Moonshiners Fly-In

The first weekend in August, Mountain City, Tennessee, was host to the 5th Annual Moonshiners Fly-In at the Johnson County Airport.  Consort and I, along with our friends, decided to attend.  It was truly a treat for the eyes!  There were 20 or so paragliders in the sky at any one time and more on the ground waiting to take off.  With the mountains and setting sun, it was completely beautiful.  

I knew nothing about paragliding, parasailing, or hang gliding, so I did a little research.  Here's what I found out.

The above four pictures are of powered paragliders, also known as paramotors.  The pilot carries all the gear necessary to fly on his back in a pack.  The backpack holds a motor and what looks like an industrial-sized fan.  It is the fan that propels the pilot into the air.  Also attached to the backpack is a paraglider wing -- that colorful thing that looks an awful lot like a parachute, and a small seat for the pilot.  The backpack gear weighs anywhere from 45 to 100 pounds.  After starting the motor, the pilot runs between five and 100 feet over any type of surface, then launches into the air.  The average cost for the equipment is around $3,000.  After watching a couple of takeoffs, I knew I would never be coordinated enough to man one of these.

In the top left picture is a powered parachute, also known as a trike.  With the trike, the pilot is fully seated in a go-kart type setup.  This flying machine, which weighs in at about 200 to 250 pounds, needs a minimum of 100 feet on a runway-type surface for takeoff.  Average cost, $10,000.  On a good day, I think I could manage a trike.  

We saw the gentleman in the orange shirt zipping around the airport grounds and, of course, I had to stop him and ask about his ride.  He is riding a modified Onewheel.  The modification was the addition of a lawn chair.  He said he added the lawn chair for his personal comfort with the added bonus of being able to more easily hold his bottle of beer.  He was an interesting fellow.

The air dick?  On-site security.

As night crept in, the paragliders turned on LED lights that encircled the fan.

A few more notes.

I was admiring the scenery on the way home the other day and began to take note of various mountain heights.  I could easily determine which mountains -- possibly large hills? -- that I would attempt to climb and, based on what I saw, mountains I would never, ever attempt to climb.  This made me wonder what the mountain across the road looks like from a distance.  I took the above picture from our campground.  Looking at it from this vantage point, I wondered why I ever entertained the idea of climbing to the top!  But the challenge remains.  As of today, we still haven't hiked higher than the little cabin in the woods.

A few nights ago we had heavy thunderstorms with plenty of lightening.  I'm not sure if it was the thunder and lightening, or just the rain, but whatever the reason, the fifth wheel was vibrating and shaking like Elvis Presley in his prime.

D.O.G. absolutely hates thunderstorms.  At seven years old, he is the equivalent of a 49-year-old man, but still wants to be held like a baby during stormy weather.  Consort, who had gone to bed before me, was soundly sleeping when I headed to bed.  I placed D.O.G. up on the bed next to consort, so he could sleep with us and, hopefully, mitigate his anxiety.  

As I was changing into pajamas, there was a loud crash of thunder and a lightening strike very close to the fifth wheel.  The unexpected boom so startled me, I let out a scream.  That caused consort to wake up and scream.  That, of course, caused D.O.G. to howl.  The power had gone out a little earlier in the night, but we still had RV lights that run on battery.  Once I located a switch and flipped the lights on, I found D.O.G. laying on top of consort.  The above picture illustrates the general idea.  D.O.G. spent the remainder of the night on his back, crammed between the two of us, panting like a freight train.  

Fulton, who was flattened against my other side, jumped each time there was a thunder crash and then landed his 12-pound body on either my chest or head.  Nobody slept well that night.

On the TV:  Binge watching Downton Abbey  Love!  Shoutout to nephew in Mesa for teaching me how to run my TV!!  

Reading (still):  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  I never seem to get much reading done here in NE TN.  This one could take a while!

Drinking:  Lemon-lavender moonshine mixed with lemonade.  Delightfully refreshing!

On the stereo:  T-Bone Burnett singing, It's Not Too Late, and Mississippi John Hurt singing, I Shall Not Be Moved.

Quote of the day:  Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.  ~Mahatma Gandhi