Thunder Over Louisville - a celebration

04/23/2006

Yesterday was a terrifically wonderful day for Nancy and me.  We are here in Louisville, Kentucky to attend a conference that begins on Monday.  Yesterday was the kickoff for this year’s Kentucky Derby celebration.  I had no idea what to expect but understood this day’s events would be memorable.  As I walked outside the hotel Saturday morning about 6:30, I noticed several people placing lawn chairs and coolers in places where the river could be seen and laying claim to spots for the activities that were to begin later in the day.  “Thunder Over Louisville” refers to a fireworks display launched from two huge barges out on the Ohio River, the boundary line between Indiana and Kentucky.  The festivities began about 3pm with the commencement of an air show that lasted for nearly six hours. 

Military aircraft of all shapes and sizes flew overhead and out over the river.  Fighter jets and vintage aircraft in a display that took my breath away, pounded my ears, and even shook the balcony and building where about thirty of us stood watching.  The roar of an F-16 as the afterburner kicks in is deafening.  The Navy’s Blue Angels put on an incredible display of flight skills as they danced across the sky in various choreographed formations.  To see jet fighters shoot straight up into the sky for several thousands of feet is unbelievable.  Anyone who has piloted a Cessna knows it cannot be done in that aircraft, yet these planes are so very powerful they can fly on their sides for great distances defying gravity, it appears.  One has to wonder what keeps them up in the air – loss of lift and all that stuff we laymen think keeps planes aloft seems to be impossible when a plane flies with its wings perpendicular to the earth.  It is a conundrum, albeit a spectacular one.

So, about six-hundred beers later, the fireworks began.  Just about 9:30pm, from a barge in the middle of the river, there was a great boom and it was on.  I don’t know that I possess the words to describe what I saw.  For nearly twenty minutes the sky was lit up with multiple explosions of brilliant light and bright colors; some went high into the sky and others stayed lower near the shimmering water, and colors of reds, whites, greens, purples and oranges.  Straight up they flew and cascaded down over the water, a cacophony of sound and light.  Howitzers, manned by National Guardsmen, on a bridge stretching across the Ohio were fired for added affect, I suppose, with fire bellowing from the barrels and the blast echoing down the river.  Unbelievable!  Then as quickly as it started, it stopped.  Applause rippled through the estimated 800,000 people watching from both shores of the Ohio.  We, on the ninth floor balcony, sat in awe.  Just as we began to turn to move inside the hotel room, Thunder erupted, an encore, and the show went on for another ten minutes or so.  It is without a doubt the most spectacular show of its kind I have ever had the privilege to witness, and one I hope one day to see again.