"I started planning
our quest to Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills about two years before the event,
just after the countdown clock was started at Oshkosh. We usually
take a trip in December to celebrate our anniversary, and it was easy to
decide where our 2003 trip would take us.
We
had tickets for every day of the event, running from the 13th thru the
17th of December, but didn’t go to the park until Monday the 15th.
It was a beautiful, very cold and very windy day, probably one that
Orville & Wilbur would have loved. I called this our “dry
run” day, as I calculated the time it took us to get to the shuttle site,
how long the bus ride was, and how intensive the security check would be
at the front gate. I was very serious about this! After all
the planning over the previous two years, we were finally there!
This was our day to roam around the park, take pictures at the monument,
walk through the museum and view the displays. We also bought our
souvenirs that day as we knew things would sell out quickly as the 17th
drew closer.
On Tuesday the 16th, it
was not as cold and windy, but even more beautiful than the day
before. We were able to enjoy the events of this day which included
a celebration of 100 heroes of aviation, a 100 person parachute jump, and
fly-bys by military aircraft. We experienced a beautiful and moving moment
as the flag was flown in by one of the descending parachutists, and a bald
eagle named “Challenger” was released to fly around the monument.
Wednesday, December 17th – it had finally
arrived! Neither Curtis nor I slept very well as we were so
excited! We were up at about 3:00 a.m. and out the door at 4:30 with
blankets, cameras and rain gear in hand. It was very cold already,
but not much wind. We arrived via shuttle at about 5:45 a.m., and
were already standing in line! However, we were only about 20 people
from the front, and were in the gate at about 6:10. We hurried to
the fenced off area around the field where the flight was to take place,
and set up camp with a front row view! Everyone was so excited and
speculating on whether or not the President would actually show.
However, as the hours passed and the rain began to come more steadily, it
was pretty evident that the flight would not take place at 10:35. I
was so impressed by the attitude of the crowd, and even though the Wright
flyer never made it off the ground that day, we were so glad to have been
there on that very spot where 100 years earlier such history was
made. The collective consensus was that it only reinforced the
magnitude of such a feat. We were proud to be fellow aviators that
day!" Traci
McClung |
