John & Anne Wiley

2013/03/07

Why?

Sometimes when we go on Big Adventures we wonder aloud, “Why did we ever leave Santa Barbara?” It’s not that we’re snobs, nor that there aren’t other parts of the continent that are spectacularly beautiful. It’s not even all the excellent arts, culture and fun entertainments here. It’s not reason at all. Just a gut reaction when we fly over local scenes like this.

4731 Why Leave This?

4731 Why Leave This?

We live in a modest low-rent place so we can afford to be here, and we scrimp on everything else so we can fly. But maybe we still enjoy it more than some of the people living high on the hillsides in mansion estates like these.

4729 High Life

4729 High Life

I guess the secret to happiness is being happy with where you are and what you have.

2013/03/06

Islander Adventure

Well, we’re seriously talking about another Big Adventure. This one we’re calling our Islander Adventure because our biggest new destination is the Bahamas. Getting there would involve flying about 55 miles across the water from West Palm Beach, Florida.  About five minutes of that flight would be beyond gliding distance to land, but the water’s warm and there are lots of boats that could give aid. We have lots of planning and packing to do, both before we go and along the way. Here’s our initial idea for a route.

Islander Adventure Route

Islander Adventure Route

As you can see (a little more clearly if you click to view the largest version) we also hope to fly the Florida Keys, and go beyond Bahama possibly all the way to the Virgin Islands. The southern route across the country would of course be our likely path East, coming home on a more northerly route. In case you’re wondering about the little jag on the border at Texas, that’s Big Bend that looked fascinating from a distance when we landed at Marfa, TX.

Weather will pretty much decide our timing and route. Like when an overnight stop on Prince Edward Island turned into a week. Or when we went to lovely Dubuque, IA because we couldn’t get any further from Iowa City where we’d taken off half an hour earlier.  So I smile looking at this map.

Whim will be the second largest factor. “Oh, that looks interesting,” has led to many diversions on our prior Adventures. What sorts of whims will we encounter in this Islander Adventure?

Islander Whim

Islander Whim

We’re bringing “Sev” our new Nexus 7 tablet with the great free Avare aviation app that’s going to pay for Sev with savings on FAA charts and documents, while making them much easier to use in flight. Maybe Anne will post some notes here on Sev along the way, and I’ll hopefully do some here on my MacBook named “Art.” Even if our words and pix aren’t interesting for anyone else, they’re fun for us to read because they bring back a flood of wonderful memories. Hope you’ll enjoy flying along with us! 🙂

2013/03/02

All The Pretty Horses

This wooded point is El Capitan, and it’s great place to stroll or to watch the surfers that often congregate offshore waiting for waves.

4724 El Cap Point

4724 El Cap Point

The title of this post is from a lullaby I used to sing my daughter. Just to the northeast of the point is a horse ranch where we saw this cart herding horses.

4727 Cart & Horses

4727 Cart & Horses

I like their spiffy green collars, and wonder what was going on. The cart stopped when they reached this corner, and they seemed content to stand this distance from it. Maybe they were getting used to the cart or driver, but a smaller group in the adjoining stall seemed quite interested in the activity.

4728 Equine Inquiry

4728 Equine Inquiry

These neighbors looked interested, and some poked their heads through the rails for a better look. But I notice that they seemed to stay even a little further away. I guess they know the ranch hand is associated with food, they can’t see any food in the vehicle, and they’re watching in case some treat should appear.

It got me remembering wonderful horseback rides in my life, and contemplating a time not much more than a century ago when horses provided our main transportation. Now people in cars whizzing past pay little attention to the horses, and none of them notice the 180 horses of our little carriage named Tripp passing quietly above.

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