Yesterday (Tuesday May 16) we flew out of beautiful Charlottesville (KCHO), over the Blue Ridge, southeast to Cape Charles VOR (CCV), then north over Chesapeake Bay and through Delaware to Delaware Coastal (KGED). We planned the flight to avoid both clouds (overcast at 10,000 and scattered at 3,500) and some restricted airspaces. Around DC is a big red circle (33 mile radius) with a lot of rules. Commercial airliners and government flights can go in and out of Dulles, Ronald Reagan, BWI and Andrews AFB (and other gov’t sites) and private pilots can get pre-clearance (actual forms and background checks). But not casual travelers like us. The joke is that if you want to fly in formation with F-16s, go ahead and try it. Then south of DC there are MOAs (Military Operation Areas) that are obviously no-go areas, although some have very high floors that you can fly under.

It was a beautiful flight, and I loved actually getting to the east coast, but I do wish it had been sunnier. We were lucky to be avoiding the front that has now finally moved off shore but was still doing it’s best to create cloud and rain yesterday.

KGED is just a short hop from Lewes where my oldest friend Kitt lives with her husband Doug. Today they took us on a fun bike ride to see cute, historic downtown Lewes. This evening we saw Rehoboth Beach and ate poke. It was an idyllic day.

Did I mention we can fit our folding bikes into our airplane? Dan gets all the credit for his plane-loading engineering skill.