Me, a Dream and a B-17

The bucket list… Having a list of to-do’s to accomplish before you, uh…kick the bucket.

A term made relatively famous courtesy of Jack and Morgan in the recent film.

I will get into the content and philosophy of having this life list in a future blog – today I merely want to share the fulfillment of an item on the Connoisseur’s list….

For no apparent reason, as a young lad growing up in the Midwest I was taken with flying machines from the World War II era. Mind you, this was a terrible time in the history of our little blue planet, but the advances made in airplane technology were truly fascinating.

I remember dreaming about all my favorite planes: the P-51 Mustang, B-25 Mitchell, F4U Corsair…and of course, the B-17 Flying Fortress. I used to read about these planes, watch television shows about them and even build the plastic models, all the while marveling at the exploits of the pilots and crew that flew these warbirds.

Back to present day. An opportunity presented itself that was perfect for me. The timing, the location, even the forecasted weather were on the money, so I jumped at the chance. Courtesy of the fine folks at the Liberty Foundation and flying aboard the Liberty Belle, I was able to check off one of the boxes on my bucket list – truly one of the peak moments of my life..! The pictures below are from my flight.

If you don’t have a bucket list yet, I advise getting to work putting one together. Then get to work checking off the items as you go…