That movie clip was terrific, Spaw.

I tried to get into Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey after the Getaway in the fall of 2000. I wanted to see whatever was left of the Zeppelin base. I couldn't get in - the base was locked up tight because of the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen. I had to satisfy myself with looking through the fence from the outside. I did see one big hangar, though.

I did get to Moffett Field (near San Jose) a couple of years ago. I saw the huge blimp and Zeppelin hangars, and toured the nice museum they had there. I almost got a traffic ticket from a bored but overzealous cop at the base, but he let me go after half an hour of harassment. I tried to take a photo of the hangar while the cop was checking my life history, but he got nervous about that. Still, I had a nice view of that enormous building while I was "detained." It gave me a feeling of the size of those airships. Then I went to Stanford University and climbed the tower there, looking down on a football game with fireworks. And then the Airship Ventures Zeppelin flew by, making it a perfect day.

Moffett made the news today when a space shuttle flew by on its way to its new home at a museum in Los Angeles. The U.S.S. Macon was based at Moffett until it was lost in a storm off Point Sur, California, in 1935. Her sister ship, U.S.S. Akron was lost off the New Jersey coast in 1933.

-Joe-