Minnesota Air Spectacular: Mankato!

I was a volunteer (with some other Minnesota 99s) today at the Minnesota Air Spectacular in Mankato. The airshow included the US Navy Blue Angels and Julie Clark- who is a famous aerobatic airshow pilot. As always the planes and the pilots flying today were amazing and a great joy to watch. I met Julie Clark and had her autograph a copy of her book for me. A very nice lady, an amazing pilot, and FYI she is a bit shorter than me.

Volunteering sucked. The Minnesota 99s were assigned to the VIP tents, which was cool to be up so close to the planes and the airshow, but we were not given any directions on how to find our assigned tent, we were not given a schedule for the day, we were not told where the water was (it was over 90 degrees and we were promised water), and the guy that was in charge of the tents was a jerk who would not let us sit in the tents, the shade, or the VIP area (not even when no one was there)- so nothing like standing and going in and out of the sun for 6 hours, every time we (the 99s volunteers) talked or if one of us stopped to watched the airshow he would come over to us to tell us to do something, and when it was time for lunch he pointed to a table outside the tents and told us that we could go over there to stand and eat. At one point we rebelled and went out into the airshow to look around, as we were not given a break to go and look at the booths or planes. The boxed lunch that the airshow provided to its volunteers came a bit late and was warm (the cheese on the sandwiches was melting) and it was not very good. As one would expect it make me sick and coupled with a bit of sunstroke, I became violently ill and then later threw up. I left a little after 3pm (I was scheduled to stay until 4pm) while the Blue Angels were still performing, because I was feeling like death and then got stuck in traffic (other people were also leaving early – there was only 20,000+ people so the parking lot was a bit full). Sadly becuase I was not feeling well and left early, I also missed the Minnesota 99s dinner party with Julie Clark which I had been looking forward too. Airshows!