Racing Against Age

South Burlington, VT

Today, we depart for Portsmouth NH to attend the funeral of my Aunt Dot.   Dot (R.I.P.) lived to age 94, which is pretty good by anybody's standard.  She also got to live her last years in a nursing home environment that she really liked.  We were happy for her for that.

But after hearing the news of Dot's death Libby said something shocking.  She said, "You are now the oldest living Mills, and the oldest living Manser"   (Manser was my mother's maiden name.)  For a moment, that made me feel like I had a target on my back.  The feeling passed when I realized that Libby forgot about at least one relative older than I.  Whew.  (Libby's maiden name was Lowber.  She has been the oldest surviving member of that Lowber family since the 70s.)

But there can be no doubt that Libby and I are becoming old indeed.  I believe that we are in better shape than the average American of our age (probably because of our active life style).  We very seldom visit doctors.   Libby can work hour after hour in Jen's gardens.  I climb 220 stairs two steps at a time at the airport every morning, just for the exercise.   We consider ourselves very fortunate.

But we aren't immune to aging.   The weaknesses and the pains creep in year by year.  Libby gets chilled very easily.  I notice that sitting in one position for a long time makes my knees so stiff that I can barely stand up.  I went on a kayak trip with Jen, and that sitting position caused me lots of knee pain.  A mere 30 minutes sitting on the seat of our canoe does my knees in, and I almost need to crawl on all fours when exiting the canoe.  To avoid it, I need to shift position or stand up frequently.

One of my dreams is inspired by the book The Complete Paddler: A Guidebook for Paddling the Missouri River from the Headwaters to St. Louis, Missouri.   I hoped to do that 1200 mile trip with Tarwathie Jr. and with Libby.   But unless I find a remedy for the knee problem, that dream is unrealistic.

Last year, Libby and I did a four hour canoe trip on the Connecticut River.  This summer, we are going to try for a 48 hour Connecticut River trip with one overnight tent camp as a shakedown test for the Missouri River dream.

The Air Disaster That Didn't Happen

South Burlington, VT

This morning at the airport, I heard the tower close the main runway, citing "repairs to the arrester cable" as the reason.  Soon after, I saw a F16 fighter plane being towed by a tow truck.  It seems as if something happened that I didn't hear about.

You see, runways 15 and 33 have arrester cables that they can lift.  I supect that the F16s have tail hooks to catch the cables like in aircraft carrier landings.

It reminds me of an incident from the past.  My son David and I went to an airshow at the Burlington Airport (BTV) sometime in the early 1990s.  (I forget the exact year.)  We both love airshows.  In addition, at the time I was learning to fly at BTV, so I was extra familiar with, and interested in, BTV facilities and operations.

Anyhow, the show ended as always with the Blue Angels (or Thunderbirds), and the crowd was leaving.  Dave and I stood near the 33 end of the runway.  I noticed that four airliners were lined up to take off from runway 15, the far end.  They had been sitting there for quite a while.  I suspect that the air show didn't end on schedule.

Then I noticed something else significant.  Just at that moment, the wind shifted direction abruptly from S to N.  Wind speed was about 15 knots.  Typically, that wind shift requires a shift in active runway from 15 to 33.  

But they didn't shift the active runways.  No doubt the waiting airliners were impatient after the delay.   The first airliner started its take off down runway 15.   I watched.

The plane came zooming down the runway.   It did not rotate or lift off at the usual spot because of the tailwind.   Just then I noticed that the arrester cable at the 33 end was still raised!!!  I watched in horror as that plane finally took off and achieved only 15 feet of altitude before the wheels passed above that cable.  If those wheels had caught the cable, the result would have been a terrible crash.

Most disasters happen because of chains of errors, not just a single error.  In this case, it was the combination of a delayed end of the air show, a downwind take off, plus the failure to lower the cable, that nearly caused a disaster.  Seen in proper perspective, it should stand as a reminder that commercial aviation can tolerate lots of errors while avoiding catastrophe most of the time.

Yikes!

Return to (from) Valcour

South Burlington, VT

We just returned from four more days on Valcour Island.  (That's my excuse for not blogging for so long.  Internet on the island is extremely limited.)  We wanted to stay two more days.  We had plenty of food.  But alas, the light-and-variable wind conditions went away, and the wind was expected to pick up Sun-Tue.  

Oh well, we have to live with our limitations.   Blog reader Don pointed out that with so much gear, our canoe would have very little freeboard.   That's true.  Even without that gear, there isn't much freeboard.  A canoe is no match for the waves on Champlain when the wind blows 15 or more.  Therefore, we must plan our lake crossings for light winds periods only.

The irony is that exactly the days we loved most on Champlain with Tarwathie here, were those when the wind blew 15-25.  The days we liked least were those with little or no wind.  Now with Tarwathie Junior, our preferences are completely reversed. :-)

Libby in particular seems more relaxed and happy on Valcour than at any other place.  Here at Jen's she is a whirlwind of actvity working in the garden and making dinner.   Ditto at Daves.  In Marathon, she also has a long list of planned activities.  But out at Valcour, she is very content to just sit and look out over the water at the beautiful views. 

That applies to me too.  On Valcour, I'm satisfied by only once-a-day checking of the Internet.  To get reception, I have to walk four miles to the other side of the island.  I do that first thing in the morning at 0530.  That morning walk is delightful.

We had a visit from Bob & Carol, friends who live nearby but who have never been to Valcour before.

We hiked with Bob&Carol to the Bluff Point Light House.  It was beautifully restored just last year.

See what I mean about Libby relaxing.  Look closely, her face is sticking out.

Gardener Island lies just south of Valcour.  We never visited it before.  It is about 50 yards in diameter.  The verdict after this visit: "Boring.  There is nothing interesting there."

Pictorial Report from Valcour

South Burlington, VT

We're back from a marvelous weekend on Valcour.  Going there refreshes our souls.   Here's some good pics

It was dead calm on the way out last Friday.

Our view from the campsite.  VT mountains in the background.

Near full moon, can you find it in this picture?

How in the world can all that stuff fit in the canoe?

It fits just fine thank you.  Still room for Libby and me.

Whoops, see below.

Driving back we had a crisis.  On the interstate I saw in my mirror something fly off the trailer, and soon after that I saw smoke coming from the trailer.  I did an emergency stop.   The (brand new) wheel on the right side was too hot to touch.   WTF?  The bearing was cool.  I added air to the tire thinking it might be low.   We continued on at minimum speed.

The smoke returned as we got off the interstate.  Closer inspection revealed the real problem.  The fender was hotter than the tire.  Then I could see that the fender was touching the tire.  Then I found a broken spring.   We called Jen and Pete for help and they came.   We offloaded the canoe from the trailer, and then we could see that the leaf spring was broken.  Pete made a brilliant suggestion: a 2x4 could lift the trailer off the tire.  It worked!  See the picture above, and note that half the spring is missing.

We got the trailer back to Jens, so now I just have to find a new spring.

Return to Valcour

Valcour Island

Hooray! We made it back to Valcour yet another year. In terms of annual milestones, the day we return to Valcour has the biggest emotional impact. It's bigger than Christmas or Thanksgiving. I believe it is the same for Libby.

Our plan is to stay three nights for this trip. Hopefully, during the summer we will return to Valcour several times.

Could we give up the cruising life and live on Valcour? No, Valcour is owned by NY State and it is designated forever wild. Nevertheless, I have been daydreaming about living on Valcour since the first time I visited it in 1975. On the other hand, I have never been on Valcour in winter; doing so might take the polish off my dream.

By the way, one day before returning to Valcour, Libby and I returned from two days camping in The Green Mountain National Forest. That was nice, but camping in a dense forest blocks views of the sky and the sun, and the valleys and the mountains.

Summer weather has finally arrived. 80F weather in the valleys, and 70F on the mountain. But the lake temperature is still very cold, only 59F. Probably no swimming for us this weekend.

Here is Tarwathie Junior preparing to leave.