Laying low in La La land

Parked the trailer and are currently hiding out at the Taillon’s.  Teri is catching up with her mom and I am catching up on the “Novels of the Change”.  I see the US womens team has a game with England this afternoon; hopefully I will be able to see that.  We plan to resume on the 5th, rolling into Redmond on the 9th.  Along the way we hope to stop in at an old friend’s who apprenticed under Dad at the Craftsman Rd shop. 

The rolling stock worked well on the drive out of Death Valley.  First a 5000 ft clime out, then a not so long (6-9% grade) descent.  The truck pulled strong and the “tow haul” mode on the transmission plus compression braking resulted in only a few light touches on the descent.  Teri took 82 photos along the way which will require some editing.

We stopped in Lancaster to see Ralph and Kathi.  He was giving Eric and his friend Noriko rides in his plane and found us on Hwy 14 north of Mojave.  After getting strafed a few times, I can see how it might be difficult to shoot back at a fighter pointing straight at you, going 400+ and shooting 50 cals at you.  His plane “only” gets up to 300 straight and level; I imagine a little faster in a strafing run. 

We had lunch at the Mojave airport watching Burt Rutan’s mother ship doing test flights in the traffic pattern with a long easy chase plane.  Ralph has two hangers full of his plane and a pretty complete shop and Rutan has quite a presence on the Airport, so there is always something going on there.

only shot we got of mothership and chase

A tree grows in Lancaster?

Not really, just a well camouflaged cell tower.

The poppies were out in Lancaster.

Hope to talk again soon.

Later.