October 1, 2006

Field Trippin’: Air Show

On Saturday I took Caleb to Fort Worth’s Alliance Air Show which featured the Air Force Thunderbirds. I’ve always loved air shows and have always been fascinated by airplanes of all kinds. But with 100,000 people roaming the tarmac desert, this was not just an air show, it was an adventure.

I’ve gotta say, air shows make me nervous. They didn’t used to. Maybe it’s the low flying F-16s that come screaming by at unbelievable speeds. I mean one slightly wrong move, and it’s lights out. At one point that had some simulated war games with pyrotechnics and explosions. I wasn’t expecting it, so my heart skipped a beat when I heard a giant boom and saw a large fireball. I had looked away so I hadn’t noticed what exactly had caused the explosion, but the reaction of others around me made me realize everything was okay.

Later on there was a Pearl Harbor re-enactment with Japanese Zeros Air Force Mustangs and more staged explosions. I read the book “Flyboys” by James Bradley a few months ago, so I felt a little connection with the men boys who flew in those tin-cans. It was really cool.

Caleb loved climbing in all the airplanes. He sat in the cockpits of an American Airlines Boeing 767, and a B-52 Stratofortress bomber. We weren’t supposed to go in the B-52 cockpit, but no one told us until we were climbing out. Oops, score one for us.

Score another one for us when we were trying to get our hands on the “complimentary water” as mentioned on the website. Bringing in your own food, drinks, or coolers was not allowed, and we really didn’t want to pay $3 for a bottle of water. Needless to say, we got away with that one too. We had some sandwiches, and a couple small bottles of water…which didn’t last very long. When we needed more water, no one knew exactly where the free water was. Someone pointed in a vague direction, so off we went. As long as I told Caleb we were explorers looking for water, he was happy. We ended up “discovering” a nice cooler of water in the volunteers-only area. It was in shade. There were tables and chairs. All the water we could drink. A good view of the air show. We just acted as though we belonged there. We rested there for at least an hour.

I heard on the news later on, that around 100,000 hot, thirsty people showed up for the air show…the most successful show ever.

It brought back lots of childhood memories of trips to Pensacola with my dad to see the Blue Angels. This was Caleb’s second air show, and I hope to make it a tradition for us too.

He can be my wingman anytime.