$1.619

Sio, Becky and I loaded up the Family Truckster and went to the St. Louis County Fair & Air Show. Becky and I last visited this show two years ago — last year was waaaay too muddy! — and we had a blast.

As expected, the traffic was pretty bad coming and going, but the location of the new house helps tremendously — back roads all the way, both ways, and we were able to skirt most of the “city dwellers” that had come west to gawk at the aircraft.

The air show started just about as soon as we set up our chairs, and ran pretty much non-stop for three hours. It began with the Golden Knights and concluded with the Blue Angels, with tons of good stuff, new and old, in between.

The most impressive? Well, the Blue Angels are always fun to watch, but I was still awed by the C-17 and B-1B. The C-17 is just massive and awesome to see fly — how can something that big be in the air?! 🙂 The B-1B stirs old memories, and still has a soft spot with me.

I can remember my first glimpse of the B-1B when I was stationed at Offutt AFB, NE. Someone was getting a show of just what that aircraft could do — this was perhaps 1986 or 1987, and few of us had seen one of these beauties performing live. Our whole building emptied to watch this swept-wing marauder fly, diving and climbing like a craft half its size. Needless to say, we were all gobsmacked.

The flight of the B-1B today wasn’t as spectacular, but it sure brought back some memories for me!

Photos will appear below — I only (!) took 1400, so be prepared to burn some bandwidth! 😉