On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
In my last submission to these pages, I promised my next group of photos would have glaciers.
Well, in the intervening weeks, we’ve seen the coming of the new year and there’s a little festival in the small town to the east of Glendale that happens on the first of the New Year (except if it falls on a Sunday). It’s kind of a big deal around here with a parade and a football game. The Air Force even sends one (actually two as a backup) stealth B-2 bombers to fly over the small community’s parade and football contest.
On most New Year’s Days, I arise early to catch the bomber as it makes it’s turn to line up with the parade route. This year, I had to don the Orange Apron to start my new year and could only watch the plane as it turned east towards Colorado Blvd. But as fortune might have it, I was released early enough from my duties at the Home of the Orange Apron to drive east to the hills above Arroyo Seco to capture the B-2 as it flew over the football contest.
The Goodyear blimp over the stadium.
First sight of the B-2 as it flies into the basin.
B-2 bomber against the front range of the San Gabriel Mountains.
The bomber lining up over Arroyo Seco.
The bomber with the Mt. Lowe road as a backdrop. You can see homes in the lower portion of the photo.
Side view of the B-2 as it passes over the stadium.
B-2 above the Snowcapped San Gabriels.
The B-2 headed back home, we hope to see you again next year.
Baud
Well, that’s not very stealthy.
Cool shots.
mrmoshpotato
B-2 got booed off stage. It bombed.
I’ll see myself out.
Elizabelle
The B-2 with the San Gabriels and clouds. Cool.
P Thomas
Great blimp shot!
SiubhanDuinne
Cool pictures and excellent commentary.
raven
Here’s a minute long video of the B-2 flying over the Rose Bowl at the greatest Rose Bowl game evah! Go Dawgs!
raven
It’s interesting that when it goes over the parade in the morning it has escort jets.
Robert Sneddon
From a country that doesn’t flaunt its military force as much as the USA does, my darker thoughts are that this sort of display is intended to cow the American people, not exult them.
“We use this expensive goshwow hardware you paid for to bomb and kill brown-skinned people every day but we could do this to you tomorrow. Remember that.”
Wag
Between you and Albatrossity we have two jackets who are skilled at capturing things on the wing.
Miss Bianca
My heart almost failed when I saw the words “in my last submission to these pages”, Billin, then I read a little further and went “whew!”
Amazing shots, as always!
J R in WV
Is that a B-1 blimp, or a B-2 blimp???
Or just a Blimp?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yeah, you can see the blimp for miles off. Thanks.
@mrmoshpotato: I think you owe NotMax a royalty check.
@Elizabelle: We don’t get clouds that often.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@P Thomas: Thanks, I thought that one worked well.
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy you liked them.
@raven: I think that only happened one year, usually it’s just the B-2.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Robert Sneddon: The main purpose of the fly by is for Air Force recruiting(it’s also a training flight).
@Wag: These will be the only ‘bird’ photos you’ll see from me, I stay in my lane.
@Miss Bianca: Thanks, I guess I should have gone with ‘previous’ instead of ‘last’.
@J R in WV: “It’s the Goodrich blimp!”
BigJimSlade
Very nice!
I saw one of these fly over a Boston 4th of July celebration a couple decades ago. Overhead it really looked like a piece of flying geometry.
way2blue
Ah. The Rose Bowl… And a very skinny stealth plane.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@BigJimSlade: It really does flying overhead and I usually get that shot, but I had to don the orange apron.
@way2blue: I’d never shot it flying towards me, it is very thin.
Interstadial
Nice shots of the plane and the mountains where I used to hike.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Interstadial: Thanks, I’ve had some nice hikes there as well.
Mo MacArbie
@Robert Sneddon: There was one of those flying over my old town many years ago—at least I think it was one of those. It was some sporty, V-wing number, at any rate.
I had an immediate, visceral reaction that I never wanted to see the underside of one of those things again.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mo MacArbie: The way you can tell if it is a B-2 is that there’s no tail, it is just a flying wing
ETA: When we saw it from work(we were moving BBQs back out to the front of the store, it was lower in altitude when it was making it’s turn to line up with Colorado Blvd in Pasadena than it had been in previous years. It was quite large in the sky.