John & Anne Wiley

2011/05/01

I Heart NY

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,Random — John @ 04:58

Having now landed in every state except Hawaii and (surprisingly given how close it is to SB) Colorado, one of our favorite scenic flights is along the Hudson River past New York’s stunning Manhattan skyline. We got better photos today, flying with the same two precious friends as last time when it was later in the day and hazier. I don’t seem to have words, but luckily I have a few pix to share. Hope you enjoy viewing them as we did actually being there, and maybe I’ll get around to posting larger versions on the Photo Page if we get a spare few minutes. sigh…

8598 Upper Central Park

8598 Upper Central Park

8606 Lower Central Park

8606 Lower Central Park

8611 Kong's Nemisis

8611 Empire & Neon

8632 Empire & Chryslet

8632 Empire & Chrysler

8705 Apple

8705 Apple

8748 The Lady

8748 The Lady

2011/04/30

New Haven

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,People,Random,Tripp — John @ 04:29

We’ve found a new haven in CT with fun people. Our train ride from DC back to rise above it all in Tripp, provided some time for me to futz with my broken camera. Turned out it was near-sighted. Anything up to about 25 feet away would focus, but not further. Somehow I figured out that removing a thin brass washer behind the main lens fixed it!

8560 Philly Your Eyes

8560 Philly Your Eyes

So above is my first pic after the “repair” and it looks pretty good at full res, except for the fact it was dark overcast and very smoggy. So one of your eyes over our route is restored, just in time for more aerial adventures. Anne’s camera still works, though it has shortcomings of its own. Anyway, today’s flight took us past NYC on a different route than we’ve flown before. Even in the overcast and thick smog it looked pretty cool.

8576 NYC Afar A-fuzz

8576 NYC Afar A-fuzz

Another cool thing about today’s flight was going directly over JFK, easily the busiest airport we’ve ever done that at.

8583 Tripping Over JFK

8583 Tripping Over JFK

Tripp’s spiffy new “pants” (wheel fairings) looked crisp and easy above the smoggy and crowded airport. The controllers were quite helpful in sparing us a long detour around this major hub on our way up the coast. We’re excited to have the day here tomorrow with dear friends, and then to head back and explore NYC with dear friends. It’s great to be flying again!

2011/04/27

MD Treatment

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,MeriTimes Adventure,People,Random — John @ 04:08

We were glad the weather did clear this morning as promised, and we flew right over the Gettysburg civil war battleground.

8166 Gettysburg Battleground

8166 Gettysburg Battleground

Only a few generations ago, brother fought brother over what now is such a peaceful place.

8171 Gettysburg Cemetery

8171 Gettysburg Cemetery

Now many of them are laid out in intricate patterns of stone, locked in creative formations for the ages.

Shaking off a tragic sense of doom we turned toward Martin State, MD. There’s a great and relatively inexpensive (for this area) airport there with lots of cool planes for me to look at while we waited for the train.

8184 MD Warthog

8184 MD Warthog

The MARC train into DC was about an hour ride, and cost $12 one way. For both of us! So after a short hike dragging a suitcase and bag we’re settled into a nice hotel two blocks from the heart of DC and tomorrow we walk. A lot. Looking forward to a fun and fascinating day.

2011/04/22

In Penn Inn

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,MeriTimes Adventure,Random — John @ 00:35

We’re tired.

We’re happy.

We’re enjoying the idea of a rainy day in Pittsburgh. Cool when we arrived at the airport, and the flight from Land ‘o Lincoln was fast with winds ahead of the storm pushing us along in clear air.

Approaching the city we were fascinated by the tall plume of a power plant, so as we passed nearly overhead I snapped this. For us it evokes the memory of the tall plume but for you it probably just looks like a puff of steam atop the stack.

7271 Old Energy

7271 Old Energy

It all looks so “last millennium” and leaves a gray pall hanging over entire states, so during the flight I got to dreaming about what our country will look like when we finally move on to clean energy.

Well, we’ll probably post more interesting stuff later, but haven’t looked at today’s harvest yet so maybe nothing else came out. 🙂

2011/04/21

Abe & Ob

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,People,Random — John @ 04:27

We hoped to reach Dayton tonight, but ended up in Springfield, IL. We were talking over a delicious meal at Maldaner’s a couple of blocks from our modest room. On the tenth floor of the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel (very nice, but of course not at all expensive as it sounds or broke aviators would stay elsewhere), with this view from our room.

7225 Old & New

7225 Old & New

On the left, new Capitol building and old on the right. We walked past both after dinner, and imagined Abe & Ob(ama) at the old one in particular.

We had a magical first stop in Decatur, AR and maybe Anne will tell you about it. Then we flew over to Joplin, MO for a look so as to complete our glimpse of the Route 66 hotspots (I chose one of the old hotels in the aerially nondescript town as the place where the song was written). When we passed St. Louis it overwhelmed both of us with what an inviting city it is.

7193 Meet Me In St. Louis

7193 Meet Me In St. Louis

We talked several times during our flyby, about landing for the night to explore a bit. Storms are coming though, and we’d like to be in PA when they arrive to ground us for a few days. So tomorrow if weather and whimsy permit we’ll arrive in PA. Dayton still beckons too, so we’ll see.

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