2016-09-16 Waiting for Wind

Waiting for Wind

I was up early enough to say goodbye to Kent and René before they left (7ish).  Eddy was still asleep on the couch, so I headed straight to Dog River Coffee to do my blog update.  Al showed up a little later - he wanted to have breakfast before heading out.  Blaine and Brad dropped by also, but only to say goodbye.

Al and I headed over to Bette's where we met Marten.  Al left right after breakfast.  Marten, Brandon and I were planning to kite in the afternoon if possible.  The forecast was marginal, but it looked like there was a chance of wind.

I walked down to say goodbye to Bart and then drove up to sailworks to visit and say goodbye to Dale, Jim and Bruce.  I spent the rest of the morning packing all my gear into my van so I will be able to get an early start tomorrow. At noon, I drove over to the Event Site to sit and wait. The wind was Westerly, but not strong enough, so we all went to Solstice for lunch.

After lunch, it looked for a while like we would be sailing.  The wind was building and white caps started to appear across the river.  Then, just as Ross showed up, the wind suddenly dropped off.  The kites that were out, were dropping out of the sky.

You don't see the water this calm very often...

We had a nice afternoon chatting and reading - but the wind did not build again.  Even Bruce Peterson, who had gone out on his slalom rig could not make it work.  Ross decided to go for a bike ride, so we agreed to meet at pFreim's for supper at 8:00.

Marten with his bus!

Late in the afternoon, while sitting in my chair reading, I glanced up and saw my friends Wayne and Lorie Tomchick walking past.  Wayne is an old air cadet buddy from the 70's who I haven't seen in years.  We learned to fly together 45 years ago.  He was a windsurfer for a while but now kites.  They had just arrived and are staying for seven days.  Too bad I am leaving tomorrow.

Lori, Wayne and Ted

It was almost dark when we headed over for supper.  Wayne joined us a little later.  It was a great evening.  We even ran into Mike P.

Ross and I are planning to drive straight through tomorrow.  Marten and Brandon will take a couple of days, but don't have any plans yet as to where they will stop, although they may stop at Roosevelt for some kiting if it is blowing.

Safe travels everyone.