Last Kite Festival Day ... I Promise!

Even though there are two more days of festival left, I'll be giving you a break.  I mean really, you can only look at so many kites.  It's much more interesting in person!!

I arrived at 9:00 yesterday morning to find not a breath of air.  This time I brought a chair along, which turned out to be a very smart thing to do.  I SHOULD have brought an umbrella!!  Mother Nature did a number on the beach with temperatures in the 80's by 10:00.  The judges are trying to decide whether to have the competitions or cancel them.

Finally, the wind came up from the South ... everyone was SO excited ... but it was still hardly enough for a novice flyer.  One experienced guy took to the sand, but very quickly his kite bit the dust.

Fickle Miss Wind went to zero on my phone, as temperatures climbed.

Ten minutes later, another burst of wind from the complete opposite direction.  The next flyer ran out to the field and tried to get his routine completed.  He barely made it before the breeze died again.

So now I've been sitting in my little chair for over two hours and it's time for the Delta Kite Mega Fly. As you can tell, it's not happening folks!!  At 85 degrees, the sand is starting to heat up and everyone who was barefoot is looking to borrow flip flops!!  By the way, if you want to know what kind of kite to buy, Deltas are single line kites, fairly inexpensive (depending on the size) and the easiest to fly.

With just the tiniest bit of wind, Brett Morris (in black) ran through his routine to resounding applause from all twenty five of us who were still on the beach.  Really, that's not true .... there were loads of people, they were just all down by the water!!

Here's the Prism kite of the last man to fly.  Same problem, not much wind.  Some days you win, some days you lose.  

Next up .... cellular kites Mega Fly.  That means anyone with a cellular kite can go on the field and fly, from little kids to grandma and grandpa.  If it was very lightweight, it would fly ... otherwise, it stayed on the ground.

See ... elephants CAN fly!!  Finally at around 2:00 the hot breeze picked up, as did the temperatures.  It's 95 degrees .... on the beach .... with 3 mph winds .... with the sand running around 110.  It's HOT!  Everyone, including me, made a beeline for the shade of the tents.

None of the big kites were flying at all, but during one little gust, this creature ... a dragon? maybe a stingray? ..... got up about 30 feet before deflating and hitting the ground.

After five hours (completely covered by the way, to keep from getting massive sunburns) the heat became more than I wanted to deal with.  I knew as soon as I left the wind would finally blow, and that's just what happened.  These are long strings of kites tethered to the ground.  

Unfortunately, the wind came up SO much that one kite, only held down with a 5 pound bag of sand, came loose and went screaming through the air right into the middle of these.  There were broken spars and lines everywhere as the entire mass of kites came crashing down.  Apparently no one knows whose kite got away ... and no one is taking credit.   

Back at the rig, I cranked the air conditioner up, drank a gallon of water and played with the puppies. By 5:00 it was still 83 degrees.  I enjoyed the five minutes of fireworks from my cozy cool bed.

Temperatures were first forecast to be 95 again today, then I heard they would be back to the normal 70's.  Either way, I have to pack up, as tomorrow I make the long 10 mile drive up the peninsula to another RV park.  There's lots more to explore further north and I've missed my Revolution flying time.