Today we have planned to go to two events - the Show 'n Go car show in Riverside and the air show at March AF Base. We followed the same routine as yesterday morning except we went out to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe (http://www.mimiscafe.com/) in downtown Hemet. Tina had Belgian Waffles and I had a great California Omelet, yum! After breakfast we returned to the coach and took the kids out for a long walk. That done we were on the road by 9:30 AM headed for downtown Riverside.
We got there right around ten o'clock and after scoping out the situation, parked in a county parking lot two blocks from the activities. Unlike the Del Mar Car Show which was held at the Sab Diego Fairgrounds with both inside and outside displays, the "Show 'n Go" car show was outside on the streets.
The downtown core of streets had been blocked off with cars being displayed everywhere within the four square blocks. It was kinda cool as it also allowed parades of different cars to circle within the area every fifteen minutes or so.
Naturally, we saw at least a dozen cars we would be happy to own. There was even one we could pick up for around three grand and do our own restoration! NOT! But it was an intrigueing idea for a few minutes anyway.
We spent about an hour and a half wandering around, drooling and taking lots of photos. Just before heading back to the car we stopped by a vendor booth where huge cajun shrimp were being grilled. The owner took a couple of napkins, picked up one of the shrimp off the grill and handed it to me. He gave me instruction on how to peel it, then gave one to Tina. These were huge, more like giant prawns but were they good!!
That pretty much took care of lunch, so we headed back to the car and drove south to March AFB arriving at our exit right about noon. Pulling to the side of the freeway before getting onto the exit ramp should have been a sign of things to come. Almost an hour and about two miles later we were being directed where to park on the base tarmac. We almost pulled out of line twice but managed to stick it out.Once we got parked we grabbed our cameras and walked over to the air show entrance. The military patrols were searching all bags and everybody had to pass through a metal detector. It took another twenty minutes to get up to the screening area. So out of our pockets came all our stuff. I had my folding knife and got it out as well, figuring to be up front about it. Nope. No go. Take it back to the car.
Back past the line we trudged to the car. At this time we were treated to a major aerial show as the headliner, the F-22 "Raptor" was going through it's paces. It is really hard to believe how agile and responsive these planes are. And how loud when the afterburner kicks in. The pilot was definately putting on a show for the crowd, coming in low from the left, then pointing it skyward and hitting the juice taking it straight up. Then, just as quickly, he was dropping out of the sky straight down toward the deck, when he hit the juice and pulled out into a series of snap rolls. The pilot really put that plane through its paces for almost half an hour before breaking off and landing. It was really cool watching this plane being put through its paces!!
After the F-22 demonstration was over we decided that we really didn't want to spend another half hour getting into the show grounds with only another few hours of flying left so we headed out for the freeway and the drive back to Hemet. Returning to the coach we took the kids for a long walk, Tina made spaghetti for dinner and I went into town to Great Shot Billiards (http://www.greatshotbilliards.com/) to get my two cue sticks re-tipped. I played a little pool then came home. By ten o'clock we called it a night.
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