Niagara Falls Airshow

Remember that list I wrote a couple blog posts ago with all the blog posts I need to write? Well, this is the beginning of that list...I'm starting from the top and going down. Which means that we are going back in time...way, way back in ancient history to September. Something like the second weekend of September.

The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station (NFARS from here on out, to save my fingers from getting arthritic or something, because you know that's something I totally worry about) hosted an airshow commemorating 9-11, and so CAP traveled from all around the group to help with parking, recruiting, and manning booths. Not to get ahead of myself here. Starting at the beginning, which I guess was Friday, Hosanna and I waited in the parking lot of Arby's for the CAP van to appear. We put our stuff out on the curb in full sight of all who passed and felt like vagabonds. Tent...sleeping bag, overnight stuff, camelbaks, the works.

The CAP van arrived, and we loaded all our stuff and ourselves in. And thus began Operation Airshow. We drove for several hours o'er hill and dale to a small, unspecified airport near NFARS where we were to bivouac for the next two nights. So we got near-ish to this little airport, and my squadron commander handed me her cell phone and told me to call this random senior member whose last name I wasn't even sure how to pronounce and tell him "the blue possum cries at dawn." I was like, huh? Actually, I had to tell him we were close to the airport so he could come show us where we were supposed to be.

So he met us there and led us to the back edge of the airport which had been specifically chosen as the bivouac site by virtue of its being the bumpiest area. Then we tracked down, captured, and sacrificed the blue possum and set up camp. Did I mention that this was in September? And that nights in September get chilly? It wasn't as cold as the bivouac in April when it rained all weekend, though...that time I slept in my coat, full BDUs (sans the boots) and as many layers as I had. [Some quick nostalgia for you there.] When CAP roughs it, we rough it, man. (*coughsnort*)

So tents went up, jackets went on, and we shoved off in search of nourishment. Some of them went to like Applebee's, but Clayton, Erik, Hosanna, and I went to Arby's. My food was super good. I even photographed it JUST for you to see.

I also photographed Erik and the Goliath of Curly Fries.


Then we went back to our tents and went to sleep (sleep being a general term here). Morning routine involved Hosanna and me getting up at...something like 5am, I believe, so that we would have time to walk all the way down to the hangar bathroom to get ready, and then leave for breakfast. We went to McDonald's on our way to the NFARS, and arrived there at around 0700.

We signed in at the base theater, filed in, and sat down. It was pretty cool being there, as that's the place where CLS graduation is held. It was much more relaxed this time. We even had a cricket chirping endlessly in the corner to keep our teeth on edge. Great times.

We had a safety briefing, and then we were split up. Those of us who were over 16 went out to do parking, while the younger cadetlets went to the actual airshow area and did stuff like recruiting and manning ice cream/lemonade booths.

I didn't take any pictures at the airshow with my camera, but these pictures are fairly indicative of parking. The first day, the Air Force sergeant in charge of my little group was named Sergeant Darling. I asked him if he was related to the Army Sergeant Darling at the NER Cadet Academy, but apparently not. I thought that was pretty cool.

This picture is us ancients heading out to wait around before we were split up into groups and sent off to our parking location. True story: I rode shotgun in a humvee. I had to tie my door shut with a piece of string. Actually, some nice AF dude tied it for me. ("RealMilitary: where the gentlemen tie your doors shut for you.")

We're so cool we're black and white :D
This is us waiting around, fixing our sleeves and adjusting the reflective vests. Officers are OCD when it comes to things like that. "Sir...your sleeve is a quarter inch lower in the left side than on the right side. Permission to adjust it for you so that I don't have nightmares tonight?" "Permission granted!!"

Just to give you an idea of the massive amounts of people: the next two pictures are two halves on a field. Note that you can only see part of the field...it extend to both sides of the photo (my lens isn't wide enough). Then realize that in roughly two hours, we parked about triple that. And then add in that there were several other parking lots closer to the airshow that were being parked simultaneously (they'd like send every three cars to us or something). There were a lot of people there.




How many cadet officers does it take to park a car? :)

Also, is it bad that I didn't notice that camo plane until I saw it this evening in the picture? Now that I see the plane, I think I know where we were... I had such a bad sense of direction that weekend it wasn't funny. I have yet to figure out the NFARS.

We left at noon on Sunday. I think this picture does a good job of summing up how we felt.

Oh yeah, there were some really noisy things zipping around in the sky, too. Thunderbirds and other random airplanes. Good times.

The End.