Wild Blue Yonder

This weekend was the annual Wings Over Houston airshow at Ellington Field.  We went on Saturday, but I haven’t downloaded my photos yet, so for now you can enjoy this iPhone photo of me inside the wheel well of a B-52 bomber.  After some really lovely weather early in the month, it’s gotten hot again — yesterday’s high was 90, only 2 degrees off the record.  But it’s not as bad as August, and the clouds and stiff breeze kept it comfortable enough.

Jose and I actually debated whether to go at all this year, despite the fact that we already had one free ticket.  The traffic gets pretty bad over there, and the lineup of acts hasn’t really changed in years.  I love airplanes, but it’d be nice to see them shake up the schedule a bit.  (And frankly, I’m totally over the whole “air power” demo that takes up about 2 hours in the middle of the show each year.  I’ve seen it a lot, and didn’t feel like running through the aerial history of every war since WWII again.)  We finally decided to show up really late, just before 2:00 — and this worked out rather well, since by that time there was NO traffic and we were able to breeze right into the parking lots.  We saw the F-18 demo, Sean D. Tucker’s always awesome aerobatic performance, and the USAF Thunderbirds.  Then, while everyone ran for the exits after the Thunderbirds, we wandered around the static displays for a while.  We didn’t leave until they kicked us out just before 6:00, at which point the traffic had already died down again!  Perfect timing!

Yesterday was a more relaxing day.  I started my 7-mile run around 9:00 which turned out to be a big mistake — it was HOT.  I finished the miles without a problem, at a slightly slower pace than my recent long runs, but at least I finished.  I’m really glad it was a cut-back week and I’m crossing my fingers that cooler weather will return before my 12-miler next weekend!