I was thinking of a brief mini-vacation but I don't know if it would be propitious.

Click the pics, there's really no downside.

A World War II B-17 bomber flew over the house yesterday. I didn't get any  good pictures because by the time I grabbed my camera and got outside he was miles away. I think this and some other airplanes over-flew the Broncos Stadium since yesterday was their first home game.

I've had a powerful hankering lately to take a short trip somewhere. It's not because of the weather here in Denver, the weather's been beautiful lately, and the ten-day forecast is all 70s and 80s, so the weather is no reason to leave. And, I can't call it a shakedown cruise because the Lance is pretty much shaken down already, and the only thing I haven't tested yet is how well the Arctic Fox's lithium iron batteries will work in the Lance.

So there's really no reason to take a short trip in the Lance except sometimes, for some reason, I get those happy feet and have the desire to go someplace and see something. And one thing I would enjoy seeing right now would be some Sandhill Cranes. And that would mean a trip to Alamosa, Colorado, and camping at the free San Luis wildlife area.

Being there not only puts me in close proximity to some Cranes, but it's also one of those truly dark places where even I can get pictures of the Milky Way at night.

I know I was there not long ago, but that was too early for the Cranes to start showing up. But I think in late September, they should be in the Alamosa area, where they like to go in the Fall and rest up on their way to New Mexico or Arizona for the winter.

It's also a very pretty drive through the mountains to get to Alamosa, and there might even be some leaves at that altitude that are changing. The weather looks nice in the Alamosa area, the 60s and 70s for highs and 30s and 40s for lows, which sounds like great sleeping weather to me. So that sounds like something I would enjoy, especially if there are a few Sandhill Cranes in town.

Theboondork

B-17 flying Fortress a couple thousand feet in the air, passing right over me. These things are incredibly loud because their engines are huge and powerful. I can only imagine what a couple of hundred of these planes flying over Germany at the same time must've sounded like.

I know it can't be read after the Internet finishes turning my pictures into mush,  but my original picture of the nose-art on this flying fortress says Texas Raiders, and has a girl sitting on a bomb, next to a Texas flag.

The flying fortress flew over me twice, and it was a real thrill for an Air Force brat like me. When I was born in 1946 these bombers were still flying but most of them were being flown by the new Air National Guard "ANG" when it started in 1947, as they were quickly phased out by the Air Force when the US Air Force became its own branch of the military and broke away from the Army Air Corps.