tapiocapuddin

Ok, "soon" has come! But only read this if you seriously want to know what I did this weekend. Otherwise, it's really boring!

I had a totally cool weekend camping at Travis AFB. My family goes down there for a weekend around October every year, so when I looked at my calender and realized the Thunderbirds were coming then, I was so excited! No, this wasn't my first air show. My dad was a good AF dad and had taken us before, but I was just to young to remember any of them. ;-) So, with all Corrie's stories to make me jealous, I was finally going to see them for myself!

We got there Friday afternoon as the Thunderbirds were practicing. There's one thing about these planes you have to understand. They're loud, but you can't hear them until they're practically passing you and then it sounds like they're still there when they're way off in the distance. I think we learned about that in Physical Science or Chemistry or something, but that was a loooong time ago! That evening we went to the mall where we got nothing. :-S

No capes!


Saturday we got up early, got to drive where civilians couldn't ;-), and went to check out the Thunderbird show times. Because it was pretty early, the lines weren't too long for some of the planes, so we looked around and talked to a lot of AF guys. A cop tried to get my sisters and I into the police force, I drove a simulator for a semi truck, my sister sat in a Marine helicopter, and we watched a couple cool planes fly. I love the AF! That day I only took 102 pics. Oh yeah, my dad showed me the local donut shop on base that sells them 1/2 off after noon and we went shopping at the outlets! Actually got something that time.

Since it was Sunday, we watched Charles Stanley. The base has full hookups, and I mean full! Electricity, water, cable, planes, BX, and outlets nearby...what more could you want? ;-) After that we ate next to the BX and saw some real live Thunderbird guys in person! Uh no, I didn't ask for their autographs. The museum at Travis had a lot of Jimmy Doolittle stuff which was really cool 'cause I'm teaching about Jake DeShazer from plane 16 in Awana. I found the book about DeShazer there that I'd been wanting too! This guy is seriously my new hero, so I'll leave off to post about him later. Getting there right in time to see the Thunderbirds take off, we weren't able to get a spot right along the fence, but by backing way up so no one was around me, I could take pics without tons of people's heads in them! The show was so awesome! Did I tell you that I love the AF? There's this one part where you're watching four of the planes go across in front of you when...maybe you should just see it for yourselves! ;-) I only took 116 pics that day! :-D

Ok, for getting through all that, here are some of my favorite pics!

"Off we go..."



Mr. Sneaky Guy





No, I didn't take this one upside down.


Thread that needle!










Pretty amazing, if you think about it!



Yeah, that guy likes being a loner better.



What I call the cross pattern. What they call it, I don't know. They need better speakers.:P




I missed the coolest part! :'( Corrie, guess what it was!


Fireworks!