Saturday, June 23, 2012 - Rest and ISS Sighting

Took the day off today, except I did some computer work, of course. Finally managed to find a stable in Syracuse (well, nearby Skaneateles, anyway) after much networking and referrals, thank goodness. That’s been weighing on me, but now we’ve got that set, so most of my logistics are done, at least until August, when we have a very busy schedule, too. Hubby watched TV and read and napped in his chair much of the day, good for him. The camp emptied out during the day, everyone riding but us (which is fine, I prefer empty trails to crowded ones any day!), but then I sat around the campfire with the neighbors for a while. Cherise inadvertently erased everything on her GPS (I knew I should hav downloaded everything from her yesterday, instead of just Friday’s trail!), but it did register today’s ride, so I downloaded that, then uploaded yesterday’s ride so she would have that. We’re planning on keeping in touch so I can keep collecting her trails, which will be part of the database I’m putting together (more on this later). Meanwhile, a friend of Carol’s told her that the International Space Station would be passing overhead at tonight, so I checked the NASA site and sure enough, it was taking a 3 minute pass right overhead, from the WNW to the SE, starting at 9:59. We all headed out to the middle of the campground where it was clear, and one of the group went and told the Boy Scouts, who had arrived yesterday and were jousting around all day, except when they went on a hike, and they were all looking up when we did. What a great view! We had almost perfectly clear skies, and since the sun had just set, and the ISS is so high up, it still reflected the sun so it was immensely bright until it curved off to the southeast. Really cool! I used to look for it a lot at home, but I haven’t done so lately, I’m going to have to get back to that, it was really stunning! To think that from their perspective we’re just an invisible dot down below on the face of this huge planet, whizzing by, and down here there are thousands of people watching them pass over at any given moment, all around the globe. Well, that was a highlight, and afterwards, I came back, watched another TV show with Hubby before going to bed, feeling nice and relaxed after a very enjoyable day.