Oregon F-15 photos

Here are a few pictures that Paul took he visited out in Oregon. We went out and stood right at the end of the runway and the guys heard my brother was down there so they gave us a private airshow, it was awesome!
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Welcome to Fighter Country

Well I’m here at Langley now! I showed up at my new base in the dark of night. As I wound my way past the huge shadows of nondescript buildings I wondered what kind of place this would be and what I was in store for here. Finally pointed in the direction of the visiting officer’s quarters I found myself on a road looping around the runway with a blank darkness on one side. After a bit I realized that this darkness was actually a beautiful view of the Chesapeake Bay. So, I stopped and enjoyed the quiet and beauty under the stars for a bit before moving on. How often is it that peering through the curtain of the unknown, things appear dark and opaque when I’m convinced that it is merely my/our inability to see the beauty of the promise God gives us in Jeremiah 29:11. There’s a beautiful wide ocean on the other side of the curtain.
The first morning I drove under the sign saying, “Welcome to Fighter Country” with all the jets lined up on the ramp and felt very at home. It is a great squadron of guys and I love walking close enough to touch (and I do) the best fighter jets in the world to get into the office every morning.
Right now though I spend most of my time looking for a house to buy. I think that I found one in a neighborhood that I really like and it will be a great place to call my own.

The Windy City

After a longish drive across Minnesota and Wisconsin, I made it Chicago late at night. Now, imagine me winding through a crowded city with this 20 ft trailer on the back trying to find a place to park - it was rather amusing. Also amusing was the number of weirdly dressed people cruising the streets. I all sorts of humorous and grotesque-looking Chicagoans and I was thinking this place was even weirder than London when I realized they were costumes. and it was Saturday night before Halloween! So I took the metro down to the Wicker Park area and enjoyed all the crazy people.
The next day I walked all through the city and it was amazing; but I was never able to shake the feeling that I was always being watched by these towering steel guardians everywhere. I was very impressed with the Art Institute. Around every corner I found some piece of art I remembered from my 8th grade Art class by Monet, Picasso, or Van Gogh. Before long I tired of reminiscing on forced adolescent artistic pursuits and began to amuse myself in other ways. I found that by staring at some ridiculous modern art "painting" with my head cocked to the side and a knowing smile on my face I could collect quite a crowd of curious tourists wanting to be sophisticated. "It's like one of those Magic Eye things, just look harder," I'd say as I moved on barely holding the laughter in.
Then I met up with my cute Canadian friend and we explored the Navy Pier, Magnificent Mile, scaled the Hancock building, and the beautiful beaches lining the city. Overall, I was impressed with the beauty of the city. It is so well known for its architecture and mammoth monoliths and I guess those were cool, but I enjoyed even how the city was laid out with numerous parks and trees on every corner. If you have to live in a city that would not be a bad one.
The next day, with short but interesting stops at the Indy 500 track and Churchill Downs, I was back in Knoxville and surrounded by family; which is a very good place to be.