It All Started With A Swing: Memphis Belle

On the 1st of June, John and I went out to the South Valley Regional Airport with most of his family to see the Memphis Belle. The plane, that was used in the moving Memphis Belle, not the actual plane was in town just for the weekend, and being a huge part of history, we all figured it would be a kind of cool to go out and see it. We definitely weren't disappointed. I was a little hesitant to go at first, because I didn't think I would enjoy it, but I am so glad I went because it was worth it. For $450 dollars you could take a half hour ride in the plane, around the valley. We all told Mike that they next time it comes into town, he better be prepared to pay for all of us to go. ;)

They were behind on the flights because they had to postpone some from Saturday due to wind, so we ended up hanging out for a couple hours waiting for the flights to end before we could go up to the plane, and through the plane. Miss Olivia is fascinated by everything, and wanted to take pictures of the "plane that goes up in the sky", so I let her hold it (while I kept a hold of the strap) and we showed her where you could see through the camera, and where you can click to take a picture. I'm not sure the latter was a smart idea, seeing as I had over 100 blurry pictures of her feet. But she was so cute with it.

On the last flight that they did, there was a man who served in the military during WWII, and completed all 25 of his flights/missions. It was kind of amazing to see him come off the plane after he had taken a ride. He has to be at least in his 90s, and he was just the cutest ever. Everyone stood up and applauded him as he got off the plane. I teared up. It was just so great.

After that last flight had landed, they started lining up people to walk through the plane, and gave everyone permission to pass the yellow tape, and we were all free to walk around the plane, take pictures, look at everything. We thought that the line to go through the plan would move more quickly than it did, so no one stood in line at the beginning. We were there for probably another hour or two before we got in the plane. I think we stood in line for 40 minutes, because after realizing that the line wasn't getting any smaller, John figured someone should go stand in it. I took more pictures than probably necessary, but it was just so cool, I wanted to see every part of it!

John with his Dad and brothers Dustin and Matt

We finally were able to get up into the plane. It is WAY smaller than you would think. But when you think about how the guys in these planes were 18 and 19 years old, and the average height was like 5'6, then it makes sense why it is so small, and why they needed smaller guys to do this job. We sat and took pictures in the very front, I want to say it's a lead gunner seat, but I could totally be making that up. After we got out of that part of the plane, to head back, the guy directing traffic asked us to put up the net, because people weren't supposed to go in there! Whoops! So, I'm glad we went in when we did, because we got to go in there!

You can see in some of the pictures how small it really was in there. There was one part where you had to turn sideways and shimmy your body through. Poor Millys is pregnant. She said she could definitely feel the tightness on both sides of her body.