Up, Up and Away

First off, I want to thank everyone for the compliments on my new header. That bike is in my sister, Linda's, front yard. She picked up the bike at a garage sale, spray-painted it that neon green color, found baskets for it, then planted the flowers in it. Now you know WHY I call her Linda Martha Stewart.

 No Effects of Hurricane Irene by me over the weekend!

There is a "soaring club" near our campground. We pass it quite frequently. I kept telling Jim that one of these days I was going to stop there and take pictures.

Well this past Saturday we had the opportunity to do so.

Now for some reason, whenever I have a camera in my hand, I feel very bold and confident. It's almost like wearing a Superman Wonder Woman cape and having magical powers.

Wait. She wore a metal bra, right? Hmm....I wear an underwire bra, maybe THAT gives me confidence......oh I digress!

My point is, although  I can talk to most anyone,  I am shy in some circumstances. But put a camera in my hand and I act like it's a badge or a free pass.

Back to my story. So Jim and I walked onto the long rectangular field. The building was on our left. Jim hung way back. But not me.

I am woman, hear me roar.

There was a group of people huddled to the side. Some were sitting at a table with an umbrella over them that gave them some relief from the heat of the sun. I walked up to a man who looked like he was in charge; plus he was wearing a bright orange vest AND he carried a walkie/talkie.

"Do you mind if I take some pictures?" I asked him.

"Take all the pictures you want!" He replied quite friendly.

I waved Jim closer to me so he could get a better look at the planes.

This glider plane is waiting to be towed up into the air. (ENLARGE ALL PHOTOS TO SEE BETTER.)

We watched as a small plane landed on the field and came close to the glider plane. This man is carrying the tow rope over to the glider. Notice the rope is attached to the plane.

Now he hooks up the tow rope to the glider.

Ready for take off! Orange man holds the wing up and walks along until the plane goes faster.

And we have lift off!

 It just a minute or so, both planes were soaring in the clouds!

 Pretty soon it was time for the next glider to come on the field.

I boldly ran over and talked to the pilot, and asked if I could take his picture. He said "yes".

I explained that I didn't work for a newspaper or anything, and that the picture was for my blog. His friend say, "Hey, you stand next to him (Alex the pilot) and I'll take a picture of the two of you."

I said, "No, no, I don't want MY picture taken!"

He said, "Do you want to go up in an airplane?"

"No, no that's okay!"

"Sure, why not? He's a pilot! We have two-seaters over there!" He said, pointing to a larger plane.

He seemed to be doing all the talking for his friend.

I again declined and then I had to get off the field because the airplane was coming in for a landing.


Here are three gliders lined up waiting their turn. Geez, this is almost like the planes lined up at Chicago O'hare Airport!

Some of the gliders are kept in these funny looking boxes.

The gliders are stored in pieces. Here's one that was just being put together. I wish we could have stayed to see the wings put on. The fuselage just out of the box.

Inside the storage box.

Here is a quick clip that shows you how these planes are put together.



The second video is a short video from the Soaring Club. It's worth watching.




Now I just know, you are all thinking, "WHY DIDN'T YOU GO FOR A RIDE ON THAT PLANE?"

I obviously took off my WONDER WOMAN BRA because all my boldness left and I chickened out. Besides, when I looked this place up on the internet, I found out that there was a WEIGHT LIMIT to fly in the plane.

Would they have asked me how much I weighed? And would they have believed me?

Or worse still, would I have had to step on a scale? YIKES!!