Here's a couple more pictures from the July 4th party, Saturday night.
This young man is a riot ! Rocking with his Dad. I do hope that I'm around in 10 years to hear him playing for real !

One of the tandem pilots was our official Home made ice cream judge. I'm not sure where he's from(country), but he is a great, soft spoken, gentle spirited, honest kind of fellow. Can't say much about his taste for icecream, however,,,,,,,just kidding because I didn't win. Nice guy !

I spent yesterday and today in Lexington, Ky. working and I arrived home this evening. I head out tomorrow, bound for my home state of Alabama ! woohoo ! Birmingham, here I come ! I will probably be there for at least 5 days. We will see how the testing goes. I am just darn glad to be back in the productive job force again, and actually having money coming back in. What a novel idea ! lol Will posted from the road, if there's anything to say.

Let's start with some fireworks pictures. I lost over 100 pictures on the night of the party, due to my camera going into a frackn' diagnostic mode. The following was just an after thought, and some donated picture from other people. I was livid when it happened. Guess I was trying to do too many things at one time with it?!

The Uncle Lightning band rock the night away. Dancing is shown below.

Kirk,,one of the aerotow pilots, was spinning his fireballs later in the evening.

This is a priceless picture. You just had to be there to understand it.

The BBQ was excellent, all the trimmings was wonderful, I understand that the Kegs of beer were cold, and there was a lot of homemade ice cream. The winner of the Ice Cream Contest was a Peach & Banana flavor. It was very good. I thought my strawberry Rocky Road was good, but there can be Only 1, lol.

This is the view of the plateau looking north, from Henson's Gap. You can see launch in the bottom right of this picture. I think I was at 3,200 ft. when I took this. Have to take my buddy's word for it, because for the second flight in a row, my batteries were dead, and I had to fly without a vario. Oh well, doesn't seem to affect my flying much. I was the top of the stack for a while.
I believe this is Johnny, in his sailplane, buzzing Henson's radial ramp. Gotta love being this high over a sailplane !

My buddy Dub, on the nose wires, brought his sister & niece with him yesterday so that his niece could get a tandem with Clark Harlow. Here's a look at them getting there hang check.

Clark always has a great launch.

Their climb-out, after a perfect launch. As you can tell, it was a great cycle !

Clark doesn't fly with a vario either. He had an extra 100 lbs on his glider,or so lol, and he still was able to soar for over an hour. He is that good, however, I will ensure that my darn batteries are full charged next time, with some spares. I have proved to myself that I can do it,,I just like having it, to maximize the lift. Of course, it could be that I just chose to fly on 2 NO brainer kind of days, lol. I like to think it was allll me.

Some folks out there will understand what I'm about to describe, others,,,may only dream about it. I had my first flight this year, last Saturday. I was able to pull off an hour 1/2 before I had to head out and land. It was calm, buoyant ridge life, and the end of the day glass off. Yesterday, was a very challenging day of over 2 hours. Wore me OUT ! But, in a great way. I felt like one of those cars on a track toys we had as kids, that you had to recharge every 4 minutes. I felt worn out, exhausted, and energized at the same time. It is really good to be back in the air after so many problems. Wonder what the weather is going to be tomorrow??? haha.

Well, this broke the "Happens in 3's" saying. Really, kind of scarey. He was 50 years young.

Billy Mays was found dead by his wife in his Tampa, Florida home on June 28, 2009. The Associated Press reported that there were no indications that the house had been broken into, and that police did not suspect foul play.

Mays had been aboard a US Airways flight that blew out its front tires as it landed at Tampa International Airport on June 27, the day before his death. None of the 138 passengers and five crew members were reported to be seriously injured immediately following the incident, but several passengers reported having bumps and bruises from falling objects. Mays told the local Tampa TV station that some of the objects "hit me on the head, but I got a hard head." It is unclear whether Mays' death was related to the incident.

They say that bad things happen in 3's. Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and now Michael Jackson.

This is not a debate on what kind of man he was,,I didn't know him. I have, however, danced many many hours to his music back in the day. Many hours of great entertainment, until things went south for him. I am sorry for the loss of a great entertainer !

Farrah Fawcett,,, what a shame, sorry Ryan. She was the heartthrob of every American male during her prime. She fought a valiant fight.

At least Mr. McMahon had a full, and an unblemished life!

Hope we don't loose anymore ! But, the longer that we live,,,

the more of these we will see !