John & Anne Wiley

2013/04/14

Retracing

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random — John @ 04:58

Memories are strengthened when we reinforce them. Looking at this, I remember this deep open pit quarry on our approach to land at Nashville.

1936 Deep Memory

1936 Deep Memory

I like how it cuts through layers of earth’s past to the green reflecting pool at the bottom. Then there are these two pix taken at the top of the Nashville street scene as it was ramping up at dusk.

1961 Flow

1961 Flow

1971 Ebb

1971 Ebb

The ebb and flow of people and cars provides theater for the music emanating from every door. Quite a lively part of town. We didn’t get involved, but the similarity to New Orleans made it tempting to seek out a little blues club. After a quiet evening with family in the outskirts of town we toured the historic suburb of Franklin and then took off to retrace our flight the day before.

2111 Leaving Nashville

2111 Leaving Nashville

Before long we were flying over the dam at Hartwell where we’d been enjoying time with a different side of the family a day before.

2194 Retracing Hartwell

2194 Retracing Hartwell

Then on to form new memories at Charleston, SC. We flew in just as it was getting dark, and the city looked especially magical.

2251 Anticipation

2251 Anticipation

We’re looking forward to some rest here while we wait to see what weather materializes from the forecast rain. This is a city well recommended by several family members, and the write-ups we’ve seen online are enthusiastic. It’s reputed to be very civil and welcoming, though this is where the Civil War started so there’s plenty of history.

2013/04/13

Frontier Scenes

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random — John @ 04:23

After a delicious home made lunch with GA cousins we flew for dinner with a TN cousin. It’s such a delight to reconnect with far away loved ones we’ve not seen for decades, and so greatly enjoy the relatively brief journey between them. It was a somewhat bumpy flight due to last night’s storm, but less hazy from all the fires we’d seen coming into GA. Even so I used the polarized filter for a clearer look into the distance. In places like this it was like looking back into the past when this was all forest frontier with little clearings carved out by pioneers.

1880 Georgia Frontier

1880 Georgia Frontier

We passed this quiet cemetery far from any towns, and I wondered whether it had once been near a town that is now gone except for these former inhabitants still visited and tended by descendents who have moved away.

1901 Silent Memories

1901 Silent Memories

There were a few outposts like this where people heard some call to build on bluffs overlooking long valleys as we angled into Tennessee.

1904 Bluff Calling

1904 Bluff Calling

There were suspicious ponds with colors that made me wonder if land and water were being poisoned for generations to come.

1916 Unnatural Colors

1916 Unnatural Colors

1917Then there was this valley with many small plots rather than the vast monoculture farms that now dominate most of North America. I wonder what the story is, and why this one valley seems to have such diversity.

1924 Varied Valley

1924 Varied Valley

Our TN cousin treated us to a drive around downtown Nashville, and if I find some good pix from that I might share them tomorrow.

2013/04/12

Pedro at Tune

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Islander Adventure,Random — John @ 22:57

I call this little $15 thrift store guitar Pedro when he’s wearing my funky hat. I figured he might get some use here in Nashville, especially since we put Tripp at Tune airport. 🙂

Pedro At Tune

Pedro At Tune

(sent from my phone)

Family

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 04:46

Hartwell is a warm and friendly Georgia family town, seems to me. We’ve been impressed by the helpful and friendly nature of so many of the people we meet here. We came to visit cousins, and tonight we enjoyed a wonderful meal with wide ranging conversation. Like many who hadn’t been to the South before we used to have a mistaken impression of life here.

1769 New Life

1769 New Life

Added to the traditional culture here is change brought by the civil rights movement, and more recently a large influx of people retiring here from the northeast. Many build dream homes on the lake.

1770 Reflections

1770 Reflections

Gathering storm clouds reflected in the lake found me thinking about how much life has changed here, and how many ways it’s still the same.

1806 Walmart

1806 Walmart

Our cozy and affordable hotel at the bottom-right has replaced an older inn that used to be the prime accomodation, and Walmart at the top-left has replaced many family businesses.

1847 Golf and Mine

1847 Golf and Mine

The forest has been replaced by a golf course and open pit mine that have a proximity seen from the air that most residents may not know about.

1797 Pollen Pattern

1797 Pollen Pattern

Pollen is dusting everything in town with a golden yellow, including the lake. It collects in drifts, creating patterns where none existed. So it is with this town perhaps, as new residents blow in to mingle in new ways changing age old patterns and traditions.

1856 Down to Earth

1856 Down to Earth

Returning to earth from today’s brief flight with cousin Marilyn and her pilot hubby Jack, I noticed an expanded sense of how grounded the people here are in family and community. This is their little slice of paradise, and it’s an honor to be so warmly welcomed into it.

2013/04/11

270 Later

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 05:49

We’ve accumulated 270 pix since my last post, and we’re tired. So maybe I’ll share a bunch of pix with few words and then possibly have some rain time tomorrow to share more pix and words on all our adventures since Dizzyney.

1617 Titus Takeoff

1617 Titus Takeoff

Our glorious time with Lee & George ended when we took off from Titusville and looked up the Florida coastline that is almost continuous beach homes, condos and hotels forming a line between ocean and wetlands into the dim distance. Many beautiful views (and of course pix) later the blue of this Marineland Dolphin Adventure at Palm Coast stood out. Great for humans wanting to expand their experience, but I do wonder how dolphins feel about swapping entire oceans of freedom for the adventures they have in those pools.

1641 Dolphin Pools

1641 Dolphin Pools

Minutes later we arrived at St. Augustine. Again. For another fascinating visit with Roy & Lettie Lou. That night after a delicious dinner at Harry’s with Roy, we walked this part of town.

1644 St Augustine

1644 St Augustine

The fort across the highway got me wondering what the soldiers protecting it would have thought about Tripp. What an advantage would go to an attacking army, if they had Tripp back when that fort was the state of the art in defensive battlements.

1646 Fort Laid Bare

1646 Fort Laid Bare

This morning we enjoyed catching up on news and then a tour of Jacksonville culminating in lunch on the river.

0448 River Lunch

0448 River Lunch

Then another takeoff to the North, and more countless coastal condos into infinity.

1663 Condo Line

1663 Condo Line

The shapes and colors where water meets land are endlessly fascinating from the air. Maybe this is why seagulls ceaselessly soar the winds.

1693 Elements

1693 Elements

At dusk a quick aerial tour of Hartwell before landing at Franklin. I don’t see the local store we went to at 11pm in our borrowed truck, to buy a cable we left in Tripp so we could download our pix from the cameras to share with you. Yes, it was a Walmart.

1733 Hartwell Dusk

1733 Hartwell Dusk

The little shops and many churches looked so inviting from the air, and we’re excited to explore tomorrow. We’ll also drive out to expand on the pleasure we found in Jack and Marilyn’s company at dinner.

I was thinking yesterday that even though we’ve seen some cloudy days, this trip lives in my memory as a stream of blue skies and smiles. So many beautiful places and people, we are filled to overflowing. 🙂

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