Let me tell you why it was bitter sweet. It was bitter because we all knew it would be the last full performance of the season and we also knew some people would be leaving the following day. As a matter of fact a few had already left because it was time to get back to school or whatever. On the other hand it was SWEET, as in awesome! The weather was the best it has ever been when we have played at the fly-in. It was sunny and warm almost as if we had been given the perfect day to end on a high note.

Hey guess what? We did it! We debuted our new song “Thunder”. We have been working hard on it through the summer and it was rewarding to be able to perform it for a crowd. It’s always harder to learn a new song during the summer. When you are trying to keep up all the other songs (I think it’s something like 40 songs we have in our repertoire) then add on the fact that some rehearsals get canceled because we have performances on those days it all makes it hard to learn a new song. But I think that we did pretty good. The audience sure seemed to like it.

If any one involved with bringing us to the fly-in is reading this. THANK YOU! The burgers were great and thank you for the helicopter & plane rides. Yup that’s right, so far the kind people in Parry Sound have done a draw each year to give a couple of orchestra members an airplane ride and this year they stepped it up with a couple of helicopter rides. Darrell and Amber were the lucky winners of the helicopter rides. But apparently before they announced the winners Amber had told Jay that if she won she would give it to him and you know what? She kept her word (I’m not sure I could have given up that opportunity). When the organizer found out what Amber had done he arranged for her to get a plane ride. As it turns out a couple of years ago when Jay won he gave his ride to someone else. So it really does seem to pay when you pay it forward.

Not only were there a bunch of unique small private planes there was also a B-25 bomber from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (now there’s a place that I would like to go to someday). It was awesome! The crew was really great. After the performance they let us go over and get inside it. We had a blast sitting in the cockpit and taking photos of ourselves. The view from the gunner seat in the rear is unreal. It blows my mind to think of what the men and women in the service went through back in World War II. After they let us climb all over their plane we returned the favor and let them try out a pan.

Here is a copy of the poster the Airport did for the event. I will try and gather pictures and post them tomorrow.

Ok here are some more pics. Just click on the thumbnail.