JBB

While we're sharing our wish lists, I'd like to see a direct connection from eastbound 30 to northbound 121. If all the traffic going from W/SW Fort Worth to NE Tarrant/DFW Airport didn't have to funnel onto 35W for 3/4 of a mile, that would ease bottlenecks on both 35 and 30.

I'm quick to be critical of how much money has been spent on freeway construction in this area versus other forms of transit, but why ^this^ was not included in the billions of dollars of work done on and around I-35 in recent years is mind boggling. How much cheaper would it have been 5 years ago? Recent freeway planning in this area puzzles me. They are spending hudreds of millions of dollars to modernize 820 from Pipeline to Randol Mill but they are building everything around the dilapidated 50 year old Trinity Blvd. bridge. I have a hard time circling that square.

I wavered on my plan to attend a bit when my friend that was going with me had to back out.  I was already up and about so I decided to go.  I drove past an empty Marion Sampson Park on my way in and thought for a second about stopping there to take it in.  I arrived right as the gates opened and enjoyed an hour or so of walking the great static display lineup with a light crowd.  I sat down at a spot on the rope line and relaxed in the nice windy weather until the show started (30 minutes late thanks to a suspicious activity incident at the remote lot at Ridgmar Mall).  The lineup for the aerial performances was really good: a handful of warbirds and aerobatic performances, a Dehavilland Vampire (one of the oldest fighter jets in the world), a Mig 17, the C-17 demo team, F-16 demo team, and a Marine Corps aviation demo that included F-18s based in Fort Worth that was the highlight of the show for me.  The program moved swiftly and the crowd was well-behaved.  My one minor complaint is that they constantly blasted loud music through some of the performances.  For me, air shows are as much about the sounds as the sights and it made it harder to enjoy, especially the Marine Corps demo.  It was noticeably better during the performances that travel with their own narrator.  It started to get pretty warm as the wind trailed off toward the end of the day and I wished I had either watched the Blue Angels from my truck or left early (I've seen them several times, the show never changes).  The one thing that shows at the base excel at is traffic and parking.  I stopped for to go food on the way home and I was sitting in my living room less than an hour later.  That's not bad for an event where 50,000 plus people all left at the same time.

 

Here's a few photos I took.  My phone is showing its age and a lot of what I took was back lit.  Enjoy.

 

 

B-1 from Ellsworth AFB

 

 

B-52

 

 

F-18

 

 

F-35, not sure which model

 

 

Mirage F-1 that's owned by ATAC at Alliance

 

 

[img]https://photos.smugm...4110-L.jpg[img]

 

B-25

 

 

Part of the Marine Corps demo

 

 

They seem to be the next fad chain to push a big expansion in this area.  I have a friend that's from Canada that is ecstatic about them coming to Texas.  We had some of their doughnuts in Atlanta earlier this year and they were good.  Reminded me of Dunkin.

I'm going on Sunday.  It's been advertised pretty heavily on social media for the last few months, but maybe I'm just targeted because I follow aviation related pages.  It looks like it's going to be a great show with a good mix of performers and the best static display lineup I've seen for an air show in this area in a long time.

My last time to eat there was probably around 8 years ago and, while the food was good, it had declined a lot.  There's still a Yucatan on the riverwalk at Bricktown in OKC.  Not sure how closely related it is to the original, but the menu is at least similar.