OK, so here I am driving North on Rt 95 with my wife last Friday. I’ve taken this trip many times before so I know the traffic patent well…what to expect,  where to expect it and when, including the time of year. For the most part the traffic flow that day was fine. We moved along at a steady 65mph until I approached Pease International Airport (the former Air Force Base) in New Hampshire.

All of a sudden traffic bogged down to a mere 20-25 mph.
“What the heck is going on”, I asked my wife.
“There must be an accident or road work up ahead. Just relax”, she responded.

I opened my car’s window, leaned my elbow on the door and rested my head on my hand…then gazed off into no man’s land. .. in disgust.
Within minutes my trance was broken by a loud roar that was moving closer and closer. This unexpected roar turned into a rumble, then the rumble quickly became thunderous.

I turned my eyes toward the drum-fire… In a split second a massive fighter jet bolted out of the horizon in a vertical climb almost directly over our vehicle.

My heart pounded…”Oh my God”, I  yelled to my wife, “did you see that?”
“Of course I did”, she yelled back
The first jet was followed by a second, then a third, then a fourth. The lead fighter banked right and the other three followed it in perfect alignment.

As the final jet began its turn the sun glazed off its tail revealing a bright blue, highlighted in yellow.
I knew what I was watching…the Blue Angels.

The four jets climbed upward beyond the vision barrier of my windshield. The traffic began to slowly roll again. Ahead I noticed cars parked and people standing on a small cross bridge…everyone, heads tilted upward, mesmerized by the dynamic symmetry they observed.
For about five hundred yards my Jeep crawled forward. My head bobbed between the vehicle in front of me an the sky above.
Suddenly, four small specks, easily identifiable by their wing shape came back in my sight. This time the Blue Angels began to descend.
“There they are again”, I called out. “Look at that. They’re coming straight down. I can’t believe it”.

Like thunder bolts the jets shot toward the ground. We both stared in total amazement at the performance…
and then they were gone. Gone beyond our horizon and out of our sight.

Note: I discovered that night the Blue Angels gave two public performance over the weekend at the Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth.