the rest of the story
Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004, 2:43 PM
The rest of the reunion.
We got up on Saturday and went out to the Dakota Territorial Air Museum for a pancake breakfast, and had, once again, excellent chow--fluffy pancakes, real sausages, scrambled egss with ham. The museum is small, but damn cool. Spouse donated a photo for the Fifth Fighter display they want to put together. After we ate, we visited with an interesting woman who had been a wrench-bender with the 5thFIS around the same time as Spouse. They had a lot of friends in common, and it was fun to listen to their stories.
I really enjoyed all the 5thFIS people. The wives, not so much, although I met a couple wives who were fun. The ex-WAFs were really great, though. The coolest people I got to meet were:
A former fighter pilot who is so totally cool I can't describe it. He's a West Point grad. He works in the Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation field, and he's been a DJ. He skis, and is considering trying whitewater rafting again. He's a dad and a granddad. He's smart, and funny, and down-to-earth. He rocks.
Oh yeah--he's also in a wheelchair. Since a motorcycle accident in the seventies. But not so's you'd notice.
Col. Jack Broughton, former Fifth Fighter Commander and the guy who not only wrote "Thud Ridge", and "Going Downtown", he actually lived it.
The devilishly cute and immensely talented "Leap Frogs", the Navy jump team. They were staying across the hall. Nice to share an elevator with a bunch of Navy SEALS, I can tell you. Grrrowl.
Well, anyway--back to Saturday.
After we went to breakfast, we headed out to the base for the airshow. What can I say? it was pretty darn cool. Planes flew, the Leapfrogs jumped, there were demonstrations of bomb-loading on the B-52 and working dog demos, I had a hot dog for lunch, Spouse got some patches and a teeshirt. And we were out there for five hours. I got burned a little. And then we headed back to the hotel for a quick dip in the now-mobbed pool, and then relaxed till time to get ready for the banquet at the officer's club.
The banquet was very nice. Cocktails, and a lovely buffet dinner. Fried chicken and roast beef, with lots of good stuff to go with. Col. Broughton was inducted into the Base "Heritage Hall"; a kind of hall-of-fame thing. More good conversations and fun. Some of us met up later at the hotel bar and continued the fun, because everybody was having such a good time, no one wanted it to end. But it did, finally, and we all trailed off to bed. Many of us had to leave in the morning, so goodbyes were said.
Next am, we hightailed it out of town without even stopping for breakfast, and commenced putting miles under the tires. I barely got to stop to piss on the way. We had to stop by Eau Claire, though, because we were starved and beat. And had to pee.
We got a room at the Holiday Inn, ran over to the Olive Garden for dinner, and hit the pool a bit before turning in.
Yesterday, we got up and headed out again. He hit the Dells about 9:30, and he wanted to have breakfast at Paul Bunyan's, but it was mobbed. So we got out of that excrescence and headed toward Madison, for an elevenish breakfast at Monty's Blue Plate Diner. Fabulous french toast and REAL coffee. Then back on the road.
We made good time on the last leg, and by Oak Creek, I could see we'd be home around one, so I called the kennel and arranged to pick up the dog a day early. Due to her bath, they couldn't have her ready before 4:30, so we went home and unpacked, and I started nailing the wash. Even with breaks to pick up the dog and run to the grocery store, I managed to get all five loads done by bedtime.
Which is why I have time today to write all this up.