Road Trip to Annapolis

Despite the heaters being plugged in and Zero Eight Romeo full of fuel, the plane sat in the hangar today.  The initial plan was to do a rescue flight for MAESSR. However, the Mid Atlantic English Springer Spaniel Rescue flight would have had us dealing with gusting winds and wind shear, the ground team would have to cover this one.

So, Mary and I gave some thought to flying over to Annapolis to check out the shops and local airport. Lee field (KANP) is 2500 feet long and 48 feet wide, and is tucked inside the SFRA. A typical flight for me would be to file IFR and make the flight without special handling or out of the ordinary clearance. With me not being current I would have to make the flight VFR, honestly, I wasn't sure what I needed to do. 

I went on the AOPA web page and located the SFRA course, having previously taken it and passed, I wanted to review the VFR procedure.  Besides the typical weather and NOTAM  search I would have to file a flight plan, easy peasy in ForeFlight.

Instead of selecting VFR or IFR I would click on the VFR (DC SFRA) choice. This alerts ATC of the flight plan and once in the air inbound for KANP I would contact Potomac approach and obtain my transponder code. Now my flight plan is a bit strange and would read KOXB PALEO, with PALEO being the gate or access area for my flight. I would still note Annapolis KANP with SFRA flight in my flight plan notes.

After contacting the Annapolis airport we found there are no courtesy cars and the rentals all close at 2pm. We had a late start so this wouldn't work, besides, if we didn't get the car back to the rental company by 2pm they would charge us an additional day until they pick it up. That doesn't work for us. We decided to drive.

We had a fun drive checking out the different towns and antique markets along the way. We really didn't bother with any pictures, not even taking advantage of our new camera, instead we just enjoyed the time together. Thanks to the internet, pictures are provided.

We found our way into town only to find main street down to the marina area closed. I found my way through a few side streets, one dead end alley that I had to turn around and back out of but finally to the intended destination, the docks.

Trying to find a parking spot was brutal and some how I slowed for traffic around the circle and an SUV pulled out from a curbside spot, I pulled right in. clean living or just good timing, either way works, I had a spot.  Mary and I walked a very short distance and ordered dogs at Pips Dock Street Dogs.  The place was packed and for good reason. The dogs were excellent, we had cheese and kraut on ours along with an order of fries.

We didn't walk around much because the streets were very busy with the Women's March 2018. Marchers flowed through the streets with a police escort, orderly and peaceful, but their chant was like nails on a chalk board. We drove along the brick paved streets noting all the shops while making many stops for people crossing the road. I wouldn't do another Saturday, I would rather do a mid week visit and hope the traffic and people are fewer in number.

We eventually made our way back to RT. 50 and retraced our path from this morning making one stop at the Bay Bridge airport for some snooping around. The airport manager was really nice to chat with and I look forward to making a return trip, by air.