As weekends go, the July 4th weekend this year came close to being a bucket list kind of weekend. Oh, it didn’t start off that great. We left Fort Worth, heading for Oklahoma City before noon, and a week later, we arrived. Okay! It wasn’t really a week later, but the three-hour drive turned into a four-hour-plus drive that seemed like a week. The traffic was horrible, and I mean horrible!

Things started to settle down once we arrived, checked in, and caught our breath. We had a great dinner with the friends who invited us up, and then we slept well. The next morning dawned bright and early, and the bucket list activities got started.

We were hanging out with the fabulous Blue Angels. By that, I mean our hosts were the parents of the Executive Officer of the Blue Angel Squadron, and the whole squadron was staying at the hotel with us. We were hanging out with some of the best pilots in the U. S. military and their support unit.

The first part of the morning was pretty normal. Grab a bit of breakfast, hang out, and meet different members of the team, that sort of thing. Then it got interesting. We headed for the airbase in a full-blown, high-speed motorcycle-escorted procession! Since we were the family and friends crowd, we were escorted into the facility and parked near the aircraft. It was VIP time! Okay, maybe we just felt like VIPs.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the air show and waiting for the Angels to do their thing. It was hot, sunny, noisy, and glorious. We and hundreds of others were within a stone’s throw of the runway, and better seats could not be had. Unless, of course, you wanted to be closer to the beer tent.

Here are a few pictures and one video of a WWII aircraft showing off.

Overall, it was a great weekend, the Friday nightmare aside. Now, I just need to see if I can make Pensacola one of those days when the Angels are returning from an airshow. They do some showoff runs over the beach that I’d like to see in person.

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