Today would have been Kevin's 71st birthday. We would have had our annual meal at Texas Roadhouse and then gone home. He did not like exchanging presents.
I drove into town at 10:30am to have my tires checked for proper inflation. My rear left tire was down one PSI but all looked good.
This year was Winterhaven's 75th anniversary. I packed my CR-V with recyclables and drove with Gretel for this event. It was 4pm.
I had planned to get there at the official start at 6pm, but decided to grab something to eat first once I saw the heavy traffic.
I had a quick dinner at Istanbul restaurant, a Turkish place I had always wanted to try. Food was good and filling and the place kept busy. I left after 30 minutes to drop off my recycables and head back to Winterhaven.
I had a hard time finding a place to park. All the usually empty lots of banks and 9-5pm businesses were taken over by private vendors asking $10 cash only to park in these lots. I don't carry that much cash on me and went to the west side of Winterhaven, in a quiet neighborhood off Linde and Tuscon Avenue. Homes here are modest middle class brick ranches on small 1/4 acre lots.
I was last to this event over ten years ago with co-worker Alicia and her dog Luna. I remember the congested traffic around this housing area of modest middle-class homes on the North side of town. A big difference year was the warn evening temperature. It was a mild 64F at 7:40pm. I wore a light Carhartt jacket and I was comfortable.
Gretel was on her best behavior today. She is reactive to other dogs so I held her leash close to me, but she only lunged once and that was at a small dog. She didn't bark, but she did sniff every person who got close to her, just to make sure they were safe people.
I kept track of my route via Strava and followed the crowd. Most every street is lighted up. There is a traffic circle in the middle of this district that had a few food and drink vendors..What this place needs is a hot grog vendor like they have at German Chirstmas markets. I do miss my German KrisKindle markets.
I always enjoy the more spiritual displays. I'm not fond of dinosaurs or plastic Disney figurines for Christmas, or large inflatables, but kids like them and it apparently sells. Tonight I enjoyed the more creative or humorous displays and there were plenty of them. I also enjoy mature pine trees decorated with lights.
By 8:30pm the area had quietened down. Most of the families with young kids had left and now there were tourists. By 9pm my phone was running out of battery power so I made it back to my Honda and stopped at Casa Video for two beers in two hours before heading back home at midnight. Gretel got complemented on her quiet behavior.
https://winterhavenfestival.org/
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