According to the Wyoming Department of Workplace Services, Cheyenne "is bathed in sunshine and clear blue skies 327 days a year." Unfortunately, the day of the Thunderbirds Air Show—Wednesday—was one of the unlucky 38 days to be downright cold, gray, and drizzly. It is generally very hot and sunny around here in July; so hot and sunny, in fact, that Matt and I stocked three giant coolers with ten cases of water the day before for the Distinguished Visitors tents at Laramie County Community College, where the show is always held because people remembered how hot it was in previous years, and remembered how thirsty everyone was.
Hot chocolate would have been far more appropriate. I think everyone at the show had the same reaction I did in the morning—on the mad dash out the door to get over to LCCC before the parking filled up and the road shut down, realize it was a little chilly and grab a sweatshirt. Proceed to wish you had jeans and a fall jacket on, too. Bridget was nice and warm and toasty in my sweatshirt (interestingly, purchased out of desperation at Reagan in D.C. before a flight in the middle of summer when the airport was so cold I could practically see my breath—you only want $24.99 for this? I would have paid $100!). The point is, Bridget might have been the warmest person at the air show. I was not the warmest person at the air show.
At least we kept each other entertained and smiling while we waited!
But, the air show. The Thunderbirds have been in existence for 57 years, and have flown at Cheyenne Frontier Days every single one of those years. Their first public exhibition was at the 1953 CFD, actually. You'd think the least we could have done was provide a trusty blue-sky day!
It's been a long time since I've seen the Thunderbirds—once at the Dayton Air Show a looooong time ago, and Matt remembers watching them from our front yard in Montana, something I do not remember at all. They (six planes total) did lots of neat-o tricks, including scaring the pants off of Grandma, Grandpa, me, Maddie, Gracie, and Bridget when we were watching four of them fly around in neat-o formation to our right and KABLAM another one flew over us from the other direction. Ha ha ha, Thunderbird, you got us. You're lucky Gracie didn't become completely unhinged and come find you after the show.
I have more pictures, but my sensor is currently so filthy it takes me almost six minutes to clean the specks off the picture before it is suitable for viewing. I have hired a trustworthy and knowledgeable person to clean it for me on Friday, and I am practically counting down the hours until I have a clean camera again. I would do it myself, but I'm a-scared to.
So for now, I'll just finish today's recap with a Wikipedia Commons photo of what the Thunderbirds look like with a lovely blue backdrop to fly against : )
