Day 32 - Feb 9th - El Centro

Sat around in the morning after breakfast and then decided to drive over the the east side of NAF (Naval Air Facility) That is where the Naval Precision "Blue Angel" Aerobatic team practise. The Rio Bend RV activity center had given us the best area to watch the jets take off and land, so we drove to that area - only 4 or 5 miles from the park. We were told that the practice times were usually between 8 and 9 AM and then again at noon till 1 PM. We were there at about 10 minutes to noon - nothing happening - we were able to get to a point just to the south of the runways and in between to two most used ones - only about 1000 ft from the ends of the runways, but outside the Military Protected area. We watched and waited to see some activity for nearly an hour. There were several jets (F-18's, I think) sitting out in the pads by the runways. People were working on them and it appeared that the were readying them for flight. But no "Blue Angels". Finally at about 1:10PM 6 of the F-18's were started and taxi'ed to the end of the runway. We watched and photographed them taking off into the Wild Blue Yonder. Amazing the Blast of noise that they produce when you are on the business end of them!! Never did see the "Blue Angels" today. Guess they are not practicing today. May be because it was rather a cold windy day today. Returned to ELTORO and relaxed for the remainder of the day.