QUECHEE BALLOON FESTI VAL

The QUECHEE BALLOON FESTIVAL was held this past Sunday(and Saturday) which I attended in the afternoon after eating at the Weather Vane Restaurant in West Lebanon, where I also shopped in Borders. The festival is in Quechee Vermont and although I had know of it for a long,long time and had passed by it on occasion when I was unable to attend it, I enjoyed for the first time this event, although it costs some bucks, especially if you want to take a trip in a balloon! "Up,Up, and Away'-"my balloon's maroon"(know where that song comes from on a Broadway Musical?). I told them that for a few million bucks more(than the $2000 plus fee for 9 flights, I could go on a Russian shuttle into space and maybe visit the space station,etc. The festival had some chances at 25 bucks a ticket for a trip and the person announcing the thing gave a brief rundown on the State of Vermont for out-of-staters and other assorted flatlanders and any possible 'illegals' which seems to be on a number of minds these days as talk show hosts rev up fears and frenzy on this topic,blaming the poor economy on all those 'wet=backs'! Anyway, she, the announcer of the facts on VT forgot to mention that Vermont was a REPUBLIC and I reminded her of this fact that still stirs my independent blood, namely because I was born in Windsor, the birthplace of Vermont, and some of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution in Vermont!