By the time The Man and Vince had their fill of all makes of Manliness it was getting darker and we still had another 30 miles to go. When we arrived in Solvang I scanned the evening sky for the telltale plume of smoke, none so far.
We parked the car and walked over to the dirt field next to the Old Santa Inés Mission. The enormous pile of Christmas trees looked bigger than last year's. This was going to be good.
It was nice and dark before the Santa Barbara Fire Department showed up with sirens blaring. The firemen gave a demonstration of lighting up a single pine tree just to show everyone how quickly one tree burns and then they moved onto the Main Event that everyone was waiting for.
It didn't take much coaxing for the trees to go up in a whoosh of flames.
It didn't take much coaxing for the crowd to move back and away from the intense heat.
There was hardly any wind to kick up smoke and ash; a perfect night for a bonfire.
As we were leaving a breeze stirred up and moved over the burning pile. Little fire twisters were spawned and set free. It was amazing to watch the whirling smoke and ash as well as a briefly burning flame dancing across the dirt field.
California: Home to Firenado and Sharknado. What a wondrous place to live.
