Air Show Recap

We had made plans with another couple to go to the air show on Sunday. We have been friends for many years and live four houses apart. (Did I ever tell the story about going to bed with Old Sarge and waking up with Di? No? Good! Road trips are HELL!)
When we met up to head to Rockford, not only are Harry and Di going, but her mother and her husband. They drive us nuts! Her mom is really getting wacky, and the husband is just weird. For the past ten years, Di’s mom has started speaking in a Jewish mother accent. I want to shake her and yell, ”Mary Ann! You’re from Waddam’s Grove, for Pete’s sake! And you’re Lutheran!”

I’m only going to post a few pictures- mostly, I came up with nice pictures of clouds.

This is as close as I got to seeing the Blue Angels:


Old Sarge was thrilled to see a B-52 from Minot.


He was stationed at Minot when he retired. One thing OS pointed out to me, and the picture doesn’t show it, is the wrinkled fuselage. When these monsters are in flight, the fuselage is perfectly taut, but appears wavy when they are on the ground. I was astounded at the size of this plane. And grateful for the huge wingspan when it started to rain.

The Air Force also had some jet demonstrations.
This picture is from a simulated bombing run by an F15:
’’

Cool pyrotechnics! We could feel the heat even from where we were sitting.

There were some neat vendor booths there. One I will link to later, but they were selling Pocket Angels and some handmade angel jewelry. Old Sarge got some Welcome Home angels, and I bought an angel necklace. These folks were from Minnesota and were so nice to talk to. They’re even VF*n*W’ers! There was an older woman and a young couple. We started talking about Soldiers Angels, and the young man said he had received a laptop from them when he was wounded. That’s when I saw- he had a prosthetic right leg. I couldn’t speak through the lump in my throat, but Old Sarge had the presence of mind to say, “Thank you for your service”. And was thanked in turn.

We went back to our chairs after they dried out to watch a little more of the show. My phone rang, which surprised the hell out of me, and it was T1G asking if I was at the show. I told him where we were sitting, and he called back after a little while asking where I was again. I could see him, so I walked over and we visited. I eventually got Old Sarge to come over, so now he has met a Blogger and NOTHING BAD HAPPENED!
Contagion and Ktreva showed up a little later, so it made for an entertaining afternoon.

By the time the Blue Angels were supposed to perform, Old Sarge was surveying the mass of humanity surrounding us, and decided we could probably see just as well over by where the buses would load after the show. About another two hundred people had already had that idea, but I am so glad we didn’t wait. We got one of the first buses out of there to the parking lot.

As for the Blue Angels, well, they were awesome; anything that powerful that can go so fast, so precisely and with so much noise is great. But…it wasn’t quite the experience I had been anticipating. Still, all in all, good.

Next year…Sunscreen!!