Pullin' Chocks

Time Flies and Apparently so do We!

We are writing this from Michigan's Upper Peninsula or UP, and less than two weeks ago we were on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia.  Since then, we have made stops in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and rode through a small part of northern Indiana to get into Michigan.

First stop the beautiful West Virginia... there's a little church down in the valley there, see it?

Now you can see it.  We spent the night in a Walmart parking lot in Morgantown and we used the free WiFi there.  We got this shot during our lunch break at a rest stop near Charleston the next day. 

We arrived in Morehead, KY on July 3rd, our 21st Wedding Anniversary.  We spent the night in a very nice Walmart there :-)  No free WiFi there, but we were busy sipping wine and celebrating our marriage!  The next day we met Dr. Ben in front of his Space Science Building on campus at Morehead State University.  We parked right there at the Space Science Center for the second night in Morehead.  We used the free WiFi there, yea!  There is Ben and Gari below in front of the Space Science Center.

Ben gave us a magnificent tour of his facility.  Very impressive what Ben and the school have accomplished, and in such a short time.  Below Ben and Steve inside the Atrium area.

 Ben shows Steve an engineering model of a 2U Cubesat in his Director's Office.

 Steve and Ben by the control console of the anechoic chamber.

Steve and Ben inside the anechoic chamber

Gari and Ben by the pass through window in the clean room area.There is a 3U Cubesat unit in the pass through window.

Steve is holding a 3-D printed satellite model and standing next to the 3-D printer.

Ben has a world class Planetarium or Star Theater in his facility.  Below Steve and Ben enjoy the incredibly comfortable leather reclining seats.

Steve standing in front of the window in the antenna control room.   The 23ft Vertex antenna is in the background at the top of the hill. This is the antenna Ben was working on developing when he first came to Wallops and I got to meet and work with him.

Ben and Steve observing the antenna from the control room window.

Steve standing in front of the primary receiving and data reduction racks.

Ben and Gari going through the gate at the top of the hill to examine the Vertex antenna close up.

After the fabulous tour, Ben's wife Jen and three grad student friends prepared a wonderful organic and homegrown meal for us all to enjoy.  Ben and Jen are a fantastic team.  Among other talents, they both have a gift of bringing the very best out of other people.  Each of the grad student friends, Yergy from Russia, Stefan from Italy, and Kim from Vietnam all assisted Jen in the kitchen creating the gourmet meal.  They each brought something from their home culture to the food.  It was an amazing meal with wonderful friends old and new.

After dinner we all took a walk around Ben and Jen's large property by Cave Run Lake.  It was a beautiful woodland setting over several acres.  The property was previously a Girl Scout Camp in an earlier time.  Below Jen describes the back yard setting to us.

A previous grad student friend set up rock lined trails all through Ben and Jen's woodlands.  Jen leads the way below.

Our last stop in Kentucky was in Lexington to visit Steve's sister Judi and her growing family.  We brought our tool box inside to tempt John Thomas out of his shyness toward Steve.  We are playing tools below, the ratchet was our favorite.  Even Emma Kate got in on the action.  The happy parents, Jennifer and Dereck are scheduled to welcome a second boy into the family next month in August.

Don't worry Dereck, you will have one more boy soon to help you with your cell phone...  May you never be lonely again!

 There goes mom whizzing by!

 John Thomas and Emma Kate assist with making banana bread for us before we departed.

This is evidence that Judi truly needs the help as Gari points out a confectioners sugar malfunction!

After a wonderful visit we headed north up I-75 and Rt 127 all the way to Michigan's UP, our first time visit there and our next post on the blog.