Barry K7BWH

Morning

I had an awful night. My nose ran, I sneezed all night, didn’t sleep well, I must stay within reach of Kleenex at all times. Although the weather looks better this morning in Fancy Gap, Virginia, I really don’t feel like leisurely rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway today. I’ll see if I can make a few good miles in the right direction.

My clever plan to shed storage weight is not working as planned. My electric shaver’s battery is dead and I sent the charger home with Juanita. Oops.

Evening

I made another 300 miles toward home today. I rode the interstate for awhile but it was horribly straight, so I veered off onto county road 19 which looked suitably squiggly on the map. Good idea. Best ride in a long time. If the road was any more twisted, I would need a hinge in the middle of the motorcycle to turn the corners. There were a number of corners so sharp that it required downshifting to 2nd gear. That doesn’t sound like much, but on this bike 2nd gear is so low that sometimes I skip 1st and simply start out in 2nd.

Temperatures were fine until noon when they rose to 85 – 90 degrees again. I bulled my way on through and drank lots of water and took rest stops. I made about 300 miles and reached the outskirts of Lexington KY.

My daughter works as a civilian employee at the Navy Surface Warfare center in the Dam Neck Navy Base in Virginia Beach. She works in their rapid prototyping lab and provides programming support for embedded processors for a variety of communications equipment. She gave us a tour of her workspace and some less-classified areas.

A wonderful benefit of working at Dam Neck is that the navy base is built on the beach. Hillary’s office is less than 100 yards from warm sand and the sparkling blue waters of the Atlantic. The beach is as nice as the public resort nearby but without the crowds. We went for a walk.

Remember Iridium, the LEO satellite network once competing to become your satellite phone network? They spent billions to launch a network of communications satellites but ultimately struggled in the marketplace. Iridium was essentially acquired by the armed forces and now provides special communications. Their big advantage is complete global coverage and low earth orbit; although someone might be isolated in a valley without view to a geostationary satellite, they can always count on a low-flying Iridium satellite to come into range within fifteen minutes. Also, Iridium satellites have the convenient attribute of using a frequency range compatible with GPS equipment.