At last... a trip !

Well, it was only a day trip but a trip nonetheless. Kim and I headed up to Beale Air Force Base north of Sacramento about an hour to do some on-base business (secret stuff).

Beale is the home of the 9th Reconnaisance Wing (9 RW) which features two very cool airplanes: the U2 Dragon Lady and the Global Hawk.

U2 flying over Beale AFB

The U2 provides day and night, very high-altitude (70,000 feet), all-weather surveillane. The aircraft is also used for electronic sensor research and development, satellite, calibration, and satellite data validation. As a frame of reference, commercial aircarft that we fly in the United States fly between 36,000 and 40,000 feet. These guys fly WAY up there.

Because of the high operating altitude, the pilot must wear the equivalent of a space suit. The suit delivers the pilot's oxygen supply and emergency protection in case cabin pressure is lost at altitude (the cabin provides pressure equivalent to about 29,000 feet / 8,800 metres). To prevent hypoxia and decrease the chance of decompression sickness, pilots don a full pressure suit and begin breathing 100% oxygen one hour prior to launch to remove nitrogen from the body; while moving from the building to the aircraft they breathe from a portable oxygen supply.

Pilot walking up to the U2...but first....must let someone take his photo.

Landing is very very tricky due to the construction of the plane and especially it's wing span. There is a "chase car" that actually follows the airplane as it's landing to talk it down. Check out this youtube video of landings gone bad. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eamnTyfkUBY&feature=feedwll

The other plane is a Global Hawk. This plane is flown with no pilot!

Here's a terrific link is you are interested in the plane..... 

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/global_hawk.htm

Global Hawk maintenance.

After we were done watching the U2 practice "touch and go" landings we headed out to explore the surrounding country and saw the plane fly right over us. Pretty spectaular.

Well, we did other stuff later in the day that I'll post in a few days. This post is already a bit lengthy.

Tampa, Florida brrrrrrrr

We went to Tampa for 9 days recently and it was cold ! I watched the weather report leading up to the trip...72, 75, 78...perfect! But, a cold front came down from the north while we were there and the temps were in the upper 40s/low 50s during the day and lower 30s at night. So much for laying by the pool !

This was a business trip so there were LOTS of hours. It was a proposal/interview that was to happen waaay back in July but just came up. I got to be with some good friends of mine that I have not seen in a while...Phil Waller, Susan Chanen, Greg Tate, Jim Harris and Bob Parent.

We used a 55" Vizio TV for the interview so, on Sunday when I worked, this is what my workspace looked like.

You can really see details at this size.

On Saturday...the one day that was 74 degrees, Kim and I drove north about 85 miles to a place called The Villages. It's a vast retirement community that we've been thinking about looking into. There are 80,000 people that live there ! They have over 2,000 activities....everything from bocce ball, to softball leagues....two bowling lanes, an entire building full of the latest woodworking equipment, swimming, drawing, etc etc. There are golf carts EVERYWHERE because that's how most of them get around. There are a number of shopping centers cattered to the residents.

So many of the golf carts have been customized....up to $20K for some of these.

Just one of the many shopping centers.

They have parties nightly.

The Villages is loaded with lakes, natural and man made...also over 30 golf courses.

They have a program that you can get Golf For Life....on the executive courses.

On the way back to Tampa we took the back roads to see what the countryside was like.

We heard about this Christmas Store in Clearwater....supposed to be one of the largest in the country...over 100 decorated trees so we went over to see it. On the way over the bridge I had to get near the water (of course).



The entrance is not much to look at but the insides.....!


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They had a number of small villages set up with LOTS of miniature items.



They had some terrific life-size animals. Kim fell in love with this goose.

When we got back to the Sacramento airport, Santa was in the area so Kim went up and asked him for a MotorHome ! (We only have a Fifth-Wheel. Motorhomes are 40' long !)

Here's a 1:37 minute video of the inside of the store. It moves a bit fast but the ending is worth it.

Merry Christmas to you all !

Christmas Decorations

We (me, really) decided to go minimal with the outside decorations this year so I've posted some of what we've done so far. Mostly we've decorated the inside of the house...very festive.



This is one of the reasons to not decorate outisde this year.



 

We have one tree we like to put in our front window for the neighboors....very old fashioned.

 Here are a series of inside photos. We put garland and lights around our large mantle and Kim loves to put our animal collection in amongst the "branches".

And of course....our tree....

We have an outside trellis that does not have anything growing on it now so I decided to make a nice display that looks good during the day also. My lights in the past all look rather dull in the daylight so we wanted something for people to view as they drove by in the day.

These large bulbs are hard to find.

...of course, I had to have some supervision....

 The end result....slippers, PJs, decorations...and college football.

We have a trip planned for Tampa, Florida in December. We'll be sure to take lots of photos.....here's one Kim took from our hotel room during our last trip in the summer. Yikes !

...hope you enjoy the photos....send us your house decorations photos so we can enjoy them too.

Kim and Steve

New Side Gate

Before putting the RV in the sideyard we had to take down the old side fence then build a new gate. (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Old. Fence. This is looking out towards the street.

So....off we go....

...had to take out all the nails, then remove the vertical posts that were set in concrete.



View from the street....side gate is already removed.



Fence removed....gravel put in.

I put all the old fence on the front lawn in case I needed use it for reference on how to build a new one.

First build a gate frame.

Add some nice hinges...

Meanwhile, Kim was putting the redwood boards on the large frames.

First gate done...now on to the larger one.

This larger gate will pivot from your right so we can get the RV in and out. This one proved to be heavy!

I got it all up, then found out I needed to add a wheel to roll over the gravel so I had to take off the redwood planks, put the wheel on, then put them all back on.

Almost done....notice the open frames....we thought it looked nice but decided to add latice.

Finished product. This project took about a week...had to only work a few hours a day.

While working, this balloon came over the house across the street. I heard a big "whooooosh"...turned out to be the flamed being turned on.

Next up.....front porch decorations !

...hope you enjoy this episode....we did not do any travelling because of family obligations but, after that,  then we'll post some new ones for you !

Keep those comments coming...they're great!

Kim and Steve