NAS Brunswick Airshow

We moved on down to an area of Maine that is very familiar to us.    P was based at NAS Brunswick for about 3 years.    I lived there for about 36 months and he was gone for 2/3rds of that time.   We have a lot of memories of the people and places, some good, some difficult.   The squadron lost 2 P-3's and 26 young men at the height of Vietnam .  

  We arrived with 2 active little boys and left with 3 !!

So yesterday, still very hobbled with the knee, we headed over to the base.  Decommissioned a few years ago, it still looks familiar.    This was the 2nd day of the annual airshow and the crowds seemed tolerable.    We got up close and personal, right along the fence....and also in the direct sun.   Luckily there was a breeze and it was mostly comfortable but I still left with a souvenir sunburn.   

We saw our share of upside-down airplanes, 

Lady acrobatic flyers..... Lady sky jumpers....Japanese zeros,  antique planes and even a truck with a jet engine.   There was a flight demo and ground exhibit about the Tuskegee airmen.

This was my favorite plane....a colorful bi-plane that wowed the crowd with it's tricks.

And yes, this plane did land on the truck platform while both were moving down the runway.

Of course, the highlight of the show, after SIX hours, was the Thunderbirds.   They came screaming  across and delighted and astounded the crowd.    There were 6 fighters, one of which was piloted by CAROLINE !!    

This is a good view of the paint on the belly of the plane.    They were going soooo fast that I didn't actually notice this until I saw my pictures.    I use the continuous shutter mode on the camera in order to get relatively in-focus shots and to capture quickly moving objects.....as a result, I end up with a large number of shots to go thru.......this day, I had 585 pictures !!

After the show, we headed to see some familiar places.......down the country road to Bailey's Island, we came across these kids on skateboards and bike, using the gently rolling roads as their playground.

Brunswick is on the rugged coast and there are many islands jutting out.    Years ago, there weren't too many homes, just lobster boats and  a shanty or two and a few year round residents.    In 40 years, it has really built up and we only recognized a couple of places.    One is this Cribstone Bridge connecting Orr's Island to Bailey Island.    Built in 1926, it is made of slabs of local granite and designed to let the strong tides flow thru.

The other is this view of this rustic cabin with the lobster buoys hanging off the shingles.    It used to have buoys on the other side as well and I have a picture to prove it that I took about 20 years ago on our last visit.    It is looking a bit sadder these days.

We are heading down to Connecticut and to Camp AndyMason for a week or so.      Or, we hope we are.......currently on the phone with Tiffin maintenance trying to figure out why one of the slides won't retract.    It's always something !!!