Bear Valley Springs Balloon Festival ~ Day 1

Tony and I decided to keep our plans and get out of Ridgecrest after the big earthquake on the 4th of July. Tony went to work and got turned away at the gate so we were able to head to the Bear Valley Springs area earlier than we expected. 

 We stopped for lunch in California City at the Golden Bamboo restaurant with the little parakeet we got on the 4th of July from a neighbor, in tow. We got our food to go so the bird didn't have to sit in the hot car.  We got to Bear Valley Springs and found a good camping spot with the teardrop.  We didn't stay up late that night because we knew we'd be up early to crew in the morning. Kim put together a great nacho bar so that's what we ate for dinner.

We were also able to get the bird's beak trimmed, no thanks to any vets! I thought in a bigger area there would be someone that could help but nobody really could. At least, not that day and the vet that could, wanted to charge $65. So glad we were able to do it ourselves. 

I heard about a movie by the lake and wanted to go so after dinner, we headed out to find it.

Unfortunately right when we finally found it and parked, Tony had gone on ahead of me and I was by the car grabbing the blankets. Everything started rocking and rolling again. Another earthquake! I thought, oh dear, if we can feel it this strong here, I am sure Ridgecrest is getting it bad.  And they did. A 7.1 - the worst one. Of course I'd talked to the birds via my camera on them about 15 minutes before all this went down and now the power was out so I couldn't see them. Tony didn't want to stay for the movie and just wanted to head straight back to the campsite since he didn't have great reception by the lake. We got back to the campsite finally and my parents called, Tony called his parents and we just sat and tried not to freak out too much. Our home teacher was able to get to the house and make sure no windows had broken, no fires had started, etc. So brave of him to leave his family and drive to our house to do that because we don't exactly live close.

It was hard to sleep that night, wondering and worrying about things. We were prepared to drive back to Ridgecrest if needed but since things seemed to be alright, we decided to stay for the rest of the festival.