McGuire AFB, NJ  4 May 2005

After we picked up our rental car we drove towards Dover AFB, DE. Here we arrived at 7 o'clock in the evening. We were able to gain access to the base by showing our military IDs so it was very easy to read all the serials of the aircraft on the flightline. Besides some nice visitors, a total of twelve Galaxy's were noted.

Later that evening we visited Wilmington AP, DE. Unfortunately it was already dark, so we only saw some C-130s parked on the flightline. We were able to read one of the parked C-130s. From here we drove to Somers Point, NJ (which is very close to Atlantic City) to spend the night in a Econo Lodge Hotel. As you can see on the pictures, this hotel looked like the typical American hotels you always see in the movies.

The next day we visited Atlantic City IAP, NJ. Unfortunately we were not allowed to go on base so we had to read the 'AC' coded F-16s from outside the fence. We had a score of five Vipers and three nice gateguards. After we were done here we drove to McGuire AFB, NJ.

At McGuire AFB it was very easy to get on base and we immediately arranged three nice rooms to spend the night on base. Half an hour later we were able to read almost every aircraft on this huge base. We read eight C-17's, eighteen KC-10's, fourteen KC-135's, a C-141 and a sneaky C-32. After we wrote down al the numbers we went to the 305 OG main building to ask permission to take some pictures. Ten minutes later we were walking along the flightline with a pilot who arranged our photo permission. Thanks guys!!!

New York City, NY  4 May 2005

Around 3 o'clock we left McGuire AFB, NJ and drove to Hamilton where we caught the New Jersey Transit to New York Penn station on Madison Square Garden. After a short visit to the huge B&H Camera Store we walked to the USS Intrepid to visit the museum. Unfortunately the museum was already closed, but the friendly custodian left us in for a few minutes. Just enough time for Mark to take some pictures of the Concorde which is preserved here. After taking a couple of photos of the carrier and some of the aircraft on deck we took a cab that brought us to Ground Zero (former World Trade Center).

The cab driver that brought us to Ground Zero told us a lot about the things he experienced on 11 September 2001. When we arrived at the site we were stunned and didn't know what to say. It was a very impressive experience for the three of us. We didn't take any pictures at the WTC site out of respect for the horrible things that happened here. After a walk around Ground Zero we walked towards the pier to see the Statue of Liberty. An hour later we took a cab back to Penn station and headed back to McGuire AFB, NJ where we spend the night.