Gathering of Mustangs and Legends Air Show

We had another weekend of beautiful weather. Saturday we went to the Gathering of P-51 Mustangs and Legends Air Show. Once again we were very unprepared. The main focus was the gathering of 100 of the remaining 150 WWII era P-51 Mustang fighter planes to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the plane's creation. On top of that there were 51 Legends, an array of Aces, crew chiefs, WASP's and others who were part of the P-51 family. We decided to go at the last minute and didn't really read much about the show. After waiting in traffic for an hour we finally parked and walked the half mile from the car to the ticket gate. As we arrived the Thunderbirds started performing. Surprisingly the loud jets didn't bother Cooper. Once we got onto the show grounds we were overwhelmed the size of the event. There were P-51s parked everywhere, a WWII encampment, WWII era vehicles like Willys jeeps, Sherman tanks and some weird German amphibious scout car. Further back there were modern era fighters and cargo planes, a B-17 bomber, B-25 bomber, P-38 fighter and a DC-10 like what paratroopers jumped from on D-Day.

Cooper was doing really well until the bombing demonstration started. The bombers and fighters started flying in formation and shooting blanks from their machine guns and dropping fake bombs which made very loud explosions. Every baby in the place started crying including Cooper. We found a place as far from the noise as we could and tried to feed Cooper. That's when we found that the formula in the diaper bag had gone bad but not until after I mixed it into the one bottle we brought with us. Cooper wasn't screaming hungry but we were a little worried about dehydration. So we improvised and he drank from my water bottle. He did really good for it being his first time drinking like a big boy. In fact I think he liked it except for when I tipped the bottle a little too much and nearly drown him.

We decided to head for home after that. The down side was we were on the complete opposite side of the airport from where we parked and Cooper was still upset from the bombs and wouldn't ride in the stroller. So we took turns carrying him the 2 1/2 miles back to the car (Chris measured it on Google Maps). We finally got to the car and made it about 10 feet before Chris realized we had a flat tire! So we parked again while Chris changed the tire. While Chris changed the tire Cooper and I watched a formation of 20 P-51s fly over.

We're glad we went because there was some really cool stuff there. We even considered going back on Sunday because we only saw about half of the attractions but our feet hurt and the Steelers were on at 4. Next time we'll plan a little better (this is becoming a recurring theme with us).

When Chris bought this shirt for Cooper he said it looked like it was fighter nose art. Turns out it's darn close...we saw at least three planes with very similar designs.


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