Beach Run

I took the day off work so I could take Mary to the doctor then we could head to the beach. I had filed for today's flight and picked up my clearance with Wilmington ground.  It seems ATC likes today's route the best KILG DQO ENO EZIZI KOXB as they gave me runway heading,radar vectors to join V29 as filed.

Dover AFB  Looking SE

Once handed off to Philly they gave me four thousand direct Smyrna. We cruised along in smooth air jamming to the country hits.  I had fixed Mary's Bose headset earlier in the week switching the dip switch to stereo and low and behold the music really pops now!Philly silenced the tunes as they handed us off to Dover. We never did get six thousand but the temps at four thousand were a comfortable sixty five.

Mary called this the "lonesome little cloud"

Dover handed us off to Patuxent as we started to see a stray cloud or two at our altitude. We started to bump along now just fifteen minutes out. Pax cleared us for the visual once I had the field in sight and I canceled in the air.  There was good crosswind action on short final but I made a nice landing with the right main down and riding it followed with the left main and nose.

I secured the plane while Mary checked us in at the terminal.  When Mary walked in with Maggie there was an itty bitty yorkie, all of three pounds, in the office that started to growl and bark. Our Italian mastiff, one hundred ten pounds, hit reverse and was outta there! The owner escorted killer out the door so we could check in, we all had a good laugh.

Saturday

Not much on today's agenda so we decided to have breakfast in the coach, digest, then hit the boardwalk after we clean up and walked Maggie. Ocean city was as busy as the 4th of July holiday with folks headed to the beach and traffic filtering to the inlet. There was a BMX and skateboard event sponsored by Mountain Dew and the set up was very complex as it sprawled across the beach.

Mary and I strolled along taking in the view, people watching, then hit a few stores. One stop was Jessica's fudge where we picked up some fudge for Mary's mom and her moms friend Marge. While Mary was picking out the perfect fudge I found pecan carmel praline blocks. Yes, I purchased two for our planned tram ride and Mary picked out a chocolate covered peep. I also decided to try the chocolate covered bacon, my heart kept saying no but my tummy said you bet!

We purchased round trip tickets on the boardwalk tram that ran twenty seven blocks each direction. We enjoyed the shops, more people watching and the huge display of kites anchored on the beach, it was a perfect day for kite flying. Mary and I decided to grab burgers at one of our favorite places, Froggy's. Great view overlooking the inlet mixed with the best burgers in town capped off a fun day on the boards.

Sunday

Today was departure day.  The wx was looking good all last night but the updates this morning didn't look so hot.  I also wanted to get home and maybe get some sleep time since I had to be in at work around 8pm with a twelve hour shift ahead of me.  We had a quick breakfast and locked up the coach.

I took on ten gallons of fuel  which brought me back to 40 gallons. The cool air felt great and there was little if any breeze as we taxied out. We launched off runway three two and pointed direct to Wilmington. I did monitor Dover approach but cruised along with my hands in my lap at 5,500.  I started a nice descent about nine minutes out needing to get to the pattern altitude of 1080'. It was a nice flight at 60 degree temps and a smooth landing.

As a side note the contractor canceled for this evening since there was a chance of rain. The product we are working with on the bridge deck does not play well with any moisture. The contractor will give it another go tomorrow night and I won't have to cover!!