Message posted by speedbird15 on November 01, 2003 at 15:14:31 PST:
Hi to all. I'm back (and safe) in Italy after my two weeks trip to California and Nevada. On my arrival at KSFO after an 11 hours flight from Amsterdam, Customs officers opened my bag and found a Scanner, lists of freq. and Edwards AFB map with directions. They called an inspector and then went two of the worst hours of my life : why did You have this material, why did You go to Edwards and Salinas, did You work for the Italian Government, are You a Spy and so on for more than TWO HOURS !!! Fortunately, they found also the copy of a reply form from Edwards stating the permission to introduce photographing equipment and a scanner into the base for the Airshow, so they let me go (dazed, tired and confused). Anyway, the rest of the trip was a success : two days at Salinas Airshow, one day at Rachel and Coyote Summit (Wednesday 22nd-at Coyote I saw a green car, perhaps a Cherokee, I was driving a Gold Buick Rendezvous SUV, did anyone spotted me ?), three days at Nellis for the Red Flag (Cheyenne Avenue, more than 15 rolls of films...), two days at Edwards AFB Airshow, one day at Fox Field watchin' firebombers taking off and landing (what a tragedy the wildfires in California !) and last day at the Western Museum at Oakland and the USS Hornet at former NAS Alameda. This was my 4th visit to the USA and the second best after the 1997 trip to Nellis for the Golden Air Tattoo (in aviation and photographing terms, anyway). After the disappointment of the arrival, I was terrorized and taken several hours to recover. But just the sighting of the F-22 landing at Nellis was worth the trip. I will post some photos on my website in the following weeks. Ciao a tutti.
Attached link: My Home Page
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