Return to Prison; Delaware; A Viper! Fort Belvoir; Old Friends; Touched By An Angel

While in Newport, RI, Suzanne dragged me out on a run around the base. She particularly wanted to return to the location of her first prison cell, King Hall. Okay, it wasn't really a prison; it was actually Naval Officer Candidate School (OCS), where she spent 16 weeks during the summer of 1983. While several 12 Meter racing yachts were practicing for the upcoming America's Cup on Narragansett Bay, just outside her window, she had to learn how to march, repair broken water pipes, fight oil fires and navigate by the stars. 








Some nautical trivia: King Hall was named for Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, USN, a five-star admiral who served as Commander-in-Chief, US Fleet, and Chief of Naval Operations during World War II. A graduate of the US Naval Academy Class of 1901, he was one of few senior officers with sea duty assignments in destroyers, submarines and aircraft carriers. He qualified as a naval aviator at age 47, and while at the Naval War College, wrote a paper reflecting that America's greatest weakness was representative democracy, and that "Historically ... it is traditional and habitual for us to be inadequately prepared. This is the combined result of a number of factors, the character of which is only indicated: democracy, which tends to make everyone believe that he knows it all; the preponderance (inherent in democracy) of people whose real interest is in their own welfare as individuals; the glorification of our own victories in war and the corresponding ignorance of our defeats (and disgraces) and of their basic causes; the inability of the average individual (the man in the street) to understand the cause and effect not only in foreign but domestic affairs, as well as his lack of interest in such matters. Added to these elements is the manner in which our representative form of government has developed as to put a premium on mediocrity and to emphasize the defects of the electorate already mentioned." (I find that I agree with every one of  the good admiral's points...)


As we were leaving Newport, just a few days after Suzanne's presentation of The Celebration of Wolf's Message in Plymouth, this image appeared on the back of our car. Apparently formed by artistic seagulls, it looks very much like a wolf howling at the moon. Another one of life's synchronicities...












Our summer tour continued south with a stop in Delaware, but purely for family and R&R purposes. Suzanne's Lovely Sister Janice and her new husband Steve live in a beautiful home backing up to a state park, but the highlight of our brief visit (other than spending time with the newlyweds) was not hiking - it was getting to know a Viper. Not the snake kind, of course, since vipers are not indigenous to Delaware. This Viper was a beautiful black sports car that Steve and Janice had just ordered from a dealer in the Midwest. It arrived in a closed trailer and in pristine condition. Steve took both Suzanne and me out (separately) for a spin, and the acceleration was even more impressive than we had expected. This was Steve's sixth Viper; in fact, he had raced his previous cars back in the '90s, but he alleges that this one is just for fun. 



After our road tests, Barkeep Janice broke out a nice Chardonnay and showed us their home, furnished with some eclectic pieces like this bar which could have come from a small hotel. We toured around and had dinner out at one of Steve's favorite Italian restaurants (he's lived in Newark, DE, his entire life) and learned about running a small business. We also took a walk on the Wilmington, DE, Riverwalk, and played a round of putt-putt (miniature golf). It was a fun visit, but way too short...










The next day found us driving south down the scenic and bucolic DELMARVA peninsula on US-301 and across the Annapolis-Kent Island Bay Bridge to our campground at Fort Belvoir, just off the Potomac River on Accotink Bay. This would be my base for a few days while Suzanne took AMTRAK from DC's Union Station to Penn Station, NYC, and up the Hudson on to Rheinbeck, NY. She was a keynote speaker at the Omega Institute, along with Dr. Gary Schwartz and Dr. Eban Alexander. 








While Suzanne was away, I indulged my PT desires with the rowing machine at the base gym, hiking the forest trails of the Accotink National Wildlife Preserve, kayaking Accotink Bay and bicycling around the base. Paddling one morning alone on the bay proved a meditative blessing; for more than an hour there were no other boats around, and I was able to enjoy the many birds resident there. These laughing gulls on old pilings were obviously used to human company, and allowed me to paddle very close to them. Several osprey out fishing were less companionable, keeping a wide distance from my kayak. 







Mellow paddling that morning allowed me to reflect on the reflections of the sun in my paddle swirls... I tried to distinguish a pattern, but it kept dissolving and reforming, like swirling clouds in a thunderstorm.

During my hikes, I was able to try out a new water filter I had gotten for lightweight backpacking. My old MSR Sweetwater purifier weighs in at 14.6 ounces and takes up about 10 times more space than my new 2.0 ounce Sawyer Mini filter. 12.6 ounces less weight to carry might not sound like much, but when you're carrying a backpack at 10,000 feet, you try to cut weight in every possible way you can. The new filter works like this: you fill a plastic water bottle in a stream with "dirty" water, screw the mini filter in place, and either suck through the short, straw-like outlet or squeeze the water bottle to push stream water through the filter into another container. Stream water, even in the high country, can contain minute contamination in the form of bacteria (such as salmonella or e. coli) or protozoa (such as giardia or cryptosporidium). If you drink untreated water, these little nasties wouldn't often prove fatal, but could give you a case of Montezuma's Revenge, an altogether unnecessary and undesirable ailment. 


When Suzanne returned, we went hiking together on some pleasant trails and found her a brief resting place on this tree with an unusual horizontal bend in its trunk.














The forest here is lush, and there were many interesting mushrooms, lichens and fungi to observe... 












We were happy to be able to meet our daughter Susan's best friend from high school while in the DC area. Hannah Yeronick, daughter of an Air Force colonel, works as a contractor for the intelligence services and is in the midst of planning a gala wedding. We know that Susan will be there in spirit and celebrating that event with Hannah. 










Another fun social event was getting together with award-winning author William (Bill) Hammond and his sons Harrison and Churchill on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria. We had a great time catching up on their exploits; Bill will soon be moving back to Wayzata, Minnesnowta, just in time for winter; Harrison is getting ready to head to Fort Benning as a newly commissioned US Army Second Lieutenant; and Churchill continues working on his master's degree in Washington.

Finally, while on my final hike in the woods near Fort Belvoir, where daughter Susan and I had hiked several times together when she was a teenager, I had a spiritual experience that took my breath away. It was early morning, and I hadn't seen anyone for over an hour. I was hiking along in my usual meditative state, generally aware of my surroundings, when I felt a hand on my right arm - a touch strong enough to make me turn to the right. Imagine my surprise when I saw that there was no one in sight. My heart raced, and I came to the conclusion that Susan had generated enough energy to briefly make her presence known on the trail where we had hiked years earlier. I had to sit down for a few minutes on a log to collect my wits; it was an amazing moment, almost bringing me to tears.