Walking with Planes

 Saturday was a sunny day so Barb and I decided to go for a cycle ride. But it was so cold once we started pedaling and I was poorly dressed for the weather, so that after 5 miles I was frozen and had to admit defeat. The wind was biting and there was simply no enjoyment about being on the bike. But still wanting to exercise and be outdoors, we decided to hike in the Manassas Battlefields instead.

This worked out well and once again Northern Virginia seemed to be preferring other activities rather than enjoying Nature's final color display of the year so we walked alone. We soon warmed up as we kept up a brisk pace with Arde leading the way.

Not sure if these were edible but it was tempting to pick them and find out but common sense prevailed, for once.

Arde had us laughing with his waddle when Barb let go of the leash. This woofer is a serious hiker for his age and despite his grey hairs he has no problem keeping up. We finished the afternoon after walking about 7 miles and I headed home to meet Rob who was coming up in the evening.

On Sunday, after our usual huge breakfast I took Rob to the Air & Space Museum in Chantilly.

Of course the first photo has to be of my beloved Blackbird.

The lovely Flying Cloud which I've featured before and Rob posing in front of the Concorde.

This Japanese fighter made me a little nervous as I felt it was about to gobble me up at any moment.

Rob was positive that the little dude was Paul Schaffer, David Letterman's sidekick. I didn't have a clue but when I checked images on line I think he may have been right. I didn't argue as years ago I met Wolf Blitzer and Michael Jordan without knowing who they were.

The older knowledgeable gentleman in the top photo was explaining how an airplane engine worked to the small lad. I assumed it went straight over his head as it had with mine until they had left and Mr Know It All Robert proceeded to walk from one end of the engine pointing out parts and describing their function in making the engine run while smirking and obviously enjoying my complete and utter inability to take on board any technical details. Men!

I was amazed at the Space section's wonderful collection of Hasselblad cameras, something I'd missed on my last visit. These cameras are some of the most expensive in the world and are high on my Santa list :)
We spent 4 hours taking in every part of the museum and then were glad to leave, grab a pizza and beer and flop in front of the TV for a while before our eyes drooped and warm sheets beckoned.

NBM Show, Charlotte, NC

On Friday morning I got up at the crack of dawn to meet Joe at work. We drove up to BWI airport and met Mike to fly down to Charlotte for the NBM show, a digital graphics show where we were going to research the latest technology in our business. Our plane took off as dawn began lighting the sky and the view from my window was beautiful.

The gold on the engine is the sunlight as it crept up over the horizon.

Just an hour later we could see Charlotte in the distance and before long we were flagging down at taxi and pulling up at the Convention Center.

I managed to take this photo once Joe and I had recovered from a laughing fit. Mike is in the cab nursing his pride moments after falling headfirst into the vehicle. I've heard of people falling out of a car but not into it. He went headlong onto the floor of the cab and got no help from us, just howls and finger pointing. A great laugh to start the day!

Looking down onto the show floor. This is the smallest show I've been to but at least it would mean we wouldn't be dealing with large crowds as we tried to obtain information on machinery. My goal was to check out the progress on the direct to garment printers as performance has been lacking on most of them in the past few years.

The Brother machine has come a long way since I last saw it running 2 years ago and my skepticism was fading as I asked questions and watched it perform. 

It prints 2 whites first and then lays down CMYK. I was impressed with the print and took a shirt to give it a wash test to check durability. It's a pricey machine at around $60 for the full package and we'd need to mull over whether the investment would be worth it for Emblemax.

This is a high density t-shirt print, a very intricate show piece and not really for wearing. The texture and registration was very impressive.

We loved this wide format printer and are considering purchasing one of these to print our own stickers and transfers among other things. I'm really pleased about this as I've always had a thing for wide format printers. I have a room right next to my office just waiting for this printer.

At lunchtime we crossed over the road to Shops on the Green and into a restaurant called Fuel. It was decorated with awesome gas station paraphernalia and the food was great.

Just outside was this impressive view of a bronze stack of books and a skyscraper behind it. It would've been fun to explore Charlotte more but we decided to whizz round the show floor one more time and then try to get an earlier flight home since ours wasn't until 8pm.

A 17ft statue of Queen Charlotte stands outside the airport. It can look quite noble from other angles but until I looked it up online, I thought this was a witch.
We asked for an earlier flight and was told to inquire at the gate of the plane leaving at 5:50pm which we did. We laughed around with the guy at the desk and must have made a good impression since despite telling us that there were quite a few already on standby, when the time came to embark, he called our names. We were so pleased. We took off as the sun was setting and got to BWI early. Little traffic meant we were all home about 9:30pm and I could sip a long awaited glass of wine before I tumbled into bed.

Max the Model

Last night I looked after the Lukester and Max and as part of their routine, they had baths. Max decided he wanted photos taken and since I only had my iPhone with me, we had to make do. All the photos below were taken under Max's direction. He decided the pose and the camera angle and I just followed his command. I was amazed at the creativity of this little 4 year old. Do we have a budding movie director or portrait photographer in our midst?

 

Fall on the Water

Barb and I took advantage of a beautiful Saturday to get the boats on the water and see the fall colors. We drove to Bull Run Marina where we were lucky enough to find only a few others present and soon we were paddling into silence except for the sounds of nature. This is such a therapeutic past time, I could actually feel the stress from the week slide off my shoulders with each dip of my paddle.

 Barb chillin' on the water.

We saw plenty of blue herons and this one let us get quite close before he took flight. 

The leaves were spectacular and we were so lucky to have this breathtaking display to ourselves. The water was like a mirror doubling the beauty of our surroundings with its reflections. It still amazes me that in such a heavily populated area, so many people prefer to shop or just sit in their homes instead of getting out and enjoying nature's wonders.

Not us!

"You came through 'cause I almost said goodbye." Frampton '95

Friday afternoon rocked my world because Rob called. And later he came to see me. And we're back together. The distance is a huge issue but he thought we had something worth saving, and he was right. I'd never let go and he said he never went away. So now I am pain free and happy again, fervently praying the period apart can make us stronger together.
So not many photos were taken over the weekend and I'm not going into details about every moment, but Barb and I had planned to go down Gordonsville way on Saturday to drop into Jessie and Jim and also show her some of the sights, some abandonments and the flea market in Louisa, so we still did that. This house was on our travels...

...as was Gordonsville Lake.

We also went into town to check out the abandoned building by the railway line.

Walking along the track Barb pointed out a Santa Claus toy in one of the windows which I assumed had been there for some years. We wandered around to the front of the building and I was surprised to see clothing on rails and some furniture out on the porch, and was then astounded to see that the building I'd thought was empty was actually very much in business as the Gordonsville Emporium. I had been so sure a few months ago that the building was vacant. We were glad we hadn't climbed in through a window from the back. Dammit, lost photo op, the owner's face would've been a picture!
We went to Rob's where Barb got to have a drive on the tractor and Rob let us go up the road and back on our own.

We finished the evening with steaks on the BBQ and beers and then we took Barb back home. We passed an old Citroen CV2 and noticed a world map with a route marked out was painted on the side. I did some research and found this. Give it a few minutes to load as it's translating from French. It's not up to date but is interesting. I also found the car's history here. We saw them heading south on Rte 29 so they were on route to Florida.
The next day Rob and I spent alone apart from some time chatting with Jessie and Jim. Well, I chatted with Jessie while Rob and Jim played with Jim's tractor. 
It felt right to be back with Rob and as well as a lot of talking, there were also a lot of laughs. Earlier on in the day, I'd helped Rob with some exterior painting. He was on the roof and I was on my ladder. I couldn't resist a dig. "So, you really thought you could've found someone on Match.com to climb ladders and paint your house then, did you?" I asked. Quick as a flash, he responded, "Sure did, she's over there," and nodded in my direction.
Walked right into that one then. We nearly fell off the house laughing.