SkyFest 2008

Well, last weekend (or the 1, 2, and 3 of August), I was gone. I was miles and miles away from home. I was miles away from the internet, or a good telephone. A functional bathroom (that means a mirror, running hot and cold water, and flush toilet, in that order) was only accessible for about three hours out of 24. I can hear the questions flying, the sympathetic looks being sent my way, the reporters clamoring for my story, so I shall tell you all that occured.
One word: SkyFest. But wait, there's more. That was just the tantalizer--the one-word attention-getter. What follows is one cadet's experience at SkyFest 2008, and it is a doozie of a story!

Friday: I got to "our" airport around 10:30 AM, and unloaded my gear (that sounds better than junk, or worthless snivel gear, doesn't it?), and then hopped into the CAP van to ride to where the SkyFest festivities were to occur, on the other side of the airport. About the driving...Captain M. never learned the finer arts of, say, curving non-jerkily, and stopping slowly and cautiously. Therefore, since we almost always had the upwards of 4 or 5 cadets sitting on the floor in the back, it led to very interesting rides. (Uh, yeah, to my law enforcement friends...you didn't read that, did you...) Especially when you are the one wedged up against the back door--and your fellow cadets can see outside, through the crack in the door. Back on topic, though. So we got to the tarmac where our food booth was, and started getting set up. Even though the gates for the public didn't open until late afternoon, there were still other vendors who would buy food. We also helped with odd jobs that the SkyFest organizers asked us to do.

Once the gates opened, we were on parking. There were several of other parking volunteers, so sometimes (think: not very often) cadets were not needed out in parking, but when we weren't we were usually walking around throughout the area, just being available. Being on parking gave me empathy for any other parking people I should ever encounter. Parking was one of my more favored jobs. Since it rained several times during SkyFest, it was a game of how to park people where they wouldn't get stuck. We utilized our radios while parking, and people drove around in four wheelers, supplying us with water. We made sure to stay hydrated. My record was on Saturday, when I drank, I believe, seven bottles of water. I also made sure to keep sunscreen on.
Anyhow, besides parking, the cadets (there were about 11 in all) were supposed to help out in the food booth, along with the seniors. However, because we were all 18 or younger, about the most we could do was fish drinks out of the ice in the coolers, and look cool. (Relax, food inspectors and child labor people, relax...) So "food booth duty" was also translated as "break time" or "sit in the shade time" or "eating time."

So basically, that's what my Friday, Saturday, and Sunday looked like: parking, food booth, parking, odd jobs, parking, walking around, parking, and taking photographs. Add in extreme heat, two *very* bad storms, unique people, noise, crowds, a minimum of food, and a minimum of sleep, and you have it. By the time we finally went back to our camping site at day's end, I was so tired I could have slept through a storm. Oh, wait, I did... The first night, a tornado touched down in the city we were in, and so it was pretty stormy. We had to evacuate our tents and go to the quansit hut that was right there. The second night, I believe that it also rained (but I slept like a little log, so I don't know), and so we didn't even bother with tents. We all crashed in the quansit hut. Guys and girls were seperate, thank you very much (because I saw those shocked, horrified, kids-these-days looks)! Side note about tents: Why in the world do they vacuum pack those things, and then not sell vacuum-sealers with them?

We packed up our stuff Sunday afternoon/evening, and I got home around 7:00 PM. Here are some photos I took while there.



Parking...both above and below.





These two are of the stunt plane and wing walker that buzzed around a couple of times. The pictures don't show how loud it was. The noise level got very irritating.





Above is the black Corsair, and below is the C-130H that was there the whole time. The Corsair did some stunts and flying, and we saw the C-130H leave Sunday afternoon. Oh, yes, you can see the Air Force trailor parked near the C-130. The recruiter was there almost the whole time with an engine on display.