We left Beatty about 1030, right on time. Not the time we planned to leave, but it is what it is. Getting to NAS Fallon was an uphill drive the entire way. Seems like every direction in this part of the world is uphill, all the way. NAS, by the way, is an abbreviation for Naval Air Station. This particular NAS is a Top Gun training facility. Fighter jets are flying around every day, and they are loud. Diane calls all that noise “the sound of freedom.” I agree.

I didn’t get photos of the fighters during the day but did visit the flight line museum which is a static display of many aircraft, including Russian MIGs. But first, here’s an old COG plane that used to be on the USS Nimitz.

And lastly, here’s an American jet with the Super Moon in the background.

Actually, sometimes we went downhill, but not as often as uphill. During one of the downhill legs, I had to stop for a nap and some food prior to tackling the next uphill battle.

We got to the Fallon back gate at about 1500 and discovered it was closed. Nifty, right? Tried to turn around and got in a pickle. That means I was jackknifed and stuck. A Navy policeman magically appeared at my window and tried to help. Apparently, he and another sailor were manning the gate so they could open it when people like me showed up. Sadly, they didn’t get to the gate before I made a hasty decision to turn around without disconnecting the truck. As we worked, a local farmer stopped and also helped. He offered to go home and bring back one of his tractors so he could lift the back end of the truck and move it in line with the RV.

I couldn’t disconnect the tow bars so I disconnected the entire hitch but we couldn’t get it out of the receiver due to the pressure it was under. I had farmer get in truck and put it in reverse while I backed up the RV and the hitch came right out once we got to less than a 90 angle.

I’m sure you’re sad, like me, that no one took any photos of all that commotion so you’ll have to just let your imagination run wild.

We happily got on base, found the RV park, found the MWR office purely by luck and checked in. We found our space and I drove over the space marker while parking on the gravel which was next to a really nice patio. After some discussion, and observation Diane determined the RV was supposed to be on the patio, not the gravel. I reparked in the proper place, straightened up the space marker, and only had to adjust 4 times to allow room for electric, water, and sewer. What a day.

After all that was done, I hooked up the satellite dish and it wouldn’t work. don’t know the problem. I didn’t really care right then so did a search for over the air channels and got a bunch, but the signal wasn’t very good. Diane watched them anyway. We were just happy to be there.

The next day I found a screwdriver and dismantled the satellite antenna to see if something fell apart inside. I was curious what it looked like anyway, so it didn’t really matter if it was OK. I also checked the cable using a continuity check with my little handy meter. About the time I was ready to go out and get a replacement system, I did one more check on the small cable that connects the Satellite receiver to the internal line from the antenna and found it to be faulty. I replaced it and the system worked perfectly. All the while I was working on this, Diane was nearby doing laundry. It was hard to pass it up because it was free. She was a happy camper. Happier, even, when she learned that the satellite worked again. She got even happier, if possible, when I drove into town, all by myself, to get a haircut.

Life is good when you can be happy over small things like that.

That’s it!