March 18-24
Written March 28
Dear Friends and Family,
This
is another one of those keeping-track diaries, this time of yet
another business trip to America. In many ways, his
would be different than last month's: longer, mostly in Charlotte
versus Lynchburg, and including two-and-a-half weekends. Here's
the first part of the story.
The trip started with a two-hour drive to
Frankfurt airport early on Sunday. Marianne came with me and we
enjoyed as easy a drive as we have ever had on the infamous A3
Autobahn. No accidents. Little traffic. No rain. No
problem. I actually made it to check-in before they opened the
lines!
After check-in, I managed to kill enough
time by going through security twice, once to the frequent flier lounge
and once to the US Airlines gate for Flight 705. All together, I
think I went through five lines, two security searches, and a couple
more security questioning sessions. In the end, I almost needed
the three hours I had.
The flight was uneventful. It was
plumb full, but I had an aisle seat and a smallish seat neighbor.
That's about as good as it gets. After eleven hours, we all got
out and went through the American immigration line. Last time I
had been in Charlotte, this step had taken 90 minutes, but this time it
was more like nine. Bags took another twenty minutes. The
Hertz car another twenty minutes. All in all, I was driving to
the hotel an hour after landing, a good trip.
The rest of the week was work. Just
work. Not remarkable. Three days in Charlotte and two days
in Lynchburg. Actually, part of it was fun, since I did get to
chat with old friends. Honestly, I think that was part of the
reason for the trip, since I may not be back again before I retire in
another three months.
All week, I tired before I could take my
camera out of the backpack, so there are no illustrations up through
the end of the week. However, I had a plan for a photo shoot on
the weekend: an evening shoot in Lynchburg, a sunrise shoot up in the
mountains, daytime pictures from Roanoke and the Blue Ridge
Parkway. That was the plan. Here's the reality.
Friday evening weather was decent. I
left work a bit early, grabbed the camera bag, and headed across the
river to Madison Heights. I had hoped to find a place to get a clear
shot of downtown. However, driving through the residential part of
Madison Heights, I found it to be a village where I was not willing to take expensive
equipment out of my locked car. Nice views, but ...
Eventually I found a great parking lot at
McBride Signs and asked if I could trespass to take pictures.
They agreed, warning me that the bank was steep and a fall would not be
good. I agreed. In the end, I took a couple shots from the
top and two more from down below. Nothing spectacular, just new
practice after my dry spell. (It's interesting how necessary it
really is to keep clicking. Otherwise, the technology gets in the
way of making fun pictures.)
![downtown](picts/thumbs/d120323_01_downtown.jpg)
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![downtown 2](picts/thumbs/d120323_02_alsoDowntown.jpg)
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![rock wall](picts/thumbs/d120323_06_rockWall.jpg)
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![fountain](picts/thumbs/d120323_07_fountian.jpg)
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Lynchburg's from McBride Signs
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Rock wall below McBride
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Fountain, toward Lynchburg
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After the Madison Heights side, I drove over
to the other bank of the river. On this side, the river park is
isolated by an active railroad track. Another risk for taking
pictures.
From the river bank, I climbed to the very
top of Court House Hill. Another nice view, including of the
monument to the fallen Confederate soldiers. This really is THE
SOUTH.
Finally, I drove over to The Point of Honor
monument. Actually, it's an old house where the locals defended
their town against the Union invaders. The story is interesting,
since the invaders seemed to have left without serious damage.
Nowadays, the Point also offers an interesting view of the local pipe
foundry. This may have been my favorite picture -- including the
post-processing. Again, not everyone's taste.
So, an OK start of my photo weekend. OK, not great, but it was nice to give it a try.
Tomorrow, bigger plans!
John
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