Saturday July 31

Arctic Thunder!!!!!

Making the national news was the tragic deaths of 4 American servicemen killed as their C-17 aircraft plunged into the woods 2 miles short of the runway at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage. The C-17 was to be part of the air extravaganza at this weekends scheduled Arctic Thunder air show.

The show went on as scheduled and I was there. Highlight of the day was not the highly touted Navy Blue Angels but the incredible show put on by the Canadian Snowbirds. They were fantastic. There were 9 planes on the team and when 5 or so were doing some type of cool formation one or two would sneak attack the crowd by blasting wicked low over the spectators. The red and white colors showed brightly in the blue Alaskan sky. The whole scene was made better with the usual back drop of snowcapped mountains and a light line of low clouds that the planes would shoot right through.

There were some great bands playing and tons of aircraft on display. All day long these unbelievable jets would crank through over the airstrip at full volume. They even had one of the new marine harrier jets that could take off strait up vertically off the ground.

Also providing hours of enjoyment was the people watching. The air show was completely free of charge and the locals were out in full force. You could sit in your chair and take the whole scene in. Massachusetts is sort of a waspy white place to live. Alaska is a total hodgepodge of races.....Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Eskimo, White, Black....you name it. I'm not even sure who the minority is. It was fun to watch everyone enjoy the day in their own crazy way.

Having the camper was nice because I could take a nap when I got back instead of waiting in traffic for 4 hours. I was one of the last out of the lot.

And with that, it was goodbye to Anchorage. I drove north in the direction of Willow Creek and what I hoped to be the place where I ticked off the last type of salmon off the list, the Chum salmon. Hammered down some pancakes at IHOP in Wasilla and called it a day at the Fred Meyers. Again I was woken from my slumber around 1am when this Fred Meyer's employee got to his truck, two spots from mine, and shared Jay Z with the entire parking lot while he cleaned every window in his truck with a rag. Nice goin' bro. I should sleep in the woods more....it's way more quiet.