I Feel the Need...the Need for Speed!

You may have noticed the Top Gun reference in the title. At least, I hope you did. If you were born pre-1986 and can't quote 75% of Top Gun where the heck have you been for the last 22+ years?

Maybe this picture will help you understand why I have Top Gun on the brain:



So, this photo was taken at the Chicago Air and Water Show that happened last week. Actually...loads and loads of stuff happened last weekend. And really this was at the pre-show at the Gary-Chicago Airport. But let's start with the Chicago Air and Water Show because that's really where this story gets interesting.

To shorten what could be a dangerously long story, our friends Cory and Millie (who we have recently met at our church)(and who are an Aggie and a Vol respectively) work for a company that sells Oracle software. Oracle sponsors some stunt pilots under the name, wait for it, Team Oracle. Team Oracle is led by Sean D. Tucker who does things in a plane like this (you get a pretty good idea after 15 seconds):



So, Cory and Millie score us all some VIP passes to the pre-show on Thursday night at the Gary-Chicago Airport. For a while we just walk around watching jets and planes do some unreal stuff. As Cory would say, it will melt your face off. Then we finally notice that no one where we're at has VIP passes, so we think that there has to be more to this and decide to see how close we can get to everything that's happening.



Well, close as we can get turns out to be in the hangar where all of the Team Oracle planes and pilots are hanging out. We meet Sean D. and take some pictures with our Gig Em thumbs out.



Then we chat it up a bit about his awesomeness when out of the blue he throws out the best pickup line ever. On mine and Cory's wives.

"Hey, you ladies want to go flying?"

How many times has that worked. Every time. That's how many. Think about it for a second. You're a dude hanging out in a bar. Or a restaurant. Or a church. Wherever you pick up ladies. And you walk up and say, "Hi. You look pretty tonight."

And then up walks Joe Flyboy and he says, "Hi. Wanna go flying?"

Who wins? Not you.

So, of course our ladies immediately say, "YES!" while Cory and I start to figure out what we're gonna do when Sean's plane disappears with our wives to some remote island full of flyboys and stolen ladies.

So, the next morning at 11AM we take Stacie and Millie to the awesomeness that is flying in a stunt plane. As they were getting into their gear someone asked if they were nervous or thought they might throw up. Cory's friend Justin who was with us piped up and asked if you could throw up from jealousy. I think you can. Here's some preflight photos:










We couldn't see what happened after take off since they were way off over Lake Michigan, but they did some pretty amazing stuff. The did barrel rolls, loops, and some free falls. Each girl was in the front of their own plane and the pilots let them each fly the plane. They got to fly their own barrel rolls and loops.

Anybody jealous, yet? I know at least one dude that is.

Post flight pics:








At the end of the day, it was a pretty amazing time. And Sean was kind enough to bring our wives back to us, but he did warn us that he just took them on the most expensive free flight they'll ever go on. Anybody know where I can get a pilot's license and buy a plane at?

But the fun didn't stop there. Sean then asked us if we were going to the Air Show. Of course we were. And he said, let me get you some VIP passes to sit in the Blue Angels friends and family section.

Ahhhh, yeah!

Since Stacie's parents were coming into town we asked if we could have a couple of extra passes and he obviously said he could get as many as we needed.

So, the next day we were front and center for the Chicago Air and Water Show. There were 3.1 million people on the lakefront to watch the show and we were among the 25 or so that were front and center. We filled up a 4G card with pictures, but I'll just drop a few for you here. If you ever get a chance to sit in the Blue Angels VIP section after your wife flys in a professional stunt plane, I highly recommend it.



The Blue Angels lined up before takeoff at the Gary-Chicago Airport



Two stunt planes performing at the show.



A patriotic parachuter makes a perfect landing. Say that ten times fast.



"Fat Albert", the Blue Angels' C130 showing off his skills.



These guys gave the play by play for the Blue Angels.



Here they are in their diamond formation.



I have no idea how they don't hit each other.



Here's five doing a huge loop.



A nice closeup.



These two just crossed. And right in front of us.



This was kind of awesome.



That's actually four jets. How they get that close to each other is beyond me.



All six breaking apart.



Millie and Cory, the hookup artists.



The fam.



Me and Stacie



Me and Cory. Looking cool.

As if that weren't enough for the weekend, after the Air Show, we come back to find our local block party in full force right in front of our condo. So, naturally we jump right in. It was great to finally get to meet some of our neighbors that we hadn't had an opportunity to introduce ourselves to yet. Turns out one of them heads up marketing for Miller and hooked our street up with free beer. Gonna have to keep her on the street.

Plus, it only took about 10 minutes before we turned it into a College Station, TX party. Since Cory, Stacie and I were Aggies and since the Moffett's are obviously from Texas, we had neighbors bringing out cowboy hats and playing Robert Earl Keen on the iPod outside. Crazy. I half expected it to turn into an all-out street dance or see someone bring out a live goat. (That's for all my Brady and Van Alstyne peeps.)

To top it all off, on Sunday we decided to pull ourselves out of redneck-dom by our bootstraps. We cleaned up and headed to the theater district and watched the musical Jersey Boys. And it was fantastic. You should go check it out, but I must warn you, the songs will be stuck in your head for about a week since you know all of them.

And that, my friends, was last weekend in Chicago. Tune in next time for more crazy adventures from the Thompson Family! And remember...

You can be my wingman anytime.