Arizona Goodyear Air Spectacular

We went to the Arizona Air Spectacular on Saturday. It was supposedly to be THE event of the year in goodyear. The last time it was held in goodyear was back in 2001. Tickets were sold for 18USD but we managed to get hold of 2 complimentary tickets. I was so looking forward to this event. The highlight of the show was a synchronized air show by the US NAVY BLUE ANGELS.

However, I must say, the event was one of the worst planned events I ever attended. Howard was so excited about the show. You know, howard being a aircraft feak and also how often can one attend an airshow with the blue angels performing. The blue angels was scheduled to fly at 3pm and we decided to leave our place at 1pm (we were just minutes away from the event place). We were told to park in a designated lot and a yellow school bus will pick the visitors up and ferry us to the airport. However, when we reached the lots at about 1.15, a snake queue had already been formed.

Under the scorching sun, we had to queue for about 1.5hr before boarding the bus. There was only 1 school bus operating and the school bus could only take 60 people each time and it comes in about 20 mins interval. By then, people were complaining and I overheard a couple behind us saying that when this was held in California, there were more than 600k attendees. Surely, the organizers would have learnt their lesson and expect a huge turnout. I would curse and swear if we were not able to be in the airshow by 3pm in time for the blue angels.

At 2.30,we were still queuing and finally boarded the yellow bus at 2.45. Haha, many of us actually begged the driver to go faster so that we could all reach the airshow before 3. Imagine sitting in the bus while the blue angels are flying in the sky. That would be so disappointing. Well, lady luck was finally on our side, we reached the event exactly at 3pm!

The synchronized air show was simply spectacular. I managed to catch some photos. Not easy you know as the aircrafts were going so fast and I do not know where to position my camera. Anyway, am proud of my photography skill!












The nightmare came after the event. Imagine thousands of people flocking towards the exit door. Once outside, it was simply a MAD CHAOS. Everyone was waiting for the yellow school bus and there were supposedly 3 parking lots where you could park your car initially. So one would expect to see 3 queues to be formed for each respective lots. Instead, about 6 to 7 lines were formed. I was half expecting signs to show me the destinations of each buses. I asked the people queuing and they too do not know the destinations of each queue. Duh... then why are you queuing if you do not even know where the bus will bring you to. Never mind, I try to mingle my way to the start of the queue and asked the people. ...Am sure someone should know what they are doing....How wrong! Even the first in the queue do not know where she is heading for. Ask the police, they too do not know. Ask the drivers, they looked at me blankly. What poor co-ordination! Can someone tell me something!

After half hour of questioning, I finally heard someone saying, just get on the bus. The bus will go to all the 3 parking lots. I nearly laughed out loud. What a waste of resources! Here you have thousands of people and limited buses. Is it that difficult to put 3 signs out showing the respective destinations of the buses? The 3 parking lots are quite a distance from one another. What if the bus had most people parking in LOT 1 and just 2 passengers for LOT 3. The bus would still have to make a big detour to LOT 3 then. Now I know why the buses are forever so slow to arrive and the crowd seems to be ever expanding. Can't someone do something about it.

Anyway, it took me another 2 hours to board the bus.

Incidentally, the next day, while reading the national newspaper, something caught my eyes.. its titled...

ARIZONA DESERVES "LEAST SMART" TAG

It reads: In the annual"The Smartest State Award", Arizona got the last place.....

Err... guess I can't ask for much... can I?