Happy Father's Day! (sort of)

In the previous entry, the photograph shows a sunset and was taken last February from Conch Key (Florida Keys) looking southwest toward Duck Key. The stormy weather did something to the light that really made the scene a vivid one - the photo only captures a small part of it.

In the entry before that, the setting sun once again provided an interesting lighting effect - this time shining against the stones and windows of the Christ Church (Episcopalian) in Towanda, Pennsylvania. I was in Towanda visiting a dear friend over the Memorial Day weekend, and out taking an evening walk through the historic part of a rather charming town.

I took both of these "wordless" photos with a crummy cellphone camera but was surprised by the results, there is something about the setting sun that stirs me.

It has gotten crazy busy here - my niece graduated last Friday and my older brother came down from Rochester, NY to attend the "festivities". The worst of the very bad weather we have had happened Friday evening - it rained about as hard as I've ever seen it rain.

Saturday, we had a picnic in Green Lane Park. It was wet and humid but we got lucky with it not raining and even got some late afternoon sunshine. I did something "Boy Scout-ish" and put up a tarp over the picnic tables so things would stay dry... and then it didn't rain! I love "preventive" shelter and umbrella carrying!

I walked nearly 10 miles Saturday... and played a game of catch and kicked a soccer ball around. I crashed that night!

On Sunday, we met up at my parents place - and they (the out of town guest and my younger brother) went to see the Trenton Thunder (a minor league baseball team) play (they won in the bottom of the ninth). I skipped the game and walked from the stadium back to my parents place (11 miles) on the Delaware Canal looking for turtles.  It was a nice day.

On Monday, my dad and I went down to the houseboat to check on things (we've not been there in several weeks) and spent the night riding out a tornado watch. It blew and rained... but I've been on the boat through worse.

The main reason we went down there was to be able to go to Middletown, Delaware (Summit Bridge) airport at 8 AM Tuesday to ride a 1929 Ford Trimotor, my Father's Day present for my dad. Unfortunately, the ride was cancelled when the plane was grounded in Pittsburgh and couldn't fly past the lousy weather between us. A bit disappointing, but the one-legged lady from the Wharf came by with her cute little dog, Barley to say hello which was very nice.

While waiting to hear if the plane would come, I walked 5 miles on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and saw their museum in Chesapeake City. The museum is housed in a building that was the home of a "pump" that pumped water from a creek/lake into the canal at its highest point. Built in 1854, powered by two steam "locomotive" engines - the pump was a huge water wheel - 22,000 gallons per bucket in the wheel (that would be a enough to fill a swimming pool!) The engines ran for 76 years with only one breakdown. This link shows an arched window that "reveals" the hub (and only the hub) of the water wheel... so you can sense how huge it is...

On Wednesday morning, my dad called me at work to say the Ford Trimotor "was in" and that he was going back down to the airport to get his ride. Pressing business (durn work!) prevented me from joining him. He took the photo below of the plane - and was so excited! It took no arm-twisting at all to get him to go up again on the plane, using the ticket I had gotten for me!

So, he had a blast. I wasn't there...

Happy Father's Day Dad!