The bus took a bunch of people on a trip to the Palo Alto Battlefield and then on to South Padre for the Kite Festival. If anyone has pictures from Palo Alto, send them to me and I'll be glad to post them. Many Winter Ranchers decided to drive over on their own to the Kite Festival and we were in that group. We arrived around 10 AM and stayed for the day.
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| Lee and I at the Kite Festival |
The weather was glorious and the Kite Festival was really well attended. Of course, we've been told that this is the last year for the event so that probably brought more people out. We sure hate to see it end but B&S Kites has been the sponsor for years and they were probably hoping someone would take it over by now. It would sure be great if someone did.
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| The Crowd Gathered Around the Performance Area |
The world renowned kite team - iQuad performed for us and absolutely outdid themselves again this year.
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| iQuad |
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| iQuad Circle Formation |
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| iQuad Butterfly Formation |
This is a short video of iQuad in action.
Another four man team from Austin called End of the Line also put on a great show.
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| End of the Line Getting Ready To Perform |
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| End of the Line - Their Kites Out In Front of Them |
This is a short video of End of the Line in Action
Then there were several individuals who did kite performances throughout the day. It is really something to see these performers synchronize their kite's flight to music!
Troy Garren had two kites up at once and directed one with with hands and one with the attachment on his belt. He was fantastic!
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| Owner of B&S Kites Did a Performance Himself - Superman was Involved! |
The sky was also full of giant-sized kites of all shapes and sizes from Octopus to dogs.
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| I don't think these guys made it off the ground today! |
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| Love this as it rolls around on the sand or in the air! |
We wandered the grounds and found lots more Winter Ranchers enjoying the day at the festival.
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| More of the crowd! |
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| Al & Miriam Hight and Donna Jenkins & Richard Beall |
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| Mary Benfield, Al & Miriam Hight |
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| Roy Hanson, Mighty Janke, Lois Hansen, Gwen Werth (back row) | |
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Judy Miller, Connie Lerdon and Marge Janke (front row)
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| Marsha Fabricus |
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| Elaine & Larry Ziegler and Rita Bendel |
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| Chuck & Sandy Trimpe |
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| Sandy Trimpe, Donna & Wilbur Jacobs |
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| Mary Hazlett talking to Sandy Trimpe |
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| Jim & Barb Wilson and Jean Holmes |
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| Shirley & Merle Hinze and Lucee |
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| Chuck Cullett, Jerry & Nila Rezac and Pat Cullett |
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At the far right are Karen and Dick Larson with some of their family (Jim Bergquist, Warren Anderson, and Donna Bergquist)
that are visiting from Minnesota! |
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| Betty Schneider, Ardis Cotton, Jeri Mahan and Donna Campbell |
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| Jim Mahan, Marv Campbell, Tom Cotton and Lon Schneider |
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| Lee Clement & Sally Batterson |
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| Judy Johnson and Patty Johnson |
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| Vic Vollrath with the camera |
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| Penny Vollrath in front |
Big Blue, our Winter Ranch bus arrived on the scene about 2:15 PM. By that time there was no parking in the lot and they ended up parking along the road on a sand dune. Here is a picture we took of the group that stayed with the bus instead of walking down to the festivities.
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| Big Blue Had To Park On The Road Behind The Sand Dune! |
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| Winter Ranch and Trophy Gardens Residents |
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| Jack Hulsey, Our Resident Bus Driver Extraordinaire |
We met Jack as he was coming down the hill and walked him down to our first class seats at the front of the action.
We left around 3:00 PM to spend some time at the beach and then got stuck in this monstrous traffic jam. It took us about an hour to get to the Shrimp Haus for dinner but we made it home by 8 PM. Jack tells us that the bus got stuck in the same traffic jam and they didn't get home until after 10 PM.
It was a great day but I hope the rest of you used sun screen because parts of me are as red as a beet!
Mary Benfield
Blog Administrator
