Tuesday's Travels and Wednesday's Walkabout.

Well that seems to be as good a title for this installment as any other I could conjure up. And as I go on some what accurate too.

Tuesday is a travel day for me, if only to the next city south and across the river and back. That is due to it being my normal day to practice Bagpiping with my instructor, Joe Brady Sr. He's good people with patience and tolerance for mangling of music. Well back to traveling, normally it takes about 30 minutes to get to Joes home from mine. Not that day, due to Monday having been a holiday there was more traffic than usual for a tuesday morning. Still I left home earlier than what I would normally and it still took me 50+ minutes to about 12 miles. Not a way to enjoyably start the day.

Well pipe practice is uneventful, I also am now the owner of a frame drum commonly called a Bodhran (pronounced; Bor'on rhymes with moron) so drumming practice has been added to my arsenal of annoying things to do.

After piping and drumming practice I'm off (yeah yeah I know the old line, "in more ways than one") to Danbury Connecticut; to my old Army Reserve Unit. Monthly lunch with the foggies. Well that and to deliver some items. Back in the 1990's While living in Pennsylvania I had decorated my living room with both a U.S. and Army Flag complet on flag staffs, golden fringe trim and spear point finals. Well since I'm dwelling in a small apartment and have a smaller duplicate set sized to my current space I didn't need such a large set and so donated them to the Reserve Unit for their use.

After that it was back over towards Brewster, NY just about a mile in from the CT. border to J&B's Bar-B-Que. Located on U.S.6 its pretty decent. Hey from me decent is high praise when describing food. Especially after years of Combatant Cuisine and Bachelor Chow.

Next stop on the day's agenda, back home to Highland Falls. Take the bike to the welder, and back home other jobs had come up of higher importance, meaning more income for the welder. Not a problem and back home I go.

Since I hadn't run in the morning, now it was time to run. Still 80 degrees farenheit at 17:00 (5PM) and do 5.51 miles from home up around the back corral at Morgan Farm down to Main st. to Thayer gate and back home. time for that run 58min, 54 sec. and after showering and putting away my goodies the day was fairly done.

Still, I did see one thing on Wednesday very few people will ever see in their lives. A true relic of America, something which defines how we came to be and very few are left in the world in working order. I saw a World War Two War Bird; A B17 Flying Fortess in flight south bound over the Hudson valley. I saw it fleetingly a few moments really but long enough to know the shape and outline of a regal piece of human operated history.

Wednesday's Walkabout; Some days I need to do something different to change how the week progresses and my view of the local world. Today was one of those days. I slept later than normal only because I can, that and I was also considering making a rest day before my next attempt at another 20 mile run. Gack.

Needless to say I didn't rest. Oh I goofed off and burned the morning but I also went for a walk-about. Over the course of 4 hours I felt as if I had covered 10 to 12miles. Wrong, only 8 and a half miles. starting at 11:00 I started walking. Up Morgan farm road to Fire break 8. Walked to the top of 8 and down the otherside to Fire Break 1. Turned left on 1 and walked to Mine Torn Road. Turned left on Mine Torn rd and down to Ft Montgomery. Got to U.S. 9W crossed the road turned, thats right left, back towards Old State Rd. Turned right, I can't always go left, on Old State rd and followed to Rt 218/Main st where I turned left the final time before my last right and home.

Aside from the wretched heat of an early September day the views of the Hudson valley were rather nice. Also the hollow where Stilwell Lake and Mine Torn road runs down through. and looking up at the Torn & Bear Mountain. photos of which should be found in my first installments of the Blog.

Now you'd think in the middle of the day you wouldn't see large animals in trafficed areas. Well you do, and deer are every where. But today I saw Bambi's dumber cousin, you know the type, the one all the other deer probably refer to as Road Kill Bill.
I honestly can say I've never seen a deer trip over a guard rail and fall down a hill before today. Today I saw that and heard the guard rail ring like a badly crafted bell. That made me laugh out loud and spook the other dear which faired much better.

Now my final bit for the day and I'll close the Blog and go to bed. Ran the same course today as I did yesterday; and even with all the walking I did earlier today, my time was consistent with yesteday's run. just one second faster.Still 14.11 miles of movement today was enough and now dinner is done, i'm done and its off to bed I totter.

Good night all.

Q