Friday morning was the opening day of the air show and we figured it
would be the best day to go...and of course, what we don`t see today, we`ll be
able to see Saturday or Sunday because our pass allows us access for all 3
days. We packed the backpack with
binoculars, 6 bottles of frozen water (it`s going to be a hot day, so I don`t
think it will stay frozen for long!) and sunscreen...and, with our chairs and
cameras, we were off to the gate entrance to catch the shuttle. It was 8:45 a.m.Not too busy yet...
The first thing we did was go set up our chairs along the fence at the viewing area...with our spot saved, we then headed off to see the ‘heavy static’ display.
The events start at 11:00 a.m. so after 2 hours of walking on the hot tarmac, we were ready to sit and watch the show...
The show ended at about 5:30 p.m....time to head back to the trailer. After 9 hours out in the sun, we were hot and tired...and looking forward to some shade!
Saturday morning I downloaded all of the pictures we took yesterday...over 300 pictures! We decided that we would just hang around the trailer today. We still had the ‘light static’ displays to see but we thought we would do that tomorrow...besides at about 11:00 five young fellows arrived at a camper van that had parked right beside us on Thursday night. We hadn’t seen anyone around the van until this morning...and what shows up? Five “gangsta wannabe’s” complete with shorts worn halfway down their butts and bodies covered with tattoos...not to mention the loud foul language that they need to use to converse with one another. Hmmm....this is just lovely...
Well, as the afternoon progressed, more and more cars and people arrived. Their van was parked so close to our trailer that the awning they set up was just inches from our trailer...and then they set up a table with Coleman stove right underneath our bedroom slider! Steve quickly asked them to move it...no problem. Actually a couple of the fellows were quite friendly...we charged their cell phones for them and they were quite cordial. They were all very impressed with our truck. One of them admitted that he got out of jail 4 months ago after serving a 7 year sentence for shoving a gun in a guy’s mouth that had owed him money...hmmm...then said he had learned his lesson, got off drugs and was trying to turn his life around. I think he found the wrong crowd to help him turn his life around! As the afternoon wore on with the booze, pot and apparently cocaine starting shortly after their arrival, the “group” mentality started to take over. What got me were the little kids that they brought with them and the pregnant mom in her tiny bikini...she even went into the air show dressed that way!
Around 6:00 we went inside to watch the news and get dinner started...only to find the satellite signal had been lost. Our neighbours had bumped the dish so Steve had to go outside and we had to re-establish a signal. A little later as we were having dinner, there was a thump on the side of the trailer...well, I guess a couple of fellows were having a scuffle and slammed against our slider and the neighbour’s tent. Okay...that’s it...at this point, we have no idea how many people are there and it is only 7:00, so Steve decided to walk down and have a chat with security. Well, I guess there had already been a couple of complaints from our other neighbours and the security fellow happened to be on the phone with Abbotsford Police dispatch.
Apparently
he had been on the phone for 15 minutes and was having difficulty convincing
dispatch to send someone out, so after overhearing Steve’s story he handed the
phone to Steve. That seemed to work
because within minutes 6 cops showed up! I guess the group was told to leave, so one
guy got mouthy and was consequently cuffed and put into the back of the police cruiser.
They were also advised that if they decided to return for some vengeance or
damage anything, that they knew who to look for.Everyone that thought they were able to drive were given a breathalyser then allowed to leave. Three cars were left behind which meant that we would probably have to deal with some of them again. Security assured us that the gates were going to be locked and patrols would be stepped up.
On Sunday, we were reluctant to see the rest of the static display until those cars were gone but figured they would probably be sleeping in. We left at 10:30 and were back just before lunch. They returned for their cars at 1:15 and apologized for getting all lit up and told us to enjoy the show...waved and left. No further issues...whew!
Mount Baker as seen from our campsite...
Steve took a lot of pictures and managed to cut them back
considerably but there are still too many to post on the blog...so, just a few
have been posted and if you would like to see all pictures, please go to our
web album.... Abbotsford 50th International Air Show 2012
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