The light wasn't terrific, but I think they turned out well enough. After he took a few shots for me, I forged on ahead with the hopes of reserving a place to sit and eat. I dialed in the AWOS and heard a report of winds from due east at 3 knots, so assumed a landing on runway 2. While still a few miles out, I dialed in the Unicom and heard that the prevailing traffic was using 20, rather than 2. I didn't figure a wind of 3 knots was worth an argument with those that had arrived before me, so I set up to enter a left downwind to 20. The slight tailwind on landing extended my flare a wee bit, and I had to use a little more brake than usual to make the first turn-off, but the landing itself was ok.
After breakfast, I again used runway 20 and continued on to the west for my ultimate destination of Darke Co./Versailles. I had packed my Beretta NEOS .22 plinking pistol in case my brother was in the mood to do a little shooting on his range, but before heading up to his farm I decided to take a walk along the Greenville Creek:
It's been pretty drought-like this summer, so the water level is very low. These guys did a lot more walking than they did boating:
They had apparently brought along sufficient quantities of a fermented, hop-based brew to keep their moods buoyant, if not their boats, so they seemed to be enjoying their walk.
As I walked across the bridge on Mill Rd., I noticed that some local type had taken a distinct dislike to the 'O' on this sign:
Just across the bridge, I found this John Deere parked off to the side in a most photogenic manner:
Mill Rd. dead ends into Hahn Rd., and a little bit down Hahn Rd. you come to a very old cemetery:
Walking back towards my brother's place, I saw a lot of little butterflies. They all seemed kind of busy, but this one held still long enough for me to take his picture:
Having matriculated in the Engineering College, I never had the benefit of any botany classes. I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but it caught me eye:
The soybean fields are host to a lot more than soybean plants:
My brother set up his range and I unpacked my NEOS:
We each had a couple of targets to shoot at. I made the mistake of choosing the barrel to the right of my brother's, so had the distraction of being periodically sprayed with spent brass:
From 25', I managed to hit my target a few times:
I found one of my spent bullets; there's not much left of them after hitting that thick steel:
When we were done with the pistols at the 25' range, we pulled back to 425' and got out his .17 rifle:
The targets seem pretty small from 425':
At 425' I didn't expect to hit a damned thing, but I actually hit 6 out of 6:
The flight back was a bit choppier, but even at 3500' it turned out that some of the more over-achieving bugs were still out and about:
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