Blogs from Virginia, United States, North America - page 12

Hello, loyal readers. I know I owe you an ending to Quest for The Stamp, and I promise I will give it to you by the end of this trip. I have a lot of unposted fun pictures I need to share from that trip, and a trip wrap up. For the past few years, the camping girlies have been meeting at Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay Preserve, Gloucester, VA, for a week of eating and sightseeing. This year, Kathy and Ginnie are on their own trip, kind of like a Pacific Ocean or bust trip. They left the east coast mid August, traveling in Ginnie’s RV, towing her car, 2 ladies, 3 dogs, and, from Kathy’s blog, they are having a wonderful time. They are at the mouth of the Columbia River now, and plan on ... read more

On 17 August Mi Hyon and I returned to Langley AFB to formally retire from my second career working for the US Air Force. The first time I retired from active duty and this time around from Civilian Service, surely the last time I will retire. My friends from Air Combat Command provided me a truly memorable send off, for which Mi Hyon and I are eternally grateful. We stayed at Langley AFB FamCamp until we left for New England on 1 September for a two month stay.... read more

Today we get to ride a train. Not just any train, but an actual steam locomotive! I've always loved trains, ever since I was a child, and today we are visiting the Cass Scenic Railroad in Cass, WV. The train doesn't leave until 11:45, and it's about 2 hours away, so we didn't have any reason to rush this morning. It rained last night, and there was a forecast of rain later in the afternoon, so Jody and I decided to wear our rainsuits this morning, just in case. So after a quick breakfast in the hotel, we loaded up the bike and headed back across the mountains. We started our journey by heading back on US-33E which was such a great motorcycle ride yesterday. The roads were still a little wet from last night's rain, ... read more

Today we bid the North a fond farewell and officially return to the South. We're have about 2 weeks left to go on this trip and we are starting to feel like we are in the home stretch. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed back north and west out of Delaware on into Maryland. We stayed far enough north to just skirt around northern Baltimore. I have been to Baltimore several times, and while I really like the downtown area, it's not really great for motorcycles. So we will save Baltimore for some other time. Most of the roads out of Delaware and through Maryland were about the same. We mostly followed Liberty Heights Ave/ MD-26 from Baltimore to Frederick. Mostly it was suburban secondary roads with lots of fast food, gas stations, ... read more

Got up with plenty of time. Went to The Buttery for a nice leisurely breakfast. Since it was a Thursday (not Saturday and end of exams, like last week), there were a number of conference-attendees there, very different crowd. Bus to airport, no problem (sounding like pros with the Dublin transport?--NO!). Picked up luggage. Then the fun began. The 'automated' check in stations were interesting, as they had been on our way to IOM. The first one we chose had a broken printer, I was told part way through. Moved to another. Somehow, we got our passports scanned, boarding passes printed, and luggage weighed and tags printed and (thanks, Mike) attached correctly. Then, you put them on the conveyor belt that weighs them again (so, no sneaking more skeins of yarn in at the last minute) ... read more