We’ve done this two times before here and here, but it’s worth discussing again.

It’s late August at Offutt AFB — time for an AIRSHOW!

This year’s airshow lucked out with a last-minute booking of the Thunderbirds after the Coney Island Airshow was cancelled. (Don’t know why, message boards have speculated it was financial). Unfortunate for an entire airshow to be cancelled, but yay for us, right? When the airshow was first announced in mid-July, the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team was the headliner.

Like the past two years, the aircraft start to roll in around mid-week and we can see the air traffic from throughout my neighborhood as the aerial demo teams start to practice their shows. While the propeller planes and helicopters stay pretty close to the runway, the jets need more maneuvering space and often have to turn around over our neighborhood. Whoo hoo! So we were seeing the Thunderbirds, the F-22 and F-18 several times right from our yard! The kids at school had quite a treat during their recess on Thursday and Friday too 🙂

In 2008 we watched the Thunderbirds from the local bike trail. In 2009 we watched from a local neighborhood that offered a good view. This time, the boys and I watched right there in the middle of the action.

Enjoy some of our experiences from the airshow.

These KC-135s are Nebraska Air National Guard planes from Lincoln
From 2010 08 28 Offutt AFB Airshow
I’d never seen a Global Hawk UAS up close before, after all the times I’d forecast for them….
From 2010 08 28 Offutt AFB Airshow
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28. August 2010 · Comments Off on The Vollmer "Weather Curse", Take 6 · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Most of this text is stolen from a 21 November 2008 blog post about the crazy weather experiences we’ve had everywhere we’ve lived since we’ve been married. At the end of that blog post, I posed the question: “What will Bellevue, Nebraska bring?”

Now that we’re wrapping up our Nebraska tour and headed toward our 7th home in 15 years, I’m confident that Winter of 2009-2010 in eastern Nebraska was a result of the Vollmers living here. Really. So here’s the summary of the Vollmer “Weather Curse” (1-5 are from the previous blog post), and I’ve added #6 at the end. Enjoy:

1.) Ft. Polk, Leesville, and DeRidder, LA. Ice storm, January 1997.

Not sure if this picture is from that exact ice storm, but this is a good example of what Southwestern LA looked like after this storm.

This was pretty daunting. Louisiana flora and fauna didn’t take to this very well, neither did the 101st Airborne soldiers who were in the field doing training during this ice storm. I remember sliding sideways in my car down the hill towards the base weather station.

2.) Seoul, S. Korea. Monsoon flooding, August 1998. (<– See 5th paragraph of this link) We had a Korean citizen working in our weather unit. Mr. Ko. He told us that folklore said that every 11 years, the annual Korea Monsoon is worse than usual. And every 11th of those 11 years, it’s even worse. And 1998 was predicted to be that 121st year. All of us Americans who’d heard this were like, “Yeah, right, whatever…” Well, the folklore was right. It was the worst flooding in everyone’s memory, bridges that bisected Seoul were flooded out, the military was on the verge of deploying thousands of people into the fields for a major exercise and those plans were disrupted. The building Dave and I lived in flooded on the ground floor, and our Saturn flooded a little, too. But we didn’t have it nearly as badly as some of those stationed closer to the DMZ, whose quonset huts filled to the brim!

3.) Beavercreek (Dayton), OH. Xenia Tornado Redux, September 20, 2000.

Most weather weenies know the story of the April 3, 1974 F5 tornado that plowed through Xenia, Ohio. They still debate to this day whether that was the strongest tornado ever measured.

The September 2000 tornado originated very close to our house, and moved AWAY from our house, following a very similar path to the 1974 one. I had asked for a bicycle for my birthday (which was the day after the tornado). We lived near a nice bike trail network, and Xenia was closed to non-resident motor vehicle traffic for about a week. But Dave and I were able to ride our new bikes all over the town and see the damages up close and personal. It was very eerie to see where the tornado had crossed our local bike trail…

4.) Melbourne, FL. Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne, August-October 2004.

By this point in our lives, Dave and I knew that strange weather happens when we live somewhere and I feel it contributed to our decision to NOT to buy a house on the barrier islands. Yes, it’s very superstitious, but I’m grateful every day of the wise choice we made when we bought our first house in Florida 5 miles INLAND.

We moved to Florida in spring 2002. As the hurricane seasons of 2002 and 2003 wound down, we started looking at just how long it had been since a hurricane hit the Florida east coast south of Jacksonville and north of where Hurricane Andrew had hit in 1992. Nearly 100 years, if I remember correctly! As every year since Andrew had passed, Florida was holding its breath for the next “biggie”.

Those storms absolutely decimated houses all over East Central Florida, but our home was spared, except for damaged screens and a blown air conditioner fuse.

5.) Apex (Raleigh), NC. The Apex Chlorine Fire (not really weather), October 2006 and NC’s Worst Drought in over 100 Years, Summer 2007.

We heard the initial explosions from the chlorine storage containers at about 10:30pm, and we saw the glow in the sky from our front porch. It was a pleasant evening, I remember, so we had opened up all the windows in our house, which made it easier to hear the explosions and the emergency vehicles…one after another.

The EQ Industries Chlorine Storage Facility Fire occurred about 1/2 mile from our house.  We could see the glow of the flames from our front porch.

We wasted no time packing the boys, the dog and some provisions and then made haste to Dave’s NC State office near downtown Raleigh. After that, we took a breath, and made follow on arrangements in a hotel in North Raleigh. It was warm the night we evacuated, so the boys were in short pajamas, and I remember having to buy warmer PJs at Walmart for the following night…one of the season’s first cold fronts had passed.

I forfeited part of our reimbursement from the evacuation expenses because I refuse to sign a gag order. I had a 4-year-old and an 18-month old! Who knows if something will come along later that might be related to this?

As for the drought, I’m glad it’s now over. All it took was Dave and me moving out of the area…I’m glad we could help.

6.) Bellevue (Omaha), NE. The winter of 2009-2010 certainly packed a punch!

Dave shoveling a path for the dog in the backyard Christmas morning.
From 2009 12 25 Christmas Eve Travel & Christmas Blizzard

Starting with a Columbus Day-weekend snow event! On October 9-10, 2009, the Omaha Metro area received 3-5″ of snow! The family was planning to go test-driving new vehicles that weekend, and we were pleased that the snow had mostly melted by the evening of the 10th. But still!

After a reprise through about Thanksgiving, December proved to be almost-recording setting, with over 20″ during the month of December alone. The kids had their first snow days on December 9th and 10th, and then when the family was returning from Walt Disney World on December 24th, a major winter storm was taking shape that shut down Dallas-Fort Worth airport just after our flight took off (phew) and we were so proud of the crews at Omaha Eppley Airfield for working so hard on keeping the runways cleared. It was rather scary driving home from the airport in the high winds and blowing snow! This photo album shows some of the weather we had dealt with during that blizzard.

We had several other snow events, with the kids having some 6 snow days this year and several records being broken, mostly related to how long the area had a snowpack (approximately December 19, 2009 to approximately March 23, 2010). But not the absolute snowiest winter in Omaha.

Some pretty crazy side effects of all this snow emerged, too. Enjoy stories of school districts getting in trouble for not schooling their kids enough, and snowmelt revealing mold on lawns.

26. August 2010 · Comments Off on You’ll Wear It Well, Dave!! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,
I think Dave is going to look outstanding in these!!!!

Yesterday afternoon Dave received the news from his commanders that he has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Yippee!

The family is so proud of Dave. Yesterday we went out to one of our local favorite restaurants, Quaker Steak and Lube in Council Bluffs for some wings and beer to celebrate. Nothing huge, since it was a school night.

I had bought a greeting card in late July, and even had the boys sign it along with Dave’s birthday cards about 4 weeks ago. The card had been sitting, sitting, sitting, while we waited, waited, waited for this list to come out. I got nervous that I had jinxed things by having everyone preemptively sign the card.

Dave has a line number of 833. Every month Congress and the Air Force designates how many of those selected for promotion will get to put on their new rank. It’s a budget thing. Currently about 130 selectees get to put on their new rank each month. At this rate, I don’t expect Dave to wear his new rank (or see his new paycheck) until at least next summer sometime. And that monthly increment can change according to budget needs…so folks don’t really know for sure what month until 1-2 months prior.

And the goober I am, since I wrote that title up there, this song has been stuck in my brain, so I figured I’d share it with the rest of you. Even though the song itself is totally unrelated to military promotions.

25. August 2010 · Comments Off on The Corn Debate — Starch or Veggie? · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Considering I’m in Nebraska, it makes sense that we should take some time to discuss corn here, right?

The nickname “Cornhusker” was first adopted by the University of Nebraska football team in 1900.

The little farm stands popped up all over the Omaha Metro, as they do every year in mid-July. I’m partial to this nice stand at about 15th St. and Cornhusker Ave. The two polite young men who operate the stand are both in college and happily accept tips to help their tuition 🙂 I’ll pick up corn that’s was picked less than 24 hours ago at 50 cents an ear. I’ve probably done this 5 times so far this summer and I think everyone’s had their fill.

I know I can get corn for 10 cents an ear at Walmart, but I learned that their corn came to us from Florida!

Now why would I buy Florida corn in Nebraska of all places????

Anyway, it had gotten me thinking about how folks serve up corn in their households. I’m not talking about recipes with corn, but rather how corn is regarded for dinner service: starch or veggie?

I remember it being treated like a veggie in my house growing up, but knowing what I know about corn’s chemical composition, and how easily it can become corn chips or corn tortillas, we have migrated it over to the starch group since we’ve had kids.

So instead of rice or potatoes, we’ll serve up some corn.

I noticed, based on my oh-so-scientific poll from August 2nd, that 2/3 of my sample set continue to treat corn as a veggie, while 1/3 of us treat it as a starch. I guess that makes sense. I was definitely on the fence for this one, too.

24. August 2010 · Comments Off on Iowa Discoveries: The Iowa State Fair…or…What Did They Try to Fry THIS Year? · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

This past weekend we paid a visit to the Iowa State Fair. In 2008 and 2009 we drove right down the road to Lincoln for the Nebraska State Fair, which was fun when it was nice and close. This year, the state fair will open up on August 27th at their new home at Fonner Park in Grand Island, NE, which is about 2 1/2 hours away from here.

The former State Fairgrounds in Lincoln will become the Nebraska Innovation Campus, a university-private industry research center. Similar to N.C. State’s Centennial Campus, and Penn State’s Innovation Park.

Since Nebraska’s State Fair moved relatively far away, we decided to check out Iowa’s State Fair, near downtown Des Moines, about 130 miles east of us.

I think this might be the biggest state fair I’ve ever attended. I’ve only been to 4 of them: Ohio, North Carolina, Nebraska and now Iowa’s. The old buildings reminded me of the historic buildings at the NC State Fairgrounds. There were numerous midways, and we had trouble finding the little-kid-friendly rides. Unfortunately, it was incredibly hot, and I think were all that much crankier from it.

Enjoy some pictures from our day at the fair!

Timmy did a leaf rubbing and taped it to a display area:

From 2010 08 21 Iowa State Fair
From 2010 08 21 Iowa State Fair

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23. August 2010 · Comments Off on Rocky Mountain National Park Flowers · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

I copied the flower pictures into a new slide show. Enjoy!

23. August 2010 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 4 — Rocky Mountain National Park · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

The reason we went up to Estes Park was to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent 2 days at the park enjoying hikes and scenic drives.

We took a somewhat advanced trail near the Bear Lake trailhead on the first day, I think some of the rangers were surprised that we were considering taking our young boys, but they did really well. Yep, we were going way up there!

From 2010 08 09 Rocky Mtn Natl Park Day 1
From 2010 08 09 Rocky Mtn Natl Park Day 1

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23. August 2010 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries: Part 3 — YMCA of the Rockies and Dunraven Inn · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

After our day in Golden, we made our way up into the mountains towards our next stop: Estes Park!

Dave had been to the mountains in Colorado before, but I never had. I’d only been TDY to Boulder and Louisville, CO for a meeting. And there was no sightseeing on that trip!

Anyway, the drive from Golden to Estes Park was magnificent. North to Boulder, then northwest into Estes Park. So beautiful!

We had booked a “Military Getaway” package at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. Two nights in their newest lodge plus meals at their dining hall for $179. Considering all the other things in Estes Park, from cabins to beds and breakfasts to lodges, were $150+ per night, this was a welcome deal. I knew that the Y’s lodge rooms were “simple” and the dining hall was on the order of a college dining hall. When we entered the compound, we were in awe of how beautiful it all was!

From 2010 08 08 YMCA of the Rockies
From 2010 08 08 YMCA of the Rockies

We stayed in the Longs Peak Lodge:

From 2010 08 08 YMCA of the Rockies

I’m going to include some other pictures from the Y visit here, even though they’re appearing in another blog post. We enjoyed seeing grazing elk on the compound:

From 2010 08 11 Colorado Trip Last 2 days
From 2010 08 11 Colorado Trip Last 2 days
From 2010 08 11 Colorado Trip Last 2 days

And we also enjoyed the arts and crafts center at the Y, Timmy and I did tie-dyeing and some mosaic art:

From 2010 08 11 Colorado Trip Last 2 days
From 2010 08 11 Colorado Trip Last 2 days
From 2010 08 11 Colorado Trip Last 2 days
From 2010 08 11 Colorado Trip Last 2 days
From 2010 08 11 Colorado Trip Last 2 days

For dinner on the first night we left the compound and tried out a restaurant our friend Adam had recommended, the Dunraven Inn right up the street. There was a wait for a table so we checked out a creek across the street:

From 2010 08 08 YMCA of the Rockies
From 2010 08 08 YMCA of the Rockies
From 2010 08 08 YMCA of the Rockies

The Dunraven Inn was so much fun! When you walk in, this is what greets you:

From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn
From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn
From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn
From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn

All we have to do is decorate a dollar bill with the markers they provide you, and the maître d’ hands you a stapler to tack it to the wall. The boys wasted no time!

From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn

I wrote the date and “Bellevue, Nebraska”, and the boys did the rest:

From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn
From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn
From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn

After dinner (which was really really good and had HUGE portions), Dave worked on one:

From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn
From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn

He stapled it to a primo location just above the maître d’s station.  And in typical Penn State Alumni fashion — a party of 5 PSU alumni were the very next guests coming in and noticed Dave’s bill right away.  I am NOT making this up!

From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn
From 2010 08 08 Dunnraven Inn
23. August 2010 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries: Part 2 — Golden, CO · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

After Rose’s Saturday night reception, we checked out of the hotel on Sunday morning and enjoyed a beautiful drive up to Golden, about 25 miles west of Denver. There were two things in particular we wanted to see in Golden: The Colorado Railroad Museum and the Coors Brewery Tour.

I’m falling behind on my posts so I’ll speed things up a bit. Less talk, more pictures.

We were in awe of all the bicycles on the roads. I’m sure bike riding is a popular Sunday morning activity there — they were conquering some pretty impressive hills/inclines!

From 2010 08 08 Colorado RR Museum
From 2010 08 08 Colorado RR Museum
From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour

First stop, the Railroad Museum! We made it there right when it opened up. This facility is about the size of the Strasburg RR or the NC Transportation Museum, and is full of pieces from Colorado’s railroads over the past years (which Dave could speak to more than I could). For a small extra fee, you could ride around the museum on a Galloping Goose, which was one of the Rio Grande Southern’s converted Pierce Arrow limousines. Learn more about Galloping Geese here. Enjoy some pictures!

From 2010 08 08 Colorado RR Museum
From 2010 08 08 Colorado RR Museum
From 2010 08 08 Colorado RR Museum

Jacob got to ride shotgun in the Galloping Goose!

From 2010 08 08 Colorado RR Museum
From 2010 08 08 Colorado RR Museum

After the museum we went into downtown Golden and had lunch at a restaurant there. Then we headed over to the Coors Brewery for their free tour. And what a line there was! We waited 45 minutes in the sun but made it onto the bus and over to the brewery, whoo hoo!

From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour
From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour
From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour
From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour

We received these audio tour handsets, you dialed the numbers on the tour and listened to the guy talk. Only the adults could get the handsets, but the kids hijacked them and enjoyed listening about how the beer is made here:

From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour

All those kettles….mmmmm:

From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour

Cool facts about Coors beer:

From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour
From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour

The packaging line:

From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour

Like all these other tourist attractions we go to, you’re yanked aside on the way in for a photograph. We did that, and we were handed the pictures on the way through the tasting area. If you don’t like the picture, you hand it back on the way out of the brewery. My iPhone accidentally captured a likeness of the picture:

From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour

Oops 🙂

Dave enjoyed his glass of “Colorado Native” beer, and I enjoyed some Blue Moon.

From 2010 08 08 Coors Brewery Tour

After the tour, at about 4pm, we packed up and continued our journey into the mountains. Next stop: Estes Park!

20. August 2010 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries: Part 1 — Denver and Stoor Wedding · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

Earlier this month the family paid a trip to our neighbor state to the west: Colorado. We were invited to our friend Rose’s wedding at Buckley AFB near Denver! We worked with Rose in Florida, and I had a chance to work with her again while I was deployed in Spring 2009.

After a VERY uninteresting drive, we found our hotel and some yummy dinner at Bonefish Grill (yay Bang Bang Shrimp!!!), we had fun at a local western wear superstore: Shepler’s.

From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding

On Saturday, we spent the morning and lunchtime out in Denver with our college friend Adam. First stop: Caboose Hobbies, the biggest hobby store west of the Mississippi, if not the universe. I’ve heard Dave tell me about this store for 16 years, so even I was curious about it. It’s quite large: a former full-fledged grocery store! If you look at the front window of the store, you can see the photographer in the window:

From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding

We visited Adam’s house in Denver, which is an enormous work in progress both inside and out. He’s replacing the lawn and reworking bathrooms, bedrooms and the kitchen. Phew!

After visiting the house, Adam did some sleuthing via his sisters and took us to one of the best Mexican restaurants in Denver: D’Corazon. I had a fabulous chiles relleno!!!

From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding

We returned to the hotel to get ready for the wedding, the REAL reason we were in Colorado in the first place! I don’t have any pictures to document this, but about an hour before the wedding (and about 5 minutes before we were heading out the door), Dave hollered “I have no pants!!!!”.

No, he wasn’t being naughty — what he had meant was that he had no SUIT PANTS to wear to the wedding. They were sitting in our closet back in Nebraska!!! I had apparently put Dave’s suit in the truck when packing without checking for all the components. After about 5-6 minutes of significant…uh…venting at each other, Dave and I together had a plan: Rose and Brad were getting married at Buckley AFB and the base has a BX (Base Exchange, like a department store). Just the night before Brad was saying that the BX at Buckley was bigger and nicer than the one at Vandenberg AFB. So perhaps we could pick up some black pants there?

Success! We made it to the base at 4pm, Dave found the pants (and belt) he needed and changed in the restroom at the BX…and we made it to the church on time for the 4:30 wedding!!!! Actually, we made it before the bride did…and most of the guests, who were bussed onto the base due to security.

But here’s Dave and the pants…what do you think? Hopefully the answer is “Well, if you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have known, but yeah…the pants are indeed a little darker….”

Hooray for base exchanges!!!

From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding

The wedding was beautiful, the boys had a good time, and the reception was really cool: Brad had proposed to Rose at the top of the Eiffel Tower, so there was a beautiful Eiffel Tower ice sculpture on the dance floor, and all the guests received Eiffel Tower-shaped chocolates as wedding favors. Rose’s “signature color”, bright pink, was so elegant in the cake, the flowers (including the gorgeous rose in her hair!) and the bridesmaid dresses. I’m going to shut up now and finish this off with pictures from the wedding and reception. Enjoy!

From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding

I enjoyed this stained glass honoring Buckley’s space mission.

From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding
From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding

Jacob really enjoyed dancing, while Timmy stayed at the kids’ reception watching Pixar movies.

From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding

Until Part 2: Golden!!!