Saturday, May 27, 2000

Airshow today! And tomorrow! Looks like rain, though.

We had an easy journey to park-n-ride, an easy bus journey to within a hundred yards of the gate, and over an hour to go the last few hundred yards. We watched the first few performances through the bus windows when there weren't houses in the way.

We got in, decided that the F-117A was the meeting point if we got lost, walked through a Special Operations Pave Low (it was convenient shelter from the first rain squall), down the static displays, ate lunch from a stand, sheltered from the second squall under a tent (nearly collapsed, caught a nice hail storm that wasn't particularly good for the stealth aircraft or the vintage aircraft), looked in the exhibition hanger, sheltered from the third squall there, looked around a bit, and when the next squall started decided to go straight for the bus instead of ducking into the hanger. Big mistake... We were soaked in seconds. The British thunderstorms don't appear to be big on thunder and lightning, compared to the US variety, but they can sure pack plenty of rain.

The trip home was faster than trip there, and then we found that the airshow was just as good from home as from the static display area behind the flight line--better, at times, because there is no invisible line between them and us; they could fly right over the house if it was convenient for them.

We grilled kabobs for dinner, then dropped off to sleep, exhausted again.