I was thrilled to be invited to join my pal Rick, [the owner of About Kites from Houston] at the Corpus Christi Kites and Bikes Festival on Saturday 11/4. This event is an annual production put on by the Mayors Fitness Council, and the local kite group Coastal Bend Skypirates has participated for the last three years. It includes various fitness and health activities a well as cycling and kite flying.
Rick and I arrived the evening before and scoped out the “flying field” just prior to sundown. The venue this year was Waters Edge Park located in the beautiful downtown Bayfront Area which includes a beach, walking/biking trail, marina, restaurants, and of interest to us; a series of open grass fields. We checked into a bayfront hotel and then drove over to SPID and located a Chinese buffet to enjoy a nice leisurely dinner which gave us time to relax and “catch up”. Tummies full, we retired to the room and Rick showed me his latest LED kite, 20 feet wide with 1050 LED lamps with a very sophisticated sequencer that makes tons of different patterns of flashing color changing lights. Unfortunately, the batteries were so low we had not enough “juice” to go out and fly it, plus we had an early wake-up call for a long day ahead in the wind and sun.
After a quick breakfast, we arrived at the park and found another group doing a “fun run” on the far side of the field. Not to be deterred we picked a likely spot for exposure to foot traffic and commenced unloading the trailer. Rick had a cacophony of display kites as well as windfeathers, flags, pop up tents, kite sales displays etc. all crammed into his cargo trailer so it took a couple hours to get “set up”. The winds were a bit light at 8 AM anyway so it was a good thing. I managed to launch a “ghost delta” after several attempts and soon we finally got enough breeze to launch and lock it in flight. So I added another small flame kite with a 19-foot organza trail, and it flew the entire day, great little kite! By this time our friends and organizers the Cooks arrived and with friends, they helped set up flags and launched kites of their own. Then Rick put up his kite arch consisting of 180 kites strung together, a very impressive display.
Throughout the day Rick launched various display and show kites while I operated the sales trailer for him. The families were really pouring into the park by midday and I was treated with a steady stream of kite flyers looking to get in on the action. The kites soon filled the sky, overflowing out onto the beach area. We had three successful “candy drops” where a bag of loose candies is raised into the air on a kite and then “dumped” onto the ground……it literally rains candy from the sky. This is a big event for the children, several came running up to me to show off their “treasures” after
each drop. What a thrill to share with many others the thrill of kite flying, in all, a magic time making many people very happy. Personally, it gave me a window of time to get away from the devastation left over from Hurricane Harvey and relief from the “depressive funk” that has been a plague very common in my community.
Finally, the sun began to lower and the crowds thinned out, so we began the long tedious process of packing up. I was so physically “spent” from being on my feet and active all day that I fear I was not much help to Rick. Thankfully the Clarks and their friends, as well as the volunteers, lent their hands to get everything back into the trailer. IT WAS FULL ON DARK!
The sandwiches and soup we found at McAllisters in Portland were absolutely welcomed, as well as the period to just drink tea and unwind. I felt sorry for Rick, who decided to drive home to Houston, but I kept tabs on him via text messages and he arrived without incident.—A GREAT DAY IN THE SUN AND WIND—AGAIN!!!
Wickedrevs Windy World 