Our Nation's Capital

Gene and I left Covington at 7 AM on Thursday, Sept. 22 just in time to hit the Atlanta rush hour. It took an hour and a half to get to Marietta, but after that, traffic was really light. We were headed to Shebyville, TN to meet the Flagship. The foundation founder, George Dennis lives there and he and his wife and son are going on the trip too. I was miserable with a brand new head cold and spent most of the trip reclined with eyes closed, until called upon to drive about an hour from our destination.
Turns out we could have left an hour later and still made it ok as the Noknowhengo tribe, true to form made an hour and a half fuel stop on the way. They finally arrived at the same time that George and his family appeared at the airport about 2PM. There were 7 on board, 3 couples and one solo guy. With our addition, there are 12. After stirring around for way too long which is characteristic of the group, we are finally in the air headed to Dulles airport near Washington, D.C. Most of the trip is in the clouds but one could barely make out the ground at points, like the Shenandoah Mountains shrouded in mist. And rolling green hills upon occasion. George's wife, Kay, has brought sandwiches, apples and cookies. Gene is the last one to eat as he is flying when the rest eat (there are 6 pilots on board so no shortage of relief). When he opens his meal it is a salad topped with pickles and grapes of all strange combinations. Kay remembers a woman in the sandwich shop getting a salad while she was there and we all laugh to think of her reaction when she opens it and finds a sandwich.
Once we are in the air with George in the left seat and Gene in the right, the cabin cools rapidly. Our light jackets and sweaters prove inadequate and we soon bundle ourselves in American Airlines old first class blankets gleaned from storage at Alliance. It is a subdued trip with people reading and napping. We land at Dulles in the midst of a most gorgeous sunset, the sun peaking through clouds with bright silver lining and lots of pink and yellow color. My impaired state keeps me from even thinking of taking a photo, sorry.
We must have taxied 20 minutes, John wondered if we were taxiing back to Tennessee. A van met us and all the luggage and passengers packed in for a ride to a nice FBO, a terminal for private aviation, where we rented four cars and then took off for our hotel. We caravanned through dark wet streets, turning, turning and turning. Thinking how would we ever find our way back, knowing we were still near the airport as we could see planes landing and taking off.
Finally we arrived and after a quick refreshing (by now it was 8:30) met in the restaurant for dinner. High prices for so-so service and very average food, they even delivered the wrong meal to me. It was 11 when I returned to the room and dropped into bed exhausted.
Gene was to return to leave for the plane at 8AM to clean. The four who are wearing vintage uniforms (photos later) left at 9 for Press Day. The Mission here is a Plane Pull benefiting the Special Olympics. Teams of 25 people buy a chance to pull a Boeing 727 with a rope for a certain distance. Gene returned to the room at noon to say that they waited all day for the press who turned out to be one old guy who took a couple of pictures. This is not surprising...most of the media events are a bust.
This afternoon we went to the Air and Space Museum. There was a lot there, but not as much as we thought. Gene said he guesses he has just been to too many and now he has seen it all. We did see a space shuttle which we had seen before. The photo above left insists on presenting itself sideways even though is not that way in my photos, so I gave up. The other photo is our three lovlies in their vintage uniforms. Aren't they cute?