Made it to Norman.....please step out of the vehicle with your hands where I can see them

So the first major hurdle in our VORTEX2 experience has been crossed.....we've made it to Norman, OK! We'll be here for the next several days doing training and preparations, learning how to launch the balloons, getting aquainted with the navigation/radar software, etc.

Overall the trip out was long, but uneventful....that is until we reached OK this afternoon. About an hour across the border we stopped for gas, and upon re-entering the interstate, were passed by several police vehicles running full lights and sirens. I was figuring there was an accident ahead, and worried that we might be delayed. Finally, we rounded a bend and saw that there were several police cars off the right shoulder with two other cars up ahead. In about as long as it took me to think "Oh good, whatever it is doesn't look serious and it's all off to the side," I realized that the police officers were all positioned behind their vehicles with guns drawn, including shotguns and assault rifles... and we were closing in on this scene at 70 mph.

The car in front of us stopped and pulled far to the left, and we did the same, trying to put some distance between us and what appeared to be an impending showdown. One of the officers stopped the traffic coming up behind us, and they began issuing instructions to the occupants of one of the cars over a loudspeaker, ordering first the driver, and then, one by one, the four other occupants out of the car and onto the ground. It was literally just like an episode of "Cops", only in live action from a couple hundred feet away. All the occupants were eventually taken into custody, although the last one out of the car kept dropping his hands down instead of keeping them raised over his head, making for a couple tense moments. Once they were all cuffed and under control we were allowed on our merry way. Welcome to Oklahoma!

I've included some pictures below....quality isn't the greatest but they were shot through a window, with me trying not to draw attention the the fact that I was taking pictures!

The scene as we pulled up:


Securing the suspects:

Securing the vehicle. The guy in the green uniform on the right was packing some serious heat...looked like an M-4 assault rifle.

VORTEX2....Coming soon!!!!

We leave for VORTEX2 in the morning....so in the next couple weeks I will hopefully have lots of stories and pictures to share as we traverse the plains hunting 'naders and eating steak!

I'm not sure how much I'll have to share over the next week or so since we'll mostly be doing prep/ramp up, but starting 5/11 we're going to deploying to wherever the storms are, so stay tuned!!!

Snow Day! Part II: A lovely day for a picnic

Just after we returned from our first foray into the snowy outdoors, Miranda and I both learned that we wouldn't have to work today. NC State canceled classes, and Miranda's boss told her not to come in as the roads were quite treacherous. After spending an hour or so watching some of our neighbors try to negotiate the icy parking lot (several were unable to make it up the hill and eventually gave up!) we decided that venturing anywhere in the car was out of the question....but that didn't mean we had to stay inside.
We hatched a plan to go have a picnic in the snow over at Lake Crabtree, which could be reached entirely by foot along one of our local greenways. We donned our cold weather hiking gear (which as you may imagine gets little use down here) filled up my new thermos with vegetable soup, rousted the hound from her slumber on my bed, and headed out into the wintry goodness. There were a suprising number of people out on the greenway, many with sleds in tow, as even the slightest slope was being turned into a sledding hill.
It took us an hour or so to make it to Lake Crabtree, where we enjoyed our soup, and of course, took more pictures.

Miranda enjoys some soup during our wintry picnic. By the way...if you ever decide to go for a walk in a snow storm, and want to bring some warm soup along....I highly recommend a Thermos brand thermos. Definitely burned my mouth with the first sip, even after an hour of it sitting in the thermos strapped to the outside of my bag!

To give you an idea of how much snow there was, I took a picture of one of the benches with the accumulated snow on top...we probably ended up getting about 3-4" from the storm, not too shabby by NC standards.

In addition to soup, trail mix was also on the menu, and Dixie wanted a sample. Apparently the two biscuits she'd had by this point were insufficient!

A view of the greenway heading toward the lake.

The picnic shelter where we had lunch. Miranda is surveying the lake while enjoying her soup.

Between the two pictures below, I managed to catch Dixie in mid-sneeze....note the facial expressions.

It was still snowing pretty hard while we were at the lake, as evidenced by this picture, although it began to let up shortly after we left, and was pretty much done by the time we got home.

One last shot of our intrepid explorers braving the frigid fracas.

What better way to end a day of playing in the snow than with a nice nap in the sun on a warm bed!

Thus ends our wintry adventure for 2009. We ended up with around 4 inches of snow, although it was already starting to melt by the time we made it back to the apartment. There may be some lingering effects though, as threats of black ice as the snow melt re-freezes has already closed many area schools for tomorrow, and State has canceled classes until 10AM. These effects shouldn't linger too long though, as temps should be up into the 50s by the weekend. But for now, we're enjoying our little taste of winter!

Snow Day! Part I: Snow-hound

Central North Carolina received its first significant snowfall since Miranda and I moved down here today, resulting in an extension of the MLK weekend for both of us. The snow started early this morning, having accumulated about 2" by the time we got up around 7. This was a bit of a pleasant surprise, as the latest model trends by bedtime had suggested that the heaviest snow may end up shifting south and east of Raleigh, leaving us with a bust. Since this was the Hound's first snow experience (as far as we know, at least) we of course had to document her morning walk for posterity.

At first, Dixie wasn't so sure about all the white stuff being a little cautious as she descended the stairs. This was after some quizzical looks out the window at her newly whitened domain.

In short order, though she realized that the snow wasn't going to hurt her and it was business as usual, with the occasional shake of the head to clear the flakes off her nose!

By the time we were on our way back, Dixie was kicking up the flakes in her dash for breakfast (much to the chagrin of Miranda, trying to keep upright in the slippery conditions!)

The greenway didn't look too green this morning!!

And the creek looked downright cold!

Dyansty dr. was snowy...no plows had visited yet.

And tree-lined Sudbury was very picturesque as well.

Just to prove the snow did fall in NC...here's our apartment sign nestled in a new blanket of snow.

10 Months and counting

Over Christmas Miranda and I visited Talltree Arboretum, where we're going to have our wedding ceremony. Hopefully it will be a little warmer (it was 10 degrees!) and less icy come October, but the site still looked beautiful nonetheless!

This is a view of the whole site....the lake is on the left (kind of hard to tell with the snow and ice) and the pavilion where the ceremony will be is on the right.


This is a front view of the pavilion. There's a large grassy area in the foreground, where we could seat people if we decide to have everything outside the pavilion, or we could have seating inside the pavilion. We haven't decided which we'll do yet, although it will be somewhat dependent on the weather.


This is the inside of the pavilion....including a really nice fireplace, although I doubt we'll use that.



This is the view looking out from the pavilion. If we decide to do the ceremony in the pavilion, we'll likely have people sitting facing this direction and Miranda and I will be on the steps (where Miranda is standing) with the lake in the background.



This is the view from the steps of the pavilion looking towards the lake. If we have the ceremony outside, everyone will sit in the foreground and Miranda and I will be down by the benches near the lake.


This is another shot of the benches by the lake where Miranda and I will stand if we have the ceremony outside of the pavilion.

NAS Oceana Air Show 2008

For the 50th year, the skies above Naval Air Station Oceana came alive with the roar of jets and the buzz of propellers as the 2008 Oceana Air Show took flight. The base's first show was back in 1953, featuring the U.S. Navy Blue Angels demonstration team flying their then state-of-the art F9F Panthers. With few exceptions (1956, 1959, 1961, 1967 and 2001), the air show has been back every year since. This year was no exception, with the Blue Angels headlining once again, now flying their F/A-18 Hornets.

In addition to the Blue Angels, there was a wide variety of military hardware up in the air. This included demonstrations by the US Navy F/A-18C Hornet, F/A-18F Super-Hornet, and E-2C Hawkeye, the US Air Force F-22 Raptor, and C-17 Globemaster III, and the Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet. While the performer list may seem a little Hornet-heavy (an inevitability for a Navy show given the retirement of the venerable F-14 Tomcat back in 2006), I certainly wasn't complaining. The various demo pilots kept the routines interesting, and besides....the Hornet and Super-Hornet are fast and loud, which is what air shows are all about!

In addition to the big iron of the military, a wide range of civilian and war bird acts kept the variety going. Superstar aerobatics from Patty Wagstaff and Mike Goulian dazzled the crowd, as did performances by Bill Leff, John Moher, the Geico Skytypers and Manfred Radius in his sailplane. War bird participation in the air was a little light in terms of numbers, consisting of a pair of L-39s and Dale "Snort" Snodgrass in the P-51 "Little Horse", however the acts made up for it with some great routines. The L-39s put on a great show featuring both solo and formation passes, and Snort's flying never disappoints. The lineup was rounded out by Les Shockley's jet truck (the '57 Chevy version, as the Super-Shockwave was presumably still being repaired after it's accident a few weeks ago up in MA), and the British Red Devils and Blackwater Worldwide parachute teams. However, cloud cover on Saturday kept them grounded for our visit.

Overall the show was well done, as always. The biggest issue was the weather, with low ceilings and winds which canceling the Fleet Flyby/Air Power demonstration and parachute acts. However, the organizers did a great job of shuffling things around to keep stuff up in the air. And while we did not get to see the full Air Power demo, they were able to launch a couple of Super-Hornets from VFA-11, the "Red Rippers" to beat up the field for awhile complete with pyrotechnics, which was still a treat! On the flip side, though, the clouds kept it cool and pleasant throughout the day, and the high humidity provided plenty of condensation (vapor in air show parlance, but meteorologically speaking it's actually condensation) by the fast jets....always good for a photo-op.

I have to say, while I'm glad we went up for the show, the Oceana experience is definitely better when you can go for the whole weekend, and take in the Friday night and Saturday night beach blast shows as well. And while the show isn't quite the same since the Big Cat took its final bow back in '06, the hard work of the organizers and some top notch performers make this one of the top shows in the country and a great way to spend a Saturday!

Goshen Freedom Fest...better late than never

Ok, so 4th of July was a month ago......better late than never!

What better way to celebrate Independence day than with the roar of freedom filling the air. This was my first visit to Freedom Fest in Goshen, IN and I must say the fine folks in the Hoosier state put on a great show. Freedom Fest provides a different feel that most of the "big jet base" air shows that I'm used to going to. A lot more of a laid back family atmosphere, large grassy areas for sitting instead of hot tarmac, and not a metal detector in sight!

Despite the small-show feel, Freedom Fest managed to land some pretty big acts. There were several civilian acts, including The Hoppers, an L-39 formation team, Herb and Ditto, the Shockwave jet truck, the Alabama Boys and the Oregon Aero Sky dancer. Military hardware included the USAF F-15C performing a heritage flight with Dale Snodgrass in the P-51 'Excalibur', the USN east coast Legacy Hornet demo team, and an Indiana Army National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk demo and parachute jump.

By far the best act of the show was the Starfighters 3-ship demo team. It was my first time seeing their 3-ship performance and they did not disappoint. All I have to say is you haven't seen a high speed pass until you've seen the Starfighters! While we didn't stay for the evening show and fireworks, the folks in Goshen put on a great airshow in a fun, laid back setting. If you find yourself in northern IN around the 4th of July, I would definitely recommend swinging by Freedom Fest!