Greetings one and all. After a 4-day work stint, SWMBO and I decided to relax. We did our shopping yesterday and took a short ride looking at leaves, much to our disappointment. Rather, it met my expectations. The trees are trying to change but here in this area they seem to dip their toes into the water by only changing 1 branch or starting with just thew tips of some of the branches, spreading it out over several weeks. Some trees just give up and, instead of donning their bright party clothes to show off, they just let their leaves turn gray and brown and shrivel up, the arboreal equivalent of wearing ratty clothes complimented by fuzzy bunny slippers for a trip to the local dept store. Contrast this with NH and Maine where you go to bed to forests of green and wake the next day to an explosion of vivid colours that are almost painful to look at and are gone within a week.

Today we went to Fort Frederick State Park in MD (US-1570 and US-0015 C&O Canal) We got there just about at opening time and were the first ones through the gate. We drove past the fort and down to the beaver pond where we heard American Robins, Northern Cardinals and Bluejays. There was a mist rising off the surface of the water and we stopped and took some pictures. We then went to the parking lot which is right next to the C&O Canal, making it a 2-fer. Over the course of 50 minutes, we worked 58 stations including some park-to-parks. I barely had time to spot our activation online and SWMBO’s fingers were almost on fire trying to keep up in the log. It was a bit surprising for a weekday but I am not complaining. We even worked a station in MO. I was also using my club callsign so anyone who worked us got 2 2-fers: 1 for me and 1 for the club, K3SRZ.

Well, I am anticipating a quiet evening (I can say “quiet” as I am not at work) and will be participating in a couple of radio nets. For now, namaste and keep your stick on the ice!