The forecast was for fairly strong winds, straight in, at launch and the drive out made it seem like that was certainly going to be the case. Earlier on in the morning the sky was almost overcast but every hour that went by the sky dried up more and more until it was mostly blue sky by afternoon. At launch there were strong thermic cycles rolling through often enough, but no freight trains and plenty of very launchable cycles, and there was a definite west component to the wind. I launched just before 2pm into a thermal that elevatored me right out of the slot. Matt launched not long after and we headed north up the ridge. Found lots of strong thermal activity along the ridge to the north......encountered some really strong lift and had a super cool encounter with an immature bald eagle. He showed me his talons and then disappeared right behind me...I swear for a second I thought he was going to tap on my king post or something but then he returned to my wing tip and and just hung out for a bit. Was considering heading over the back to the Front Royal Airport once I got down to the reservoir but never seemed to get comfortable enough with the idea as I was having trouble staying above 4200msl at the time. I was hoping for that nice big thermal to come and drift over with it but I just couldn't make it happen. Probably could have made it over without issue at my altitude anyway, next time. After playing around down on the north end I thought it would be cool to try and land in this large field on Rt 11 (the really big one where the river comes close to Rt 11 at the entrance to Strasburg) that I had fallen short of last time and landed off of Funk Rd instead. I headed off the ridge at about 4000'msl and immediately started losing altitude as I did last time.....I thought here we go again. I briefly considered tucking tail and heading back to the ridge but thought.....what the heck, its been a great flight already and if I land out short of the goal, then at least i don't have to battle the west cross on the way back. About half way out into the valley I found some lift that put my target back in reach and not long after I found the best thermal of the day for me that got me up to 5000'msl. Things had definitely turned on even more by this time which was right around 3pm and the thermals seemed to be much larger in size and more organized throughout. I definitely had the target field made now
Then it struck me that I should probably do something with all this altitude, but I didn't know what 
hahahaha seriously, I looked on the other side of I-66 and wondered what was over there and realized I didn't have a clue and wasn't feeling froggy enough to venture over and figure it out. I looked around and thought it would be cool to land at North Mountain Vineyards, (Amy, Bacil and I had some celebratory drinks there after flying not long ago), but i couldn't figure out where it was. So in the end I just boated around the outskirts of Strasburg, and enjoyed the beautiful view of the mountain and valley....honestly not a bad alternative 
I ended landing in the originally targeted field.........on me feet but within about an eighth of an inch of a whack as my flair was way too late. 
Enjoyed breaking down the glider in the field with Matt, who had just picked up right where he left off from Florida and had an awesome first flight at Woodstock! Really enjoyed flying with you man!Not long after Amy picked us up and we headed back to Moose Rd to pick up Ward. The weather outside was just about perfect and all the lush green colors just made you want to stop time and stretch the day out as much as possible. We finished up the day with some good conversation, food and drink at the Strasburg Inn. Huge thanks to Amy for helping out with wire crew and driving. Thank you!.
Jon
