Key West… Boca Chica Air Field Visit

It could be Hawaii or Boca Chica either way it's beautiful!!

Key West Naval Air Station is made up of small parcels all over the island and keys. The actual airfield is in Boca Chica, about four miles away. We would explore this area, especially the Marina and Aviators Lounge later this afternoon. This Sunday morning was especially nice weather wise. I couldn’t help from going outside the camper and doing something that I like doing back home in the summer time. That is wax my truck. I just wanted to cleanup the rims and get that grill sparkling again. I spent an hour or so doing just that. Helen asked if a BBQ would be good for lunch. I climbed on top of the camper and handed down our Weber propane grill. Lunch was soon on the table. After lunch cleanup, we headed for Boca Chica Airfield. A couple of minutes before leaving, a fellow NH camper stopped by for a chat and I told him where we headed. He said there is a girl who bartends in the Aviators Lounge and she said she going to Gorham, NH for a class reunion. Marsha is her name. She doesn’t work on weekends, but we will stop in and see who she is later in the week.
The ride to Boca Chica was a little longer because, I wanted to explore the Atlantic side of Key West. To my surprise the road is wide, little traffic and ample parking along the beach. There was three to four miles of this sunny beach road. The highway circled around to connect with US 1 North. The Air Field exit came up fairly fast once we crossed into Stock Island. At the gate, I asked “which way to the Marina?” “Go straight to the stop sign , take a right to the end of the road” he said. The Marina stood out with the armada of sailing ship masts. I parked the “Boomers On The Move” camper in one of the last spots. Wow! What a south sea replica. From the beach to the thatched roof huts to all the yachts and people living on them. Even the water was encircled with netting to prevent creatures from the deep from encroaching on kids swimming close to shore.
The Aviator lounge was open, but Marsha as we were told was not working. Back outside we watched boat people scrubbing their sailboats. Another couple got into one of those rubber dinghies. I wondered how they would board their sailboat anchored off shore. They did it very gracefully.
On the way back we read the sign close to the runway. “Look both ways before crossing, low flying aircraft!” I stopped and looked both ways! To my right was two jet fighters. They were idling at the end of the runway facing away from us. Then the one on the left opens the throttle and both afterburners kick in. They heat and power generated was unbelievable. He let the brakes go and off into the sky in a very short distance. Five seconds later his wing man does the same thing. Directly to my right is a large sign! “Absolutely No Photography Allowed” I told Helen, that she just witnessed a jetfighter takeoff that she will probably never see again unless she was on an aircraft carrier. You see those fighters are, most of time are on some aircraft carrier out at sea. I was a good boy and didn’t sneak a memorable photo of this event.
That is what we saw and did!