WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

The last blog found us arriving at the Reno Air Show.  Something Jerry had wanted to do for 50 years!.  We spent an entire week in Reno and he got to see everything.  The beginning of the week is mainly pilots checking out their planes and getting used to the course.  They start at 6:00am some mornings but having lived on Naval Air Stations many for many years I got used to it pretty quickly.  It is a lot like a raceway on the ground but up in the air.  They fly around pylons and have to stay outside of them or they are docked points.  The entire week builds up to the final race on Sunday afternoon.

Nancy & Jeff Jeffreys - friends that we met almost two years ago on the road and our paths keep crossing!!  It was great to have them as neighbors at the air show.  We ate several meals at the local ELKS Club.  Both meals were excellent - as a matter of fact the first night we were there they treated us to dinner!!

Leaving the ELKS one night we say a double rainbow

Even though Jerry was having his dream of 50 year come true things still need to be maintained - so here he is working on the dishwasher.

Besides the races they also had some acrobatic shows 

Our seats were perfect - the pylon that was the finish line was right in front of us.

Us up in the bleachers

  

The planes are old military planes from WWII that have been modified.  During the war they would have flown at about  350 miles per hour and at the races they were going over 500 miles an hour!  The engines have been souped up from about 1500 horse power to 3000 horse power.

Jerry was able to spend a morning in the pits and talk to the pilots and the crew.  

Jerry's son and daughter-in-law gave him this shirt for his birthday.  It is SO true!!

These three couples have been coming to the air races for many years and welcomed us into their parking area.  We spent a lot of time in the evening talking and getting to know each other.

This couple was instrumental in getting us the great parking spot we had and was part of the group above.  We are so appreciative of all they did to help us newbies figure out everything.

Wow exciting race!.. Strega lead Voodoo all week by a wide margin. In the Gold race Voodoo took the lead going into the first turn. Voodoo and Strega fought for 1st and 2nd until the end when Strega took it back from Voodoo to win the Gold race.

 We left Reno on Monday morning and headed to South Lake Tahoe for 3 days.  The drive there was beautiful but also a little stressful - lots of tight curves and long drops(remember I am from the Midwest where things are flat).  I really thanked God for giving Jerry such awesome driving skills.  You will see a little later in the blog some of the turns he made in the motorhome!!

Lake Tahoe is breathtaking

The water is so blue and clear