First Trip: Friday (by kayak) Ask me to name something I associate with the cherry blossoms and I certainly won't come up with the KC-130 aerial refueling tanker as an answer. But my first cherry blossom trip of the year started with a close encounter with the big plane. The KC-130 is the tanker variant of the C-130 (but you already knew that, didn't you?). It's a big airplane - about the same wingspan as a 757. As I unloaded my kayak at Columbia Island Marina (adjacent to the Pentagon and near Arlington Cemetery) a KC-130 with its refueling drogues deployed made a low pass over the Pentagon. Just a few thousand feet in altitude, I'd guess, which is pretty low for plane that size. I imagine that it was some sort of ceremony at the Pentagon - a change of command, or whatever - or maybe a display to influence visiting Congress members to fund acquisition of more airplanes. Or maybe a funeral at Arlington Cemetery. You get used to these odd sorts of occurrences in Wash...
One man's journey into the great outdoors of Washington, DC and its environs.