:angry: SPADFEST 08 was cancelled due to rain and heavy flooding. But with some last minute internet planning, the sight was changed to Council Bluff, Iowa. ( Across the river from Omaha,Neb. ) Nothing like adding 200 miles to an already long trip.
:pilot: I drove to Kansas,City MO. Slept four or five hours. Then headed to Council Bluffs, IA. I arrived around 1:00pm.
By 7:00pm most of the other Spaders had arrived along with a storm.
I couldn't help think of combat as about 20 people cramped into this small Winnebago, :yickes: ( NOW there is a safe place to be in a tornado.)
to watch radar footage of the storm moving in.
Down here when a storm moves through it may have One , Two, Maybe Three (RARE) Toranados in a cell.
UP there, It was 16-20 toranados ( they call them "Fingers" ) in this cell headed straight for us.
Tent poles broke , Tents collasped, along with other stuff.
That Winnebago was rocking like hippies having sex. We missed the middle finger by a half mile.
Abby Normal ( Age 12, There with his dad,) Had a wind guage, He said it was 58 mph.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...st_08/SF8-1.jpgAfter the Storm , We rebuilt " Tent City" with a lot more Rope & Stakes.
Had a great cook out party. A late campfire, full of Beer and BS Storys ( Alvin would have been KING)
LOOK, Tony Farmer even made it.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...t_08/SF8-11.jpgI got up Early the next Day.It's hard to sleep with someone ( Mr. Clean) making 126mph passes next to your tent at daybreak.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3...951419&q=&hl=enWe raised the flag and the Party Began.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...st_08/SF8-7.jpgSo I Cooked some ham steaks and Biscuits.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...st_08/SF8-6.jpgThe wind was 20-30 miles an hour, sustained plus gusts.
It would lay down a little after dark. not much.
My favorate plane there was a 1/4 scale Spitfire built by CoolbeaN from Liberty MO
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...t_08/SF8-18.jpg :bigplane: Flies GREAT.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...t_08/SF8-19.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...t_08/SF8-17.jpgGravityisnotmyfriend ( from Appleton, WI ) had a 1/4 scale ME 109
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...t_08/SF8-20.jpgOne man, Down Under Dave ( DUD) came from Australia
Dave is in the middle with Randy Hodges of Colorado Springs,CO & Mr Clean of Parkville MO. On Right.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...st_08/SF8-3.jpgHere's Team_ Monkey from Northeast, Ohio with his new shirt.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...st_08/SF8-4.jpgHere is Clean with a Ham steak.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...st_08/SF8-5.jpgHere"s Papa Bear, My friend from Denton, TX. He host SOT (Spads Over Texas)
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...t_08/SF8-13.jpgHere"s EB with his Gasser.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...t_08/SF8-15.jpgGravity was the First one IN. Literally.
http://www.geocities.com/plattevilleareamo...st_08/SF8-8.jpgI have a lot more to tell you and a lot more to show you , But I have to sleep sometime.
Later, Robert S.