Susie and I arrived home Wednesday night after nearly 40 hours in transit from South Africa. And a day later, I was driving five hours down the coast to a small community along the California border. The schedule was daunting, but I wouldn’t miss the gathering.

I’ve described the Brookings event before as more of a “showcase” than a traditional “festival”. The fields are small, the crowd pulls up lawn chairs along the paved edge, and the invitation-only fliers take turns performing or parading kites across the arena.

It takes some effort to set up a collection of kites for a five-minute walk-through. But the single-line crew seldom gets that kind of attention at other events. The sport kiters love the “rock-star” status. And the worst I can say is that the smaller field is no place for giant show kites.

Winds were light for the 16th Annual Southern Oregon Kite Festival. No worries! We just had to run across the grass for our “walk-through”.

Special guests teams were IQuad and the SunDowners. Sport kiters included Al Washington, Nathan Ostovar, Brian Champie, Gary MacEachern, Penny Lingenfelter, Steve Blasdel, Lam Hoac, Ron Despojado, Susan Shampo, and Al Stroh. Kite artists were Ron and Sandy Gibean, John and Mary Gaby, Deb Lenzen, Ronda Brewer and Lindsey Johnson, and Rod and Cindy Thrall.

The community works very hard to select and present the best kiters from the western states. And the offer some of the warmest hospitality received at any event anywhere. A kiter on the list feels genuinely appreciated.

We’re back in the office today and caught up on shipping. Thursday we head south for Berkeley and a big kite show. Then we are off to New York.

See you out there somewhere!