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2010 Jan - March
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As delicious as our first meal of the day was (potatoes, eggs, bacon, toast, fresh fruit, coffee, juice), we were in for an even bigger treat come lunchtime. In an effort to duplicate the specialty burgers served up at Red Robin (my fave burger chain), Chef Steve ground and seasoned some nice-looking steaks before firing up the barbie. In addition to his super-flavorful patties, he cooked up asparagus, shrimp, wings, and pineapple rings for the burgers.
Scott and Stevie and I did a bit of site seeing around the Nation's Capital on Saturday. Our travels were, once again, made that much easier through the use of public transportation. The weather was a bit chilly but pleasant just the same. First stop, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Not sure how busy the museums in DC typically are on any given Saturday, but the Natural History branch was absolutely packed on this particular day. After perusing some of the oceanic/prehistoric artifacts and taking in the IMAX 3-D presentation of Galapagos at the Johnson IMAX Theater, we were ready for lunch.
Instead of heading back to the Smithsonian afterward, we decided to take in the sites and sounds on the National Mall. The following excerpt from the National Park Service's Introduction-to-the-Mall section of their website sums it up quite eloquently:
Impressive structures border it, monuments and memorials stand on it, great museums exist near it, and grand trees help shade it, yet the harmony of these things together merely enhances the concept at its very best. The Mall is the heart of the Nation's Capital and of the entire United States of America. Here, the nation celebrates, honors, and demonstrates its commitment to democracy.
General Sherman's Statue located southeast of the White House
The White House located within President's Park
The Lincoln Memorial
The Jefferson Monument as seen from across the Tidal Basin. It was the first day of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which no doubt contributed to the throngs of people in the museum and milling about the Mall. The trees were absolutely beautiful.
More next week.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 03/20/10
While ascetically quite pleasing, keeping unpainted aluminum looking this good is apparently anything but simplistic; it requires lots of time and elbow grease. I sure wish I had my Nikon D3000 with me on this trip as I would loved to have gotten a better photo. Based on the number of sites I found when I plugged in the Clipper's name/tail number, this old gal has been involved in her fair share of photo ops.
At around 5:30 on Saturday evening, Scott and I headed to Stevie and Mio's house--me for a couple of weeks, Scott for what was left of the weekend. It was pizza for dinner followed by the movie Twilight: New Moon. I know this series is all the rage, but its appeal is lost on me.
More next week.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 03/13/10
Hubby and I departed DIA at 8:30 a.m. MDT en route to Baltimore-Washington International. In spite of the fact that we were traveling in a jet rather than an RV, the flight was painless enough. No delays. No screaming babies. No smelly fat guy sitting next to me. We actually had the luxury of an empty seat beside us.
The up side of flying the so-called "friendly skies" rather than ScottAir was that it took only three hours instead of about ten. The in-flight movie was a fun little animated feature called The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I had seen previews when it first came out and thought it looked stupid, but it turned out to be entertaining and rather funny.
After retrieving our bags and catching the bus that would take us to our rental, we made the 1-hour drive southeast to Stevie's house in Centreville, MD. The ride was pleasant with light traffic, sunny skies, and warm temps.
We had a real nice visit with Stevie, Mio, and the kids. Stevie prepared us a delish dinner of curry chicken, tossed salad, and rolls. Mio's tasty accompaniments included Japanese-style sticky rice and yummy scratch-made brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and garnished, by Jade, with fresh strawberries and a mint leaf. Before settling in front of the TV to watch Old Dogs, we sat around the table just chatting and catching up.
The weather system that had thwarted our plans to make the trip in the RV found its way to Gettysburg on Friday afternoon. Intermittent winds and heavy rains during the 1.5-hour drive from our hotel in Pennsylvania to the Shady Grove Metro Station in Montgomery County, Maryland gave me pause as to whether or not it was a good day for an outing that involved walking.
As it turned out, though, we got just a wee bit wet during the half-mile walk from the Metro Center to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. We could have transferred from the Red Line to the Blue Line and gotten that much closer to the museum, but we opted to walk it instead.
The National Mall looked every bit as stately as I had imagined our Nation's Capital might look. While this was Scott's second visit to DC, it was my first. The wet conditions prevented us from spending more time perusing the downtown area, but we hope to have the opportunity to make a return trip during our extended stay in Gettysburg.
The museum, which encompasses three levels of the massive stone building in which it is housed, is HUGE! So much to see, and the only cost to us was the $4.90 per-person round-trip ticket price for riding the Metro. Being as it was a Saturday, there wasn't even a charge for parking in the garage at the Shady Grove Station. And no hassles with driving, finding our way, or parking.
Museum with the National Monument in the background
Aside from lunch and an afternoon break, we spent every bit of seven hours looking at artifacts that ranged in significance from Fonzie's leather jacket to the original Star-Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry in the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to pen what would eventually become our National Anthem.
After leaving the museum, we stopped in at an unassuming little place called Ollie's Trolley where we shared an especially tasty burger and fries, and the red velvet chocolate cake we had for dessert was to die for! Turns out the place has been a Washington icon for 30 years.
More next week.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 03/06/10
While there's nothing special to report from the Mills household, Sunday was quite an exciting day for Cass, Dakota, and Tyler when they moved into a cozy little condo. Having been cellar dwellers at Tyler's mom's place for almost two years, they were more than ready to fly the coop when circumstances presented themselves.
We're happy that their party of three is now in a position to leave the nest, but we are also grateful to Tina for all the help she gave them. Their life together up to this point would've been difficult indeed had it not been for her generosity. Thanks also to Jill & Rick.
Aside from helping Cass get situated, a good part of my week was focused on preparing for our upcoming extended stay in the Northeast. As of Friday night, all the lose ends had been tied up and we were go for flight on Saturday morning.
Scheduled AIS (a** in seat) time was 7:00 a.m., so we were up at 5:00 and ready to close the door behind us by 6:00. Just one little problem--marginal VFR conditions along our flight path. The weather forecast, as it had been projected, threw us a curve ball and didn't pan out as anticipated.
In addition to postponing our departure until next Tuesday, we also had to change our mode of transportation from private to commercial. A real bummer, to be sure, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
After dinner with the Ziliks on Saturday evening, we took in the movie Crazy Heart. Thumbs up from Carolyn and Deb. Gary and Scott ... not so much. ;-)
More next week.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 02/28/10
Of significance here in Littleton, Colorado last week was yet another school shooting. Thankfully, there were no deaths at the Deer Creek Middle School, which is within eyeshot of where Cass and her family live. But the event did cause a flood of bad memories to resurface.
Although we now live less than a mile from where the Columbine school massacre took place, it was the Platte Canyon shooting that hit close to home for us. We lived up in Bailey at the time and Cass was in class at PCHS on September 27th of 2006. She had, in fact, been in the very room where Emily would later be shot. And she was just down the hall when the gunman entered the classroom and set his dastardly plan in motion.
Aside from worrying about our son as he serves our country in the United States Navy, there have been three "oh no" moments for us as parents. The day of the Platte Canyon shooting was one such instance. To stand outside a school building and ponder the whys of such an unthinkable act while your own child is inside that building is something I will not soon forget. What kind of a world do we live in when students being shot at school has become almost commonplace?
On a brighter note, Scott took a couple of kids up for their first taste of flight on Saturday morning. According to YE Event Coordinator Rudy Kniese, the rally was a record-breaker with 16 planes participating and 51 young eagles taking flight!
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More next week.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 02/20/10
Our weekend in SoCal at an end, we were wheels up out of the skypark at 8:45 PDT on Sunday morning.
Our one and only planned stop en route home was St. Johns Industrial Airport in Arizona. The departure from KSJN was a bit bumpy, but the ride up to that point had been smooth and scenic.
It came as no surprise when conditions through the mountains were not conducive to safe passage. An overnighter in Alamosa was preferable to the ugliness that was brewing over La Veta Pass.
The folks at Mountainview Aeromotive, John in particular, took good care of us. After he had hangared our plane and called us a cab, we said hasta manana and headed for the Holiday Inn Express.
A quick hop from KALS to KFTG and another of Scott & Deb's EXcellent Weekend Excursions had come full circle. Read more about it here.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 02/13/10
Sunday was one of the laziest days Scott and I have spent together since I don't remember when. Aside from playing with my Christmas Kindle, nothing particularly noteworthy for the rest of the week; until Friday, that is.
We headed out in 339A on Friday morning en route to the home of the Rosaleses in Rosamond Skypark. About 6.5 hours after leaving the snow-capped mountains of Colorado, we landed 1,090 miles to the southeast in the Mojave Desert of Southern California.
We had an awesome time visiting with our friends and attending the soup and movie social they hosted in their hangar. It was Paul & Victoria who first inspired us and the Ziliks to co-host events like "Chili and A Movie" at Front Range. They are generous folks who willingly give of themselves for the enjoyment and comfort of others. A worthy trait that we're doing our best to emulate.
More about our trip in next week's post.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 02/06/10
Scott & I headed in the direction of Pueblo Memorial Airport on Sunday morning for a spot of breakfast at the Spitfire Grill. The flight was smooth and scenic. I spent a fare amount of time playing with the Nikon D3000 SLR camera (which can be had for a bit less at Amazon.com) that hubby gave me for Christmas.
While I was soon to discover that serious time and practice will be required in order to use the thing to its fullest potential, I am pleased with the quality of the photos it takes. The 18-55mm lens that came with the camera allows me to bring objects just that much closer than our Canon point and shoot had been able to, but I'll still need a zoom lens for the shots I'm hoping to get.
on the ramp at KPUB with Pikes Peak looming large in the background
my pilot sets up for a nice cross-wind landing at KFTG
We and the Ziliks hosted our second hangar movie event on Sunday. A dozen aviator/co-pilot types eagerly sampled four different varieties of chili with all the fixins and watched Star Trek on the big screen. The Bakers, unable to fly because of inclement weather, drove three hours each way just to spend time with us. We sure did appreciate that!
Bebe was our furriest (and, by far, cutest) guest.
Not much else to report. Aside from a few short jaunts, it's coming up on three months since I last traveled anywhere in the RV with Scott. Cabin fever is setting in and I'm Jonesin' for my next Riley fix. If all goes according to plan, a mid-March trip back to Gettysburg is in the works. From there it's a pretty short hop over to Centreville, Maryland where our other two grandchildren just happen to live. ;-)
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 01/30/10
Nothing blogworthy to report.
Week Ending 01/23/10
Nothing blogworthy to report.
Week Ending 01/16/10
Things continue to be quiet on the Mills home front. Aside from seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D with the Ziliks on Sunday evening, not much to blog about.
As for the movie, I found it to be visually stimulating and emotionally irritating. When you strip away the slick digital imagery and cool 3D technology, the underlying theme throughout the movie is in keeping with much (if not most) of what Hollywierd continues to dish up: capitalism is of the devil; white guys only like white guys; our ruthless military kills indiscriminately without conscience; guns are evil; mankind (particularly those of the white American male persuasion) does nothing but rape, pillage, and destroy mother earth; God is a woman; blah, blah, blah.
Oh yeah, and the whole green agenda. While I certainly believe we have a God-given responsibility to take care of the earth, I prefer to worship the creator of the earth rather than the earth itself.
I understand that all movies have a message ... a story to tell, but I watch movies to be entertained not bombarded with anti-American, anti-military, anti-gun, anti-capitalism, anti-white guy propaganda.
But since Hollywood, like Washington, doesn't give a hoot what Deb Mills thinks, I suspect they'll keep churning 'em out.
More next week.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 01/09/10
Not much to report from Millsville for the first full week of 2010 ...
Scott was in Burlington, Vermont during a cold snap that was one of the nation's most widespread since 1985. Must be all that global warming.
As he stood waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting at Burlington International's baggage carousel, he would soon discover that although he had made it safely, his luggage was still at Washington-Dulles. And guess where his much-needed coat was? Yup, packed in his luggage. Ahhh, the joys of commercial flight.
G-Dad spent a little time playing with Kota on Sunday evening before heading off to the frigid north early Monday morning.
Cass (and Kota) and I did a little after-Christmas shopping at the Park Meadows Mall on Tuesday.
With Cassie's ongoing car problems, mom continues to spend a good deal of time performing shuttle services and taking care of Baby D. I've grown so accustomed to seeing "the man" every day (when I'm not traveling) that I actually experience withdrawal when we don't get our daily face time. And what a cute face it is!
I only wish circumstances were such that I could see Jade and Logan every day. Perhaps another trip to Maryland is in order?
Jade is a Ravens fan, but Logan appears to favor the Pats.
More next week.
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Posted by Deb
Week Ending 01/02/10
What better way to kick of the first day of a brand new year than with a jaunt in the RV?! We headed out early on Friday morning to meet up with Siezmo and Red (aka Gary & Carolyn) at the Front Range Airport. Destination: The World's Foremost Outfitter.
departing Front Range
The one-hour flight was beautiful--crystal clear view and air as smooth as glass. It was mighty cold on the ground at KSNY in Sidney, Nebraska, so we quickly tied down and headed for the FBO.
coming in for a landing at Sidney Municipal
Sidney Aviation was deserted and locked up tight, but there was an on-field call box with contact information for Cabela's complimentary shuttle service posted inside. Our chauffeur arrived within 15 minutes and was kind enough to first drop us off at Perkins for a spot of breakfast.
After nearly two hours perusing Cabela's world headquarters building, which covers 250,000 square feet, we caught a ride back to the airport and headed for home base.
Cabela's signature Conservation Mountain
one of our (my) better in-flight photos
I hung around the hacienda on Saturday. Scott went to the airport for a morning flight and to troubleshoot a pesky noise we've been hearing in our headsets.
That evening, after a delish burger at Red Robin, we and the Ziliks were off to the movies to see the much-hyped Avatar. When we arrived at the cinema, the parking lot was packed and the lines long. As it turned out, there was only one seat available for the earlier showing of Avatar. Not willing to wait two hours for the next show, we agreed that Up In The Air looked to be a cute movie. Hmmm ... curious that a Disney movie would be rated R, though.
It was during our 45-minute wait that Scott realized Up in the Air was not the animated movie Up which we thought we had bought tickets for. Notwithstanding the sexual promiscuity and language (which I personally can do without), Up in the Air was an entertaining flick. I must admit, though, that as the credits rolled by, I found myself pondering what the meaning of the story was.
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Posted by Deb