Blue Angels Break

I was about to head out and work on the bed this morning when Penny remembered that the Blue Angels had a practice session at Pensacola Beach today. Instead of working on the bed we went into town and looked at mattresses for the bed. Then I drove to p cola.

I haven’t gone to one of their shows primarily because Pensacola Beach becomes a real zoo. The parking and traffic weren’t worth it. Now, however, the road through the National Seashore from Navarre to Pensacola Beach is open after years of closure due to hurricane damage. So it is a backdoor way in to the show.

I was both amazed and saddened by the drive to P cola. Virtually all the sand dunes are gone from Navarre to P cola Beach—miles and miles of shoreline that is the same level as the road all the way to the water. It’s no wonder it took years to recover sufficiently to open the road again. First they had to rebuild it.

I drove all the way along P cola Beach and decided parking near the pier was not a good idea. It was an hour before the show and it was already parked in. I backtracked to the first road to the beach east of the pier that was not a commercial development. That was maybe ½ mile up the beach from the show center and I thought that was good enough. I parked at the end of the street nearest the road out and walked to the beach to claim my spot.

I read for the 45 minutes I had before the show. (Karen’s book by Terri Gross that she loaned me ). The show begins with the Angel’s C-130 buzzing around flying low and climbing high.

The weather was great and my location happened to be perfect for individual planes turning over the beach right over me with all the thrilling roar and rush of an F-18 flying (within 500 ft easily) in full afterburner. Wow! It gave me chills. I also was grinning from ear to ear.

I picked up my stuff and left when the show was ending. I got in my car and away before most others got on the road. Many were there for a day at the beach so it wasn’t as hughe an exodus as it might have been. I had no traffic problems, just the sad and amazing ride back across the level shoreline.