It was a 5:15 AM departure from Buck and Collen's to drive to Frederick to position my car. It was great to connect with one of my Academy roommates after all these years. It was like staying at a luxury high rise. Each night I would look out my bedroom window for a killer view of the US Capitol Building fully lit.
They put me up for four nights. One of the first questions I had was did they still have the reddish dyed marble egg that Collen had bought Buck in Annapolis when they were first dating. It was prominently displayed in a glass bowl with five other marble eggs they had accumulated around the world.
I had forgotten that they met at a Halloween party at the Academy the weekend before I met Joan on Halloween. The day they met Buck came back to our room and told Jim Haggart our other roommate and I that he had just met the girl he was going to marry. Jim and I both took him on for $5. Buck still has the bills signed and framed by Jim & I. Absolutely the best bet I ever lost. They got married June Week and will be celebrating their 40th this year.
Yesterday afternoon Buck gave me a tour of the Navy Yard and got me into the National Museum of the US Navy which I had always wanted to see. I can't imagine they will ever ask me back after I told them one day that I lost the access card to their parking garage and last night while I was packing I misplaced his key ring (both found).
Anne Kay was my escort this morning. On her way to work she dropped me off at the dairy farm east of New Market where I started today's walk. Temps stayed in the 50's all day with the steady rain and occasionally heavy rain for the first 2.5 hours walking from New Market to the Frederick Airport. I measured 2 inches of rain in the Fredrick rain gauges (trash cans ).
This is the first day I've had to walk in the rain. I wore my Rockport waterproof walking boots my hurricane jacket that I got with an Easter Mountain Sports gift card given to me by my sister-in-law Diane and her husband Mike. I'm using the brand new bright red and white Vanguard golf umbrella that fellow crew mates Imelda and Janet scrambled to get for me when my original fell apart just before starting the walk.
I learned a couple things. One is that the umbrella makes a going shield from car splashes. Second the umbrella did not prevent my pants from becoming soaked from above the knees down. I ordered Marmot rain pants from REI to solve that problem.
On the way Sam Yu photographer from the Frederick News Post took pictures of me in a downpour. I'm sure I will look like a drowned rat. The rain finally stopped just in time to take my Route 40 Today picture of the Barbara Frietchie House. It was similar to the Ellicott City picture of a Main Street with most buildings looking the same but probably many of the businesses changing hands. In 1953 a dark sign announcing the house hung from a large wrought iron post in 1983 a white sign and today the iron post is empty with a new park service sign in the yard. Next I met up with Nick Stern who will be writing an article for tomorrow's Frederick News Post.
You may have been wet but you sure sounded stylish !
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