Last summer Jeff somehow found the Glacier View Car Launch on YouTube and that became part of the Alaska bucket list. It happens on July 4th on this man's property by the river near the Matanuska glacier. The glacier was beautiful as we drove in the night before!
The event starts at 2pm but everything we'd read said if you weren't there by 11am you wouldn't see it. We packed up and got there by about 830 and we were probably around the first 500 people there (meaning there were maybe 500 already there at that time!!!)
We met some fun new friends from Colorado and found a spot in between our other 500+ new friends and got set up. Then.....we waited!
A few launch cars were set up near us so we checked them out (Jeff signed them), listened to music they had from speakers on the hill, and people watched! I brought cards to pass the time, so Ry and I played a few games.
We got to watch people with private helicopters and planes fly in and land on the little island nearby. LOTS of entertainment with the little planes since the helicopters took over the big strip and the planes had a teeny area!
Finally -- the fun began!
Up at the top a team of people rigged the cars to launch and set them on the ramp path (or whatever was there). They set off a loud horn so everyone below knew a car was launching. And then--you waited for it to launch!
Y'all - I can't even tell you how much your heart thuds when those things hit the ground! I guess it's human nature!
Some cars launched, hit the ground, rolled, and stopped.
Some cars barely launched and rolled all the way down.
One went off path and knocked down the tree that was supporting the huge flag. Later, they set off 2 together that crashed into each other before launching! All 3 of those were dumped over the cliff by forklift later!
All in all we got to see 38 cars launched off the cliff and it was pure redneck 4th of July fun!
The man who owned the property was on the mic the entire time narrating everything from about 10am on and he was a hoot. They honored ALL veterans, we sang the Star Spangled Banner and said the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a VERY 🇺🇸 American 🇺🇸 4th. We even got a flyover from military planes! This little event is catching on and it was definitely the place to be!
We didn't get to see fireworks, which was a bummer for Bennett especially, but since it doesn't get dark here until about 2am in the morning it was okay!
Prayers for continued travels and for all the people in TX impacted by the flooding.
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