Andre The Giant

Reservation at the Holiday Inn, confirmed. Also registered for frenzy ! Hooray

Captain_Slow

Mount Weather was not intended to be known to the public. It's amazing to me that they built a huge underground complex and it remained unknown to even the locals until a TWA 727 crashed into the top of the mountain very near the facility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_514 I grew up in this area and vaguely remember the fuss about this secret facility being outed by the crash.

First responders found it odd that there were many government vehicles and personnel on the scene before they arrived. Where did they come from? The secret was out. The crash turned out to be one of the most important in commercial aviation history as it lead to legislation that produced changes in procedures and technology that experts say are on a short list of most important advances in airline safety.

My neighbor has worked on Mount Weather for decades. All I know is he teaches some courses up there. That's all he will say.

Below you can see the road we will travel snaking past the facility, through the trees.
I don't know if the underground schematic or underground photo are legit...but many sources describe it as being an underground city.



It's not the only hardened underground Cold War era facility we will pass on our way to Oktoberfest. One has recently brought more attention to itself than it anticipated when a huge above ground addition to the facility was approved without consulting local residents. http://www.loudountimes.com/news/art...ain_loudoun432
I did a little searching and found this facility is well known to folks who are into this kind of stuff. The most interesting factoid I found is that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright owned a home on White Rock Road...the same road that leads to the gated AT&T road leading up to the facility.



Several sites like this one were built by AT&T as part of the national Long Lines communication network. I found this online and it sounds correct as other similar facilities exist: "The site is an old AT&T Autovon Switch bunker and antenna site with line of site hardened microwave system. AT&T still leases space for fiber optic runs, and the government still uses the facility for "special things". Mostly the site is a relic of the cold war with two foot thick concrete walls, multiple generators, and virtually blast proof. In the event of an attack on DC this is also one of the COG [continuity of government] sites, and several dozen people of the recall list would be housed here".

Greg Nichols

Jon,

That's some very interesting info on Mt. Weather and the other hush-hush site. Thanks for sharing it.


All,

I found out this afternoon that our entire block of 30 rooms at Holiday Inn had been booked. So, apparently Andre got the last one. I was able to get them to add five more rooms to our block at the $75 group rate. It looks like we're going to have a very good turnout this year!

Greg

Andre The Giant

Few............what timing ! lol

Shawn Stanford

I'm debating bringing Trinity again this year. After last year's incident with the Meat Man, I'm a little hesitant. But, she put that loser in his place, so I can't fault her.

BIMMERMIKE

Registered and booked at Holiday Inn

BIMMERMIKE

Was I second last?

MjRocket

Shawn

Bring her, we have her back! Friggin Meat boys.

EMan 928

Registered and room booked.

Now just need to go get some Blue Painter's tape...

M. Requin

And Mt Weather is very impressive to drive by at night. Now, The Loudon County folks ought to visit Greenbrier in WV, where not only was a secret HQ for the US government constructed in WWII (and you can get a fascinating tour there!), but the entire community was sworn to, and did, keep its construction a secret throughout the war. No whining, NIMBY-oriented county officials broke THAT silence. 928 content? If you are heading east on I64 to Frenzy or SITM, great stop!

Bilal928S4

If you are a PCA member and have more vacation days you can go to the PCA headquarters open house on the 17th and stay for the frenzy.
https://www.pca.org/event/2016-07-05...pen-house-2016

Greg Nichols

Mrmerlin has been kind enough to volunteer to lead the tech sessions at this year's frenzy. Thank you, Stan!

Here's the tech agenda:

11:00 am - 12:00pm: Tech Session #1 - Hood alignment. Hatch latch adjustment.

1:00 - 1:45pm: Tech Session #2 - Oil pan gasket replacement.

Replacing the pan gasket is a fairly major task involving jacking up the engine and removing the support crossmember. So, Stan won't be performing an actual gasket replacement at the Frenzy. However, he will be explaining the procedure in detail and providing some helpful pointers so you can get it right the first time.

Greg Nichols
1987 928S4, 5-sp
Venice Blue Metallic

Andre The Giant

Excellent choices.

linderpat

Shawn Stanford