Fly In!

It has been said I have a unique way of thinking, especially when it comes to combining events thus allowing me to be "efficient" (or at least appear so). And so it was Saturday morning at 6:10 a.m. as I woke up my son, wished him Happy 21st Birthday and instructed to get in the van, we were going for a ride. A modicum of hemming and hawing followed, expertly ignored by me, and a short time later we were off into the crisp morning air with stars still hanging in the pre-dawn Arizona sky. Fourty-five minutes later Zac gave a little smile as I turned off the I-10 and onto AZ87 with the sign noting this was the way to Coolidge. I was taking him to the fly-in.

I had taken his younger brother to Coolidge but classes and schedules had always clashed until this day. With clear-ish skies and the element of surprise everything had come together. He was a bit miffed when I passed a McDonald's but it cleared when we arrived and rounded the corner of the hangar to see the local civic group offering a pancake breakfast which was greatly enjoyed by him. He later made the long journey across the airfield to where I had joined some of the other photographers I expected to encounter (I walked towards the little black specks he said later). I reached into the camera bag, pulled out my backup camera body with a nice long lens attached and handed it over.

"You might see something worth photographing in the next hour or so" I said with a smile on my face. And so we did.