A Bit of Nostalgia, a Lot of Fun

This past weekend I went with Kyle and Katrina and their girls on a boating excursion. We filled the boat and pickup bed with gear, food and clothes and headed for Piute Reservoir. It was a bit windy and sprinkled on us a little when we were setting up the tent. Piute is a smaller reservoir with camping sites around the shoreline. There is no potable water so we hauled our own water. We ate dinner and cooked S'mores and went to bed. Saturday morning was a fairly mild day, just a bit breezy at times. We didn't get on the water as early as the Hatch clan used to go out but the water was quite nice. Katrina and Kyle skied and then we towed the girls around on a Nautica three-man towable tube. We all took a ride on it and later Kyle and Katrina skied again.


After dinner, we cleaned up the best we could and drove about 30 minutes to Panguitch to their hot air balloon festival. Panguitch has a lot of old stores and buildings and there are several shops that sell great Americana antiques. We wandered around the shops and streets waiting for dark while the balloonists set up their balloons up and down Main Street and Center Street. It was fun to see all of the balloons glow when they fired their burners. They didn't launch, just glowed for a while and then took down their balloons. It was an interesting event.

Between the boating trip and the trip down Americana Main Street of Panguitch, there was a lot of nostalgia for me, some things taking me back to my youth (the antique shops made me feel like I was back in my parent's home with the old Frigidaire refrigerator, treadle sewing machine, the old tin bathtub, saddles and cowboy hats and chaps, etc.) and others reminded me of our Hatch outings, such as: tent camping, hauling water, campfires, S'mores, heat, sunburns, sand, "glass", being the "spotter", gasping cold water, wind and waves, The Beach Boys, sand castles, bugs and mosquitoes, treks to the John, neighbors playing their loud music and laughing late into the night. Even the ride was nostalgic as we passed many farms that reminded me of Montana as a child, old farm equipment, aging buildings etc. All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend. We ended with a birthday celebration for Katrina yesterday. Happy Birthday, Katrina!!