Dog Day Afternoon

Since I needed medicine for Murphy from the vet, I decided to bring him along. Of course that meant that Belle had to come too, because you can't take one without taking the other.

After the vet visit, went to Harpers Ferry, and the dogs were fit to be tied...on a stack of rail ties, that is.

We hiked around for a bit, and Murphy helped himself to a cool, refreshing drink from the Shenandoah River.

Belle was a little more cautious around the water, but she got her drink too.

We sat in on part of a ranger lecture about early Harpers Ferry, but a couple of dogs were antsy and refused to sit still, so we cut that activity short.

"He was kinda boring anyway."

But we did stop by the old engine house where America's first terrorist, John Brown, once holed up during his poorly-executed seizure of the Harpers Ferry Armory in 1859.

Uh-oh. Looks like someone's getting ideas.

"Come and take it, bee-yatches!"

"Best day ever, except for the ice cream shop being closed!"

Fly Day!

Yesterday was such a nice day that I was able to get out flying again. Bruce, having nothing better to do and being a glutton for punishment, came along.

The first twenty minutes or so were "interesting" enough that I didn't get any pictures. We were hitting convective currents that had the aircraft bobbing up and down like a yo-yo or suddenly trying to go perpendicular to the horizon without warning. So because both hands were actually needed to fly the aircraft, no pictures got taken until we got down to Front Royal, VA, where those convective currents made for a seriously sporty landing that had Bruce looking just a bit nervous (as in "pulling the grab handle off of the side of the cockpit") but I still managed to get it on the runway and back off again without leaving any parts behind.

Normally I like this sort of challenge and would have stuck around for a few more shots at it, but I've learned over time to be sensitive to the feelings of my passengers, especially since when they barf, it's in my plane.

Here's a nice shot of the Shenandoah River, with Front Royal in the background.

And here's a close-up of the river, with my plane's shadow visible below...at least I hope that's MY plane's shadow.

And then, since we were in the neighborhood, we dropped by my friends at Mount Weather. Looks like someone is doing some new construction on-site.

Neat berm they've thrown up around it, either for privacy or security. Wonder what's that's all about.

And here's a nifty little secure compound within the overall secure compound that Mt. weather is.
That's a double fence with a clear gravel visibility zone in between them and just one gate on the west side.

And those three box-like objects you see there? Almost certainly massive air-conditioning chillers. Look on the roof of that big four-story building in the foreground and you'll see chillers on that roof. Look how small that building's chillers are compared to those monsters in the secure zone, that, to the casual eye, are on the roof of nothing. Well that should give you an idea of how large the underground spaces beneath this complex are. (The Wikipedia article claims 600,000 square feet.)

Here's another view.

And here's another "compound within a compound" on the east slope.

The building that looks like a church or a firehouse is one of the two main entry portals to the tunnel complex. But there's another one on the west slope that doesn't have that security perimeter around it, so there's got to be something more in this area.

I love watching this place and speculating. Just wait until I get a better camera.

(Hey Mt. Weather guys--this is what happens when your helicopters mess with G.A. pilots who are just flying past in the unrestricted airspace, minding their own business. Some of us get pissed and/or curious and come back again and again and again.)

Next, it was up the Shenandoah River into West Virginia, where this little blue house surrounded by evergreen trees set off both the "cat" and "liberal" detection alarms.

Sixty degrees out, but still a lot of ice on the water of the quarry below.

And here we are over Harpers Ferry, WV, where the Shenandoah River flows into the Potomac River, sixty miles above Washington, DC.

And what's that on the tracks? It looks like Mr. Peabody's coal train, heading back down south for another load.

And across the river to the north, the remains of the Union fortifications built atop Maryland Heights are just visible through the bare trees. Back in the day, they had some mighty big cannon up there that could dominate the town and river junction below, and every last cannon ball, bag of powder and cask of water had to be schlepped 1200 feet up the mountain from the river below. Not exactly a vacation assignment for the troops.

Give it a few weeks, and the leaves will render this all invisible until next winter

Another Harpers Ferry shot, just to point out all of the sediment in the rivers courtesy of last week's rains and snow melt. Normally, the water here would be almost totally clear.

Here's another train crossing the Potomac at Shepherdstown.

If you look close, you'll see that it's twelve locomotives all strung together and no cars. Interesting.

I tried to get a picture of my favorite Thai place downtown but muffed the shot.

Then it was back into the pattern to land.

Here's two of the new little Boeing C-17 transports (left) with the last two Lockheed C-5a transports that will soon be heading out to retirement at Davis Monthan AFB's boneyard.

Short final for Runway 8. Air's smooth as glass now. I hate to land.

The C-5s again. I hated them when they came here but I'll miss them when they're gone.

Time to put the toy back in the toybox with another 2.1 hours on the Hobbs. Until next time.

Fall Color Flight

It was an overcast day yesterday, with a slight chance of rain forecast, but the fall colors are changing and I'd promised my friend Annette a flight, so off we went.

Here's a quarry just off the airport. Getting deep fast, and if you look close, you can see the big trucks hauling rock out of there, Sunday nothwithstanding.

Hopping over the first ridge to the west, you can see the green changing to reds and oranges already.

Here's the Cacapon River, meandering north towards the Potomac.

And here's the Potomac as it cuts through the ridge in Maryland, on it's way down to the Chesapeake Bay 90 miles to the east.

And here's Interstate 68, heading east through the Sideling Hill Cut, just south of the Maryland/Pennsylvania line.

Downtown Hancock, MD, as we make a base turn, heading into the Potomac Airpark just across the river. It's at this point that Annette asks, "Uh, we're going to land?"
Yep. Airplanes do that sometimes.

Shot a nice touch-and-go for the practice, waving at a family that was using the airport for go-cart riding as we did, and then it was on down the river towards Harpers Ferry.

Along the way, we passed over Fort Frederick. A close look shows what appears to be one adult and one child inside at the gate. Looks like they've got the whole place to themselves. How cool is that?

Here's the Potomac River again, meandering lazily through Maryland farm country.

And here's a neat little dam on the river. I've overflown it several times and I need to find it and go see it on the ground sometime.

Here's the visitor center and Dunker Church at Antietam Battlefield.

And here's Burnside Bridge where it crosses Antietam Creek. I never tire of looking at it and pondering that day, September 17, 1862, when 500 Union troops died trying to take that bridge and cross the river.

And here's Harpers Ferry, where the Shenandoah comes in from the south. Washington DC is just sixty miles downriver from here.

Here's Annette flying the airplane, and hardly nervous at all.

Izak Walton gun club on Leetown Rd.

And we're home.

And the rains started fifteen minutes later. But our flight was practically perfect and a great way to spend a fall afternoon. Four states covered in less than two hours.

To the Ferry

Since it was nice out, and since two dogs had a ton of energy to burn off this morning, I took them to Harpers Ferry.

I did a bit of shopping there in a store filled with delicate, breakable, expensive things. They waited outside like good dogs.

Then it was over the river for some off-leash work on the C&O Canal towpath...and some posing on the rocks.

What hams!

Being Labor Day week-end, the place was full of hikers, bicyclists, cars and families with little kids, many of whom ran up to pet the dogs, usually without asking if it was ok or safe first. But Murphy and Belle were putting their best paws forward this day and their behavior was impeccable.

So they got ice cream cones from the Swiss Miss shop.

"I can has ice cream?"

Belle is still a bit of a prima donna in that she expects me to hold her cone for her while she daintily licks the ice cream off.

Murphy? Not so much.

Then it was back to the Lair, where both dogs trooped right into the bedroom and racked out on their dog beds. You know, sometimes dogs have great ideas. The three of us took a nice afternoon nap, and it was great. But now we're up again and it's time to start thinking barbecue for dinner. Here's hoping that your day is going this good!