Calling together all New Englanders and anyone else in the area on vacation to come to the annual BBQ in Bow, NH starting from 11am. Rain or Shine. Hopefully Jake and Linda will be here too. It is time to get the list of who is coming and what they are bringing. John and I will provide the backyard, grill, tables, dishes, silverware (OK really plastic), ice, water and some soda or pop. I am also making a curried chicken salad, seven layer bars, and a bean salad.

It would help if you would bring your own lawn chairs as I only have a few. Anyone needing driving directions please e-mail me directly as the directions need to be given according to where you are coming from and are too long to print here.

One word of warning. NASCAR The NASCAR races are on in NH that weekend so traffic will be increased. Sorry about that but Jake picked the date of the BBQ.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon.

So Corey Ann this will be a test of all my 20 year old back road knowledge to get to your place or more correctly get back to my parents afterwards. They live east of Concord just the wrong side of the Loudon exit so I should be going against the flow after the races are over. Do you know what times the races are?

Just introduced Jake to bean salad. He was looking at me strangely as if this was a new idea after 20+ years together, you would have thought he'd have noticed it at a family BBQ a few times. We will hit the super WalMart fo dip, chips, juice and whatever meat tickles Jake's fancy.

Linda, You will be going the against traffic. Stay off 393 and go the back way down through the heights. I will send you and e-mail to get through Concord without getting on 393 or 93 which should help. Will check on the race times.
You can also go out the the Epsom traffic circle and take route 28 towards Allenstown and cross the river to Bow in Hooksett.

Either way would work I know both ways and I will check with my handy-dandy reference guide - Dad who knows every wandering cow path that exists.

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2004/data/schedule.html

TV coverage starts at 1:30pm (assuming EST). I believe the green flag falls at 2pm.

I will bring brownies and a big package or two of boneless breast of chicken in bar-b-q sauce to grill

Sounds like lots o' fun. Too bad I'm stuck in the midwest.

As for the race affecting traffic, this one usually lasts about 3 hours, unless there's a major accident or rain. Brian's right - except I think the green flag flies pretty close to 1:30 local time. People will be streaming in all morning, and may start spilling out of the track as early as 4:00 (local).

Eileen or Carole, correct me if you think I'm wrong on this (I've only been to races in Vegas, Bristol & Chicago).

I am looking forward to seeing everyone. Tom is going to make some home made baked beans. I hope everyone is planning on showing off their pictures. Cecil, are you and Sue planning on coming this year?

Do we know who is coming yet?

I believe Faith and I are planning to be there. We'll think about some interesting vegan munchies to bring along.

If you don't mind a few new faces, Gale Forrester and myself are going to try to make it there. We live in Newton NH (near Plaistow and Kingston) and are pretty long time Bonaire divers. I've been a BT lurker for years and a recent participant. We'll let you know for sure shortly if we're coming, as well as what we'll be bringing. Will you be posting or emailing directions? Is Route 13 or one of those small roads just west of 93 running from Manchester to Bow a good shortcut around the NASCAR traffic?

Courney,

Thanks for the invite.

I just arranged to have the day off, so I will be there.

Will bring; soft drinks, vegetables and meat for the grill along with some cheeses.

Fellow BT'r John Anderson is trying to arrange the day off as well.

Scott, I sent a private e-mail with some directions. Hope to see you and Gail soon.

Hi Corney,
Is the list growing of who is coming?? I am looking forward to seeing everyone and meeting new BT folks.

Darlene, besides the ones listed here there are Clay and Lee Lansdown and my friends Peg and Bob who have been to Bonaire with us. This should make about 18 so far. Still hope a few more will be coming.

I'm still working on BoxerBob - he's not much of a gallivanter. Will let you know (Tom!)

Ah come on Bob, a little gallivanting won't hurt you none.

Rusty!!! Try really hard. Tell him that I have more snorkeling pictures for him to look at! I'd love to see you again.

Rusty, if you can't talk BoxerBob into it, ask Dadz if he wants to go for a ride!

Faith

Tom just pointed me here.....unfortunatly I will be away that weekend Take great pics everyone....and drink a few for me?????

LaDonna

Any luck yet Rusty????
La Donna, sorry you aren't going to be able to come. It would have been nice to see you again.

Ann ,
My husband and I would love to come to your BBQ on Sunday the 25th. We are new divers (3 year this summer) and would just love to meet all you BT’ers. We have planned our first trip to Bonaire in August 19-26th. We’ll bring an extra chair, and lots of Jerk Chicken for the grill. We live in New Boston so if you could provide us with a street address and start time, we’ll find you. Looking forward to meeting you all and seeing pictures. John and Annie

Gale and I will definitely be there next Sunday. Looking at all the responses, it appears like there's gonna be plenty of stuff for the grill, so we'll bring some dessert as well as some homemade guacamole, salsa and chips. Let us know if ya need anything else.

Anyone wanting directions please e-mail me as there are zillion ways to get here and it depends on where you are coming from making it to long to print here. Rusty, hope you can make it too. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Cecil, are you going to be able to make it this year???? I am looking forward to meeting all the new comers and sharing pics and stories .

Yes, we are planning on coming right now. I'm thinking we'll bring a pasta salad as there seems to be lots for the grill.

Great news Cecil! I'm looking forward to catching up.

As are Linda & I!!!

Looking forward to it!!!

Jake

I am not making ANY promises, but our plans for the weekend have been put "on hold" and we MAY be able to be there!!!!! If we can, I'll bring my famous "frog eye salad" (it's for desert)

LaDonna

Rain or shine the BBQ will be held this Sunday the 25th. If it rains, we will just move inside and hold an umbrella over the grill chef. I will be off-line from late afternoon today until Sat. afternoon.

Looks like we are having a PARTY!!!!! See you all on Sunday!

HAVE A BALL, GUYS!!!

I was giving some thought to trying to get there from Rochester, NY, but now I'll be on a flight to London tomorrow night. My dad is real bad again, and my sister needs me there. That makes it the priority. Please keep us all in your prayers, it doesn't sound good. He was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma in February, and had been doing relatively well, but has had a bad downturn. The docs haven't yet decided whether further treatment is possible, or just palliative care from here on out.
Raise a glass for me...

Josie

Will do, Josie. Would prefer you were free to be with us. Good luck!!!

(Message edited by glenr on July 24, 2004)

Josie,

Your dad is in my prayers. Safe travels.

You and your Dad are in our prayers, Josie....safe trip. Carole

Josie,

Wish we could have met again this weekend. Best wishes for your Dad.

Well.....Andy's company thing is "on again"....so we are on the way to New Jersey Won't be back until tomorrow.....so we won't make it to the BBQ today WAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! I really wanted to meet everyone!!!!!! talk to you all later!

LaDonna

Well I'm back and it was a great party with very nice people and some great food. It was nice to see some old friends and make some new ones. A good time was had by all. Here's the group shot, I should take a shot at the names but with my CRS I would screw it up.

Now that's a big group... It looks like you had a ball...

Diana, Rob and I went diving today with an BBQ afterwards. Ruud wasn't able to dive...

The underwater pictures are on my site, the pictures from after the BBQ are here...:

Cecil, that was a quick upload of the picture!

I'll second Cecil -- the NE gathering was great! Lots of new faces, lots of familiar faces, a TON of food. Bas and Yana were there, too, but the toys & games in the house were apparently more interesting than getting their pictures taken with a ton of adults...

I'd take a shot at the names, too, but I don't actually know them all... (insert sheepish grin here) Ah, what the heck, I can at least start. Someone else fill in the ones I don't know/can't remember!

Kneeling, left to right: ?, Teddy Kacavas, Corney Ann Carter, Faith Senie

Standing, left to right: Cecil Berry, Sue Berry, Tom Cousino, ?, Scott Phillips (who brought TING! you sweet person, you!), Gale Phillips?, Denise Kacavas, ?, ?, John Carter, Tom Ellis, Dan Senie, Darlene Ellis, Linda Richter, Jake Richter, Lee Landsdowne, Clay Landsdowne, Glen Reem

I'm guessing the couple between Denise K. and John C. are Annie Aylesworth and her husband John, though I unfortunately did not get a chance to chat with them. If I goofed anyone's name up, my apologies! and if I didn't know it, my apologies, too... I'm sure folks will correct me as needed...

Thanks for a great day, everyone!

Faith

lst's see if I can remember how to post a picture, from the NH BT b-b-q today

Sorry, Gale, just realized you're Forrester, not Phillips!

Special thanks to Corney Ann and John Carter for again hosting the event!

Faith

a big thank you from Teddy and I also, and another pic :-)

another Gail and Clay

Many, many thanks to Corney and John for hosting this great afternoon! Lots of great food and even better conversation with lots of fun people who all love Bonaire -- a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon in NH. Driving home I realized that it kind of felt like being in Bonaire and hanging out at a restaurant or bar or poolside with a bunch of nice folks you've just met on vacation who all are all sharing their diving and life experiences. Gale and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I'm busy resizing to keep posting :-)

oops

more smiles, checking out Darlene's Bonaire pics

just what is he thinking... "that's one serious super sized DD coffee !!" ?

:-)

Annie

that's it for me .... some how I did not get the kids in my pics :-(

Courney and John thank you ever so much. It was a great day.

Like Scott said it was great being able to finally meet many fellow Bonaire lovers at once. And to again spend time with old acquaintances. Just like in Vegas a couple of years ago it felt like being with old friends.

I think I started to leave three times before I actually got in the truck and joined the I-89 Northbound NASCAR/NASTRUCK race out of New Hampshire. Yee-Haw!!!

Oops almost forgot, I also want to thank our host for arranging an incredible fly-over of three military aircraft. Now that is what I call good party planning:-{)}

Wonderful photos, looks like a wonderful day!!

Jeez, with all you fast uploaders, we guess Iwedon't need to upload our photos :-)

It was a very nice time today. Thank you so much Corney Ann & John for hosting the BT BBQ!!!

Jake & Linda

Oh yeah, forgot about the flyover. That -was- cool! KC-135 and two smaller military-looking planes (Dan thought they were A6's). Perfectly overhead! Most amazing...

Faith

I forgot to thank Corney and John, thanks for hosting the party. Still trying to figure out how you got the air national guard to do the formation flyover, very cool. I'm pretty sure it was a KC-10 and two A-10's in perfect formation. Clay told me there was another A-10 at a higher altitude that I missed.

The tanker wasa KC-135. It had two engines under each wing (KC-135 is a Boeing 707 airframe, 4 engines). A KC-10 is a tri-jet (DC-10 based). I checked the air force web site to be sure my memory was correct.

The two planes in perfect (and really impressive) formation with the tanker were indeed A-10 Thunderbolt, also known as the Warthog. (I said A-6 at the BBQ, but was thinking of the the Warthog airframe... right plane, wrong number).

I wasn't even aware the Air Force flew the A-10. I'm familiar with the Marine Corps using them for close air support.

I saw the same flyover on tv at the beginning of the race today! It was very impressive.

Looks like everyone had a great time! Thanks for posting the pics for us to share. Carole

Funny we saw the same thing and I saw two engines under the wings, one on either. But it was quick and I could be wrong. It was a tanker with a tail boom.

Funny story about the KC-10, when I was in scouts we got a tour of Pease and I got to sit in the pilot's seat and naturally I turned the wheel, well, the control surfaces moved. I was shocked that sitting on the ground they were connected and energized.

Thanks to Corney & John for a wonderful BBQ...

We really enjoyed meeting some of you (sorry we didn't get to meet and talk with everyone... This is a big group . We loved hearing the stories and viewing the pictures. You guys were all very helpful, even inspirational, and on the way home we were thinking about how nice it will be to take our first trip to Bonaire and maybe see people we 'know' down there...

The food was absolutely wonderful and with the aid of the group photo, we actually have a shot at remembering some names for next time!!

Thank you all very much.

John & Annie

Thanks to all those that came to make it a fun day. Don't know if we can ever top that fly over centered perfectly over the back yard. Faith corrected Gail's name so the other two question marks are Peg Dandy in the front row and Bob Dandy in the second row. What a great bunch of people. Glen wins the prize for distance traveled at 190 miles unless you count the trip from Bonaire for Jake and Linda.

That's funny that the flyover over the NASCAR race would be an airborne pit stop!

Thanks, Corney, for filling in Bob and Peg's names -- I couldn't remember...

Faith

Hi everyone!
First, I wanted to thank Corney and John for hosting this wonderful annual BT BBQ especially with their hectic schedule that they have right now!!!And you really did out do yourselves with that fly over!!!
I would also like to thank Jake and Linda for creating this wonderful board and who I feel are the backbone of the most wonderful, caring, generous, people who were once strangers that will band together to support or cheer anyone in need. I have met many BT'ers and made many friends from here and the ones that I haven't met, I feel like I already know! A little added bonus is that they are all good cooks and like to have BBQ's, so the food at the BBQ's is great!Another little added bonus is that I get the biggest, nicest bear hugs from Jake!! I usually get a hug on arrival and departure but I kept telling him that I didn't get my hug so I got a few extra ones!!! Just for the record, I got hugs from Linda and the kids too and most everyone else there including my husband!!
Denise and Cecil thanks for posting all the nice pictures so quickly!!!! I talked so much at the BBQ that I never took out my camera!! Imagine me without a camera in my hand!!It was great meeting Scott, Gale, Ann, John and Tom C (I already knew my husband Tomand everyone else)
I guess you can tell that we had a great time and enjoyed seeing old friends and new ones.
for those who don't know,Clay and Lee hosted the first BT BBQ and now they travel around enjoying life in this gorgeous RV that we had the pleasure of seeing after the BBQ and on our way home we got to see 3 deer up close in a field!!! What a nice way to end the day!

This is why they say that eyewitness testimony is questionable-- not saying whose here at all. But-- I was standing with Cecil as the three planes flew over and I have to concur on the KC-10-- total of 2 engines.

Re A-10: totally a USAF a/c, no Marine use: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/a-10.htm . Dan, perhaps you were thinking of the OV-10-- that was built for and used by the Marines, as well as the USAF and USN: http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/ov-10.htm . A Google search on the a/c designator produces lots of info for each. For OV-10, also search on 'Black Ponies', the USN squadron that used them for CAS in the Mekong Delta. Fascinating book titled "Flying Black Ponies" about that.

A good day was had by all and my TKS also to Corney and John and all the chefs who provided the good food.

Well Glen seems we owe Dan an apology. A couple of days ago the local TV station was talking about the upcoming race event at NHIS and they showed a video of the flyover from July. The plane had four engines and a tail boom ergo a KC-135. As way of proof here's a picture taken by a fan at the track.

Oops and Dan you were correct.

Another example of how unreliable eyewitness testimony is.

Thanks Cecil. I'm good at remembering images. Glad you found that picture. Confirms my memory.

Aw, that was another flyby the same day, surely!!!! :–)

Sure, Glen stick to that story, I might also.