Saturday the 18th in New England was rain, periods of no rain and clouds followed by, you guessed it, rain. I was on Mt Greylock as I usually am for day one. I made a half a dozen contacts before the rain started. Based on the RADAR it looked like we would have a gap until afternoon. I elected to head home and wait it out. I went back out to a spot not far from my home, FN32hi, where I made another half a dozen contacts. So not as good as I would have liked a first day of the contest to go but, it wasn't zero.

 The best part of Saturday was meeting a Tanglewood Music School student. He and his girlfriend were out on a hike and when they came back to the parking lot where my equipment was set up, he serenaded us with Bach on the violin. It was pretty amazing.

Sunday I went to Mt. Equinox only to find out that there was a bike race (well, a race of some kind) on the mountain and I wouldn't be able to go up until 2:30PM. So, I headed back to Bennington and took Rt 9 to Hogback ski area. I made a lot of contacts from Hogback which helped to make up for Saturday. I got all 6 people on Mt Washington: N1JEZ, W1FKF, KA1NKD, W1EX, W1IMD and W1AIM. It was the first time I had worked any of them for the contest and so it was 1800 points in less than 3 minutes! I worked a total of 16 stations from Hogback. I even managed to get K1OR up neat the coast of Maine (FN54if). I had to aim right up the road between two cars but, I got him!

I left hogback late and drove down to a spot on RT 91 outside of Holyoke (FN32QG). I managed another 7 contacts from there. 

In the week leading up to the contest I had to get two new tires on my car as one had a big bubble on the sidewall and another went flat with a big huge staple stuck right into the sidewall. Imagine my joy getting another flat on the way back from my stop near Holyoke!? Luckily, it was in one of the brand new tires...

So, an eventful weekend. I wonder what September will have in store for me?