20% chance of scattered showers

In South Texas when the weather man says 20% chance of SCATTERED showers, you can feel safe planning outdoor activities because that usually means you will get 0% of rain at your house or where ever you are. Well that was not the case Sunday for the air show.
Before we left our house, we were hit with a torrential rain shower that gave us almost an inch in 30 minutes. Being the ever diligent wife, I grabbed the computer and pulled up the radar to see what was happening in the area. At that time all the showers, except the one over our house, were way off to the east and heading due north. Good enough.
We get ready and go to the barrio to pick up Jon. Yes, he lives in the barrio so that is what I’m calling it. If you want to see for yourself, send me an e-mail and I will give you directions. I would love to hear what you think of the area.
After fetching Jon, we are off to Randolph AFB. We park. Now pay attention, because this part is important, NO where do they have signage telling you where you have parked. You are in the middle of a field. The parking areas are separated by 200 yards of grass in between. (I don’t think this big of a gap was there on Saturday as the weather was beautiful that day.) So we lock up the car, Roy runs back to grab the umbrellas, and off we go to the runway to catch our shuttle. We are told we have parked in A2.
We have to walk about 100 yards up to the security tent to get frisked with the metal wand and have our bag searched. Then we are on a shuttle to the air show. Yeah. The sun is trying to peak out – come on sun.
We got to see the C5 (Sy’s favorite) and the C130. We checked out the cool car the Air Force had modified to look like a pilot’s cockpit. Sy pretended to fly and shoot out of the Army helicopter and then he took a turn at driving a mini-airplane around the mini airfield. The rain was off and on, light showers, nothing to get too excited about. We did get to see the reenactment of the bombing of Pearl Harbor with things really blowing up.
We walked up closer to the area where the planes flying were (really far from the gate we came in). We stopped to buy Sy an FA18 plane (Now he wants the whole collection of fighter planes for his room.) and it starts to rain, not heavy, but I’m ready to go. We have been there almost three hours, the kid is tired (because someone told me to not bring the stroller) and I’m not carrying him all the way back to the car. AND I’m hungry and want a burger.
So we head to the car, along the way stopping to see more planes, not a problem, we have umbrellas, it’s okay that the rain is getting harder, we are good. Sy’s coat is holding up well and seems to be keeping him dry, yes his jeans are getting wet, but so are ours, not a problem.
We make it back to the gate, the rain is really coming down hard we are lucky and get on a shuttle within a few minutes. Damp but none worse for the wear, we only need to get to the car, how hard can it be?
Well it starts raining even harder and our shuttle driver has NO CLUE where he is and tells us that we are at A2 so we get off. We are walking up and down the aisles of cars in a rain like I have never seen and we cannot find our CAR. I joke with the military guys watching this mad scramble about how I wish I didn’t drive a silver Honda like everyone else in the world. They then look at Roy and ask, “What lot did you park in?” Roy answers, “A2”. To which they reply, “This is lot A1, A2 is over there,” pointing about 200 yards away. Are you freaking kidding me????
So off we go in this unbelievable rain storm (thank G-d there is no thunder or lightening) hiking across this miniature lake that has appeared. Sy is beside himself tired and wet. He cries the whole way to the car while I’m pulling him by his hand. (Poor baby) The water was sloshing in our shoes while we walked.
Roy decides to be really cool and use the trick I keep telling him about and he NEVER uses. The trick, turn the key twice and all the doors will unlock. If you turn it three times, the windows go down. Well, low and behold, he turned it three times!!! WHAT?!!!? He quick jumps in to get the windows up, but the seats get wet.
I try to get Sy in his side of the car, but he’s crying, tired, wet and his foot won’t cooperate and so it rains some more on his side. I run back to my side and jump in. Sy is still crying. I have no extra clothes for him, no blanket, no jacket. I need to plan better when the weather man says 20% chance of showers, don’t I? We are literally so wet that the water is dripping off of us and making puddles on the floor of the car. I took Sy’s shoes off of him and turned them up, the water dripped out of them, that’s how wet we were.
We finally get off base you can imagine the line of cars and the wait, right?
Well, we have to swing by G&G Sheetz to get blue pillow for Sy. Who has been asleep for the 45 minute exodus from the base. Then Roy decides we need food but we CANNOT go in anywhere so we are getting fast food. YUCK. Arby’s it is. Sy and I split the kid’s meal. He ate the fries, I ate the sandwich, we put the cheesy paper doll Super Woman together and wished to be home so we could get dry.
We dropped Jon off in the barrio where we found him, a little wetter, a little richer and with a belly full of food. (He was very happy and we can come back anytime.)
Finally, on our way home, but mind you it’s still 40 minutes until we get to our driveway. Now I really wish we had one of those supersonic planes because I’m tired, cold and still hungry. That sandwich didn’t cut it.
The funniest part of the day was when Roy got out to open the gate at the house. The only dry part of him was a small circle on his bum where he met the seat 100%. I wish I could have reacted fast enough to get the photo but the cold, tired, hungry was not going there.
I carried Sy in because I was not putting him back in those wet shoes and I didn’t want to have to make another trip to the car. We all stripped right inside the front door. Sorry for those who may have passed and seen us, we were too wet to get any further. The directions were to make a pile of wet clothes and I would get them in the washer, as soon as I got my child in a warm bath.
The night ended well. We turned on the heater, got in snuggly warm clothes and went to bed early.
Sy said he had a great time except for when he was so wet, he was full to the top with water.
Roy mentioned next year’s air show outing last night. It will be a lot of fun. Do you want to join us?