because we didn't want to miss ANYTHING!! The first stop was the big Tailgate Sale at St. Pius.
Where oh where might Shirley and Carole be????????
Ah Ha!! Mr. Kincaid!! Don is one of our GW Boutique "regulars"!!!!
And look who I spy at last!!
Whoops .. I think Carole sees me!!
Carole .. Alice .. and Shirley .. working hard girls??????
After checking out the rest of the stands there in the parking lot .. we just had to go back and get one last picture ...
of our hard working friends enjoying their day out in the sunshine!!!! Have fun girls .. we'll see you later!!!
This is it for "treasures"!! I found .. a cookbook for Madonna .. a video for Lindsay .. and this neat Cookie Tin for me!!! I found out later that Shirley, Carole and Alice all three did really well at sale!!
Time to head for the Festus Airport and the Balloon Festival!!!
Our first sight at the airport .. the airplanes .. the helicopter .. and the wind sock!! I did tell you it was sunny and WINDY, right?????
Rob was intrigued with these rather large remote control planes .. unbeknownst to us we would see more of them later!!!
You could take a plane ride for $35.00 .. a helicopter ride for $45.00 .. OR .. SKY DIVE for $185.00!!! I wanted to sky dive of course but Rob wouldn't let me .. yeah sure .. LOL LOL LOL!!
The "Midway" .. There were a lot more food stands .. somehow I missed getting a picture of those!! Mike and his two friends, Glenn and Gary's, stands were first in line once you got past the food stands!
Glenn had the first Woodturners stand. As you can see he also does other tricks with wood!! These neat birdhouses open up and you can hang tools / keys / whatever on the hooks inside them!!
The corner of Glen and Gary's stands!!
Gary's stand. All of this is created using a lathe!
Mike and Madonna's stand! Glenn and Gary have been working with wood for a long time and have set up at several festivals but Mike is pretty much the "new kid on the block" .. one of these days his booth will be full too!!!
Mike's treasures are all created with a lathe also!! And some of these things .. like this Hot Air Balloon are then put together piece by piece!!
Madonna's table
The candle is my favorite ornament .. Madonna's too!
Hmmm .. this picture is being obstinate and I can't get it to turn the right way!!!
That's Rob in the background .. gobbling on a Funnel Cake! He did share it with the rest of us!! It was such a gorgeous day we had brought our red fold-up chairs along with us and spent the afternoon soaking up the sunshine .. watching the people go by .. and enjoying all there was to see!!
And what a lot there was to see .. beginning with these remote airplanes .. what a show they put on!!
Time to take a walk and check out the car show!!
Notice the food tray hooked on the door! Very reminiscent of the Summer I worked as a carhop at the Dog & Suds!!
As you can see the remote planes are still flying!!!
A funny sight amongst the awesome sights!!!
After stopping to grab a couple of delicious Pulled Pork Sandwiches and a drink we headed back to our site behind Mike and Madonna's stand to watch the sky divers doing their thing!!
Earlier in the day as we were sitting and watching all that was going on a little old lady in a wheel chair was pushed up to the front table at Gary's stand and was looking things over. We later heard a rumor that this lady was going to be taking her very first airplane flight .. and helicopter flight .. AND sky dive .. and she was 91 years old!!!
The 91 year old lady getting ready to board the plane for her first airplane ride AND her sky diving adventure!!
Of course she would be doing the dive with a professional sky diver!! I wonder who was more nervous about this .. him or her????
Here they come!!!
Whew!!! She made it .. on the ground at last!! Shortly after landing she looked up with a huge smile and gave a big wave to all the people coming towards her to get pictures. I would love to have gotten that picture but sad to say just as my camera snapped someone stepped in front of me!!
I don't know what her name is but she has a lot more guts than I do!!!
Look who I found walking down the midway!! My good friend from the GW Boutique .. Don .. and his favorite person in the world .. Ellen. Hi guys!!
And now .. at last .. it is time for the Balloon Glow!!!
According to the news on the Festus Airport on Facebook this festival attracted between 6000 and 8000 people .. believe me .. it was a mess getting out of there!! Some people spent an hour or more in line waiting to get out .. but we got lucky .. a guy in the field we were parked in was telling people how to get to a narrow gravel road that was the back way out .. Wooooo Hooooo!!
It was a super super day .. my friends at the St. Pius Tailgate sale did really good .. Mike and Madonna didn't get rich but they hadn't expected to .. this was their first time at doing something like this .. they were happy with the sales they made .. it was a great beginning for them!!!
We didn't get to see GTO's second performance but I'll leave you with this .. a performance from 2009 .. ENJOY!!
