Many Closeups of the Pores in Kevin Spacey's Face, Followed By Hiking with Radios and Without

Friday night we went out to the elegantly refurbished Silver Theatre in Silver Spring with Jim and Jacqui to see "Margin Call", sort of a Glengarry Glen Ross remake, moved from real estate sales to Wall Street, with Jeremy Irons playing the Alec Baldwin role and Kevin Spacey playing Jack Lemmon. For most of the movie, Demi Moore plays a school marm, which is sort of a waste - but she blossoms a bit towards the end.

On Saturday, Carole had to drive to Pennsylvania to see her mom, so Carl and I hitched a ride with her so we could activate Snowy Mountain as part of the Summits on the Air program. The Google maps had us drive up tiny dirt fire roads with great views, and we finally found Fire Tower Road. Carole dropped us off and Carl and I hiked about .5 miles to the fire tower site. I got out the sling shot and fishing reel, and in about 15 minutes we had the 20 meter dipole about 30 feet in the air and we were on the air just shortly after noon local time.

It was a great site to operate from, and the weather was phenomenal - in the high 50s, a bit breezy, but not a cloud in the sky. We quickly worked over 20 stations, including Scotland, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Portugal, Canada and few in the US. Carl had carried in his camping Barcalounger while I had a more manly, more lightweight - and totally uncomfortable - collapsible camp stool kind of thing. This was our first trial of the Paddlette PK-2 and it worked great, though strapping a key to my thigh was a new experience.

Carole picked us up about 90 minutes later and we headed down the mountain and stopped for a fine lunch at the Shamrock Restaurant in Thurmont, where we learned that Erin Go Bragh has nothing to do wtih the buxom star of "Joanie Loves Chachi" being forbidden from going commando under her white T shirt during the hilarious vacation to Ireland episode.

A very successfull SOTA activation but not a lot of exercise. So, the next day Carl and I did the 6 mile hike around the Soldier's Delight shale barrens area. This is absolutely the ugliest possible time of year to do that hike - no leaves on the trees, muddy trails from recent rains, etc. - but always enjoyable to hike past the remains of chromium mines, not something you see every day.