Flying around it on blast day is AWESOME! I was in Oregon when it went boom! I was living just outside Medford, and we were getting a little bit of ash fall. We were glued to the TV LOL.

I managed to pick up a couple of bottles of ash, and had kept them in my sock drawer. One day as I was walking past my kids playing in the dirt I noticed they had the ash bottles!!!! They had dumped out all of the ash from one of the bottles and the other only had about a fourth of what was in it left.

I still have that little bit of ash, and now keep locked up LOL.

This website is one of my favorites, it has alot of memories attached to it for me also, but nothing like what you experienced. I am envious!!