John & Anne Wiley

2010/08/27

Weather

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region,Tripp — John @ 20:21

We’ve been watching weather because we’re flying a friend the short hop to Oceano. As you may recall that’s one of our fav nearby airports. Because it’s on the beach, fog can be an issue in early Summer. Well, with this year’s freaky weather the fog is sitting offshore there today so we’re waiting for a satellite update to see which way it’s moving before we meet our friend at the airport. I’ve been catching up on email, and came across one sent in appreciation of this blog that ended with the words, “from a cold wet August in Aberdeen, Scotland.”

Got me thinking about how much Santa Barbarians take weather for granted. It’s basically “Goldilocks” weather here (not too hot, not too cold – just right as in the “Three Bears” kids story). Because our small section of coastline runs East-West, the wind and ocean currents are disrupted. The result is often better weather than Los Angeles in Winter and better weather than San Fransisco in Summer. The one drawback people here like to whine about is coastal fog, but I like it! Any time the fog gets annoying, it’s a few minutes’ drive to reach sunshine (half as many if it’s possible to take off from SBA). Local pilots have tried in vain to coax me into getting an “IFR” license so we can take off in fog, but even tho Tripp’s equipped for it I’d rather spend that extensive training cost flying us in clear air where we can see the magnificent and endlessly fascinating sights of Santa Barbara.  Can you tell we like it here? 🙂

2010/08/26

More Missed

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,Random,Tripp — John @ 21:18

We’re taking care of some stuff around here right now, and then going out to SBA for some Tripp pampering time. She gets an oil change today, and we’ll start getting her ready for another adventure. While taking a break right now, I looked at more pix from the NxNW trip and found one in particular that I’d meant to post.

Flying NW from Winnipeg, we didn’t get any more pix I really like (beyond the stuff already posted) until we stopped for a stretch on the way to Regina. Sometimes a name on a map captures my attention, and the aviation chart showed a small airport directly on our route and about halfway named Unity. We of course had to stop!

0101 Unity

0101 Unity

Update: as you may have noticed, Anne had already blogged about our Unity stop during the NxNW trip.

0099 Gordon McClane

0099 Gordon McClane

Another pic I like from this day’s flying is one Anne got that I hadn’t seen until recently. I liked the colors and shapes at first glance, and it reminds me of so many small lakes and ponds we saw but didn’t snap.

0102 Toon Dog Pond

0102 Toon Dog Pond

Looking at it just now during upload I noticed something else I like. Do you see a cartoon shape in this one? The yellow outline of the pond traces a Snoopy looking cartoon dog with nose bottom-right and ears top-right.

Last for today, here’s another one I like of beautiful Edmonton. You can see how well the layout mingles countryside, suburbs and city.

0171 Edmonton Context

0171 Edmonton Context

I sure hope the good planning you can see in this pic continues with the preservation of the downtown airport that so effectively complements the larger international one on the outskirts. It would be a shame to undo the generations of hard work developing such a great place to live and work. Multiple airports bring many advantages in commerce and air safety.

Merry MariTimes?

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,MeriTimes Adventure,Random — John @ 09:30

Well, tonight we started talking about another trip! It’s remarkable given that we’ve been mostly holed up, haven’t even done any of the short regional or SoCA flights we’d imagined, and haven’t completely unpacked from NxNW. On the other hand, it’s very handy having lots of stuff from the trip still piled together where we can use it as a starting point for a hopefully much lighter load for the next big trip. Will this be it?

When I lived in Canada for a few years everyone seemed to always be talking about The Maritimes. That’s the eastern part of Canada, and having lived only on the west coast for a while it seemed far off, exotic and a bit romantic – especially after adding years of hearing about that region since. I’ve seen a few intriguing articles about it recently, including one in an aviation mag. We also want to visit the two remaining continental states we’ve missed: AR & CO. We’re also itching to spend more time in NYC and DC, and would like a return to FL with lots of other ideas along the way.
Tonight we sketched out a potential vision of mostly “fly-camping,” with the nights numbered and increasingly “flexible” as the list progresses:
1 GRAND CANYON
2 CO (probably through Denver)
3 NB (Omaha) or Iowa
4 & 5 Chicago (hotel?)
Dayton, OH?
6 London, ON
7 Ottawa, ON
8 Montreal  (hotel?)
9 Quebec City
10 New Brunswick
11 & 12 Newfoundland?
13 Prince Edward Island
14 Nova Scotia
~~~
15 & 16 MAINE  Bar Harbor & other areas?
17 & 18 Boston – Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard?
19 New Haven
20-22 NYC (NJ?)
23 Philadelphia
24 & 25 Pittsburg – Dayton?
26-28 DC
…..
WV, KT, TN, MS, AR, AL, GA, FL (incl. Keys & Bahamas)??
Home via??
Help us! As you can see, the flexibility gets really squishy by the time we leave DC. We could be home in a day or two direct, or meander for weeks. Weather, exhaustion, mood, and perhaps most of all money would all be factors. So tonight we begin to dream about it.
Any comments, suggestions, ideas??

2010/08/24

Shadows On The Land

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,People,Random — John @ 07:48

There is magic for me, in revisiting another hop on our NxNW Adventure each day. Tonight I’m moved again by snapshots of the landscape passing serenely beneath our wings across Manitoba. The clouds we were navigating between cast enchanted shapes across the fields.

0087 Shadow Shapes

0087 Shadow Shapes

I see also the transient shapes traced by a meandering stream and by shallow creeks. Centuries of land use tell their stories, with the most recent chapters on top. Trees and other life planted or wild are slow dancing with structures, paths and roads. All of these things pass quickly in earth time, just more fleeting shadows gone forever, never seen by some future eye. Only in this brief moment of passage from this particular angle did a finger push a button to create this pale reminder. I was here.

Exploring around our hotel in Winnipeg that night of July 30th, the moon cast a shadow of our passing and complemented the city lights.

0055 Moo Moon

0055 Moo Moon

Walking “home” after our fun meal and a brief wander in the blinding fluorescent lights of a supermarket to find Anne’s new fav yogurt, we paused to admire the fresh concrete curb outside a new mall being built. Vandals left a mark. A vain attempt to cast a longer shadow perhaps? Was it rubbed out in the morning, will it survive a few years until eroded by the severe seasons, or might it last a decade or more before being crushed to dust making way for something new?

0057 Curb Enthusiasm

0057 Curb Enthusiasm

We See UC

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:21

Yesterday we finally went for a short flight, but aside from some local interest pix I sent to Edhat this was the best photo we got.

0916 UCSB Gate

0916 UCSB Gate

Such an incredibly beautiful setting for a university, eh?! It’s impossible to really capture the beauty, representing SB’s setting so well as it does. Mountains, ocean, wetland, and all the myriad human attractions ranging from arts and sciences to humanities and (one of my personal favs) education. This town of 150k or so boasts a dozen or so renowned higher education centers, with UCSB standing as a prime example. Can you tell I love living here? Especially when I get to fly! 🙂

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