Although I've Never Flown...

I rode down a peaceful access road to a county park (The kind without rides.) this morning and once again wheeled past a row of small planes parked on the other side of the fence that separates the road from the Wyoming Valley Airport, also run by Luzerne County. I've eyed those planes every time I've ridden past them wanting to get a picture or two of the scooter next to a plane. Although the office is at the other end of the air field and there's an open gate right there through which I could have ridden up to the planes and taken some pictures, there's also a notice against trespassing and I take such things seriously. In this day and age when terrorism and aircraft are too often related, one is prudent not to take any chances.

I debated again, as I often did in the past, about going into the office and asking for permission to drive onto the field and get some pictures, imagining as I always did some guy behind a counter dismissing me as some kind of nut. Today, though, I got up the nerve to do it.

The place was empty except for a gentleman about my dad's age seated in a comfy chair reading the paper. "Are you the guy in charge?" I asked. "I am," he replied with a soft voice and the kind of smile that makes little kids love their grandpas. "What can I do for you?" he offered. Here it came. "I ride scooter and I'd like to get some pictures of it next to the planes on the other end of the field." It turned out that he'd been thinking of getting a scooter. Our conversation "took off" from there.

Photo by Ed

I was too fascinated to pay attention to what kind of plane Ed said this is when he invited me into the main hangar with the scooter and started telling me about this WWII fighter which is still in active service - taking folks for rides over the valley. He told me to watch for it overhead because it's in the air frequently and has a distinctive low drone to its engine.

Ed invited me to climb onto the wing and snapped this picture for me too. It's as close to getting into a plane as I've ever come.

Photo by Ed

A few folks came by to ask about rides and while Ed tended to answering their questions I wandered around the hangar peeking into the various cockpits. I returned to the Navy plane which seemed to be Ed's pride and joy to talk about and got this shot of myself and the Piaggio reflected in the nose piece of the propeller.

Ed told me various facts about the airport itself too which I'd never known. It was founded in the 1920's when local farmers donated the land to the City of Wilkes-Barre to make it into an airport. It remained as part of Wilkes-Barre till in the 1970's the city transferred ownership to Luzerne County. If it should cease to be used as an airport, the ownership of the land reverts to the heirs of the original land donors.

I spent some of the hour or so that I talked with Ed trying to convince him to go ahead and get a scooter. I'm going to head back before summer vacation's over to see if he did.

On the way out I stopped and took a few of the pictures by the planes I'd wanted to pose the BV with in the first place.

Just another sunny day of Scootin' da Valley!

Stuff Du Jour

I've been parking the scooter more often on the sidewalks at strip mall type places and not getting bothered by anybody about it. Of course I'm careful to look for places where the curb is lowered for wheelchair access to get the bike up onto the sidewalk. I'm tempted to park sometimes in those large areas with diagonal stripes that are basically wasted space in parking lots. I do see some bikes parked there from time to time, but they seem more out of place than cycles on the sidewalks.

I got what I thought was an interesting shot of myself this morning after a patrol car pulled up behind me at a red light and the officer announced, "Sir, do you remember the definition of irony and poetic justice?" through the loudspeaker in his squad car. I laughed heartily and when the light changed to green I gestured for him to follow me and pull into a parking lot up ahead. The policeman is the same graduate of mine of whom I wrote in April and we spent another good half hour of chewing the breeze. I noticed the reflection of myself in his sunglasses and grabbed this shot...

I got myself a pie iron on my morning ride and will be trying it out in a little while. There's a big hunk of leftover ham in the fridge and an outstanding chunk from a wheel of cheddar that should make a good filling. I see some bananas hanging in the kitchen and perhaps a little later I'll mash one of them up and mix it with a little rum, brown sugar, and cinnamon to bake in another mountain pie as a Bananas Foster knock off for dessert.

I left the scooter on the street since this morning but haven't gotten back out to it yet. I'm pretty sure that I'll head off to Sheetz later to fill one of the Bubba Kegs with peach flavored green tea, and if the temperature doesn't drop back to chilly as it's been doing when the sun's low in the sky I do believe a ride of moderate length will be in order.

Weekend Travels

I spent another very relaxing weekend in Western Pennsylvania. Though I was in the car rather than on the scooter, the trip out there was most enjoyable with sunny weather for a change.

I had my first taste of mountain pie! I'm not sure if it's a Western PA thing or a camping thing, but they were much better than one would think they might be for what's basically a grilled sandwich with sealed edges. I don't know if they'll work on a gas grill, but I'll be aiming to try.

While riding around near the Lincoln Highway we came upon a giant praying mantis statue of which I just had to get some pictures. When I got back here and saw them I knew I had to post this one somewhere besides emailing it to my sister and daughter who'd appreciate it.

Photo by Susan

I'd wished that I'd paid some attention to where I was when this photo was snapped. With nothing more to go on than "mantis bicycle built for two rte 30" I hit up Google and in no time found this link and this one, both explaining where the mantis is and why there's a huge sculpture of a man and a woman riding a bicycle built for two right next to it.

I never knew the Lincoln Highway existed until I stumbled onto the blog about the two guys who rode a pair of Piaggio MP3s across it from coast to coast last summer. If I'd realized that their route was going to take them through the area that I visit frequently I might have planned to be there for their passing through which was on July 9th of 2008.

We left the Somerset area on Saturday morning on a leisurely drive down to Morgantown, West Virginia. What irony that shortly after I wrote my blog post about not being crazy about Olive Garden I not only had lunch there, but found a scooter parked right next to their sign. (In my defense, in the article I wrote that I don't go to places like Olive Garden without a gift card in my pocket. I had one for $25!)

The scooter is a Lifan 150cc. One might be led to believe that with a name like "American Lifan" their scooters would be American made. Guess again. From the very first line at their website: "American Lifan sells China Lifan manufactured products."

Our trips to West Virginia always refresh me. The scenery is unique with hills everywhere. At one point a missed turn with the GPS had it reroute us. I'd forgotten that I'd set the option to use unpaved roads as a necessity the last time I'd traveled - until we found ourselves on a road apparently built only to allow access to a cell phone tower atop one of those many hills. This one was even worse than the road along the river and railroad tracks that I wrote about in the spring. I sat in the passenger seat saying some Hail Marys while my pilot maneuvered my poor little Neon over logs and alongside deep ruts that surely would have hung us up if we'd been half an inch closer. See that crater just waiting to swallow my front tire in the lower right corner!

While passing by this old Esso station I felt another picture coming on and on a return drive-by we stopped to snap it.

Photo by Susan

I'm partial to old Esso memorabilia because when I was a kid my dad got Esso gas exclusively at Eddie Check's Esso station on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Anybody as old as I whose dad bought a lot of Esso Gas might remember their gift of the month club by which one received in the mail each month some token gift. I remember waiting every month for the envelope to arrive because I was allowed to open it and see what "treasure" was inside. Oh, that I'd saved some of those plastic and cardboard baubles for the fortune I'd make selling them on Ebay!

Alas! My trip is over and I'm back at the house on what feels like a Monday morning though it's Tuesday. There's a lot of stuff going on over the course of the rest of this week and next week including my uncle's annual Christmas in July party, a barbecue with my daughter's future in-laws, a scheduling meeting at school, and a wedding to attend. Remind me to take my camera!

= = = ADDENDUM = = =

After Jim's comment about the mantis I just had to add this shot too...

Photo by Susan