San Antonio was especially pretty in the dark as we landed, happily away from thunderstorms that had popped up to the North. Very smooth (and fast, due to tailwind) flight from Big Bend. About to download pix from the camera, so will add to this and share some of the beauty we saw today…
2013/03/20
2013/03/19
Forget and Change
We forgot how beautiful the desert around Tucson is. The rocks and plants have an austere magnificence.
5159 Rocks & Cacti
Even tho we loved it back then, we’d forgotten how much we loved the Sonoran Desert Museum. But it’s so changed, too! Vastly bigger than what we remember, and many more people there. Our favorite attraction among many was the hummingbird exhibit.
5105 Hummer
Reminded me of visiting the San Diego Zoo, on a smaller scale. A similar sense that you were at a widely famous attraction. Maybe we have to forget in order to change, or even to perceive change. If our memories were completely lucid and fixed, seems to me that meaningful change would be very difficult.
When we visited Tucson years ago, it had a small town feel. Today it felt like a really sprawled city, with reminders of the past sprinkled around the edges and a thick layer of haze pulled over it.
5198 View From the Edge
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2013/03/18
Memory
Memory is strengthened by many things, such as positive emotions, but one of the best ways to remember something is for trauma to be associated with the experience. We’ll remember Tucson. 🙂
We’re snug and warm with lattes inside that Starbucks on the left. We’re watching the sun rise over the mountains, filled with emotions, laughing frequently, and clearly remembering our experiences last night. Not long ago we were shivering in the cold desert air at the Catalina State Park. I figured out a way to partially inflate the air matt using the vent outlet in our rental car. Then I rolled the edges of one end to increase the pressure and tied it with some twine supplied with the sadistic tent. We finally got to sleep at about 1:30am, and woke on the ground in total darkness at 4:30 because an attractive someone (I won’t name names) had stepped on the partially inflated air matt and introduced a tiny puncture.
Now we are that couple laughing frequently in conversation breaks from gazing blankly with bloodshot eyes, at their internet devices. We first experienced Tucson together on our “honeymoon” Southwest driving tour across the Auto Club Indian Country Map in a 280Z sports car. We were younger then, had our camping gear figured out, and slept much better. But when we heard the coyote choir again last night during a break in the air matt quest, those warm memories washed over us with delight. Today we’ll visit sweet relatives, then take a magic carpet ride in Tripp to Las Cruces. Right now we’re about to head for the Sonoran Desert Museum we discovered on that first visit, to rekindle our love for that place in the joy of our marriage memories.
2013/03/16
Farewell Feelings
We’re especially enjoying Our Town recently. As we get Tripp ready for our Islander Adventure, we’ve taken brief flights to check out little things we’re going to use for the journey. Mostly though it’s a sort of Farewell to Santa Barbara for a time. We’re really missing Home already, as our departure fast approaches. So for me this pic is a bit melancholy as we cherish this place and everyone here whom we love.
4988 Missing U
We’re already missing that sunset over the University, the skies and mountains, greens and browns, and all the fun things going on down there. Sweet young Sarah knew we were going on this short flight and to my surprise I could see her come out to wave, so far below.
4985 Farewell
The white picket fence between us frames for me a warm farewell, and the essence of leaving Home.
2013/03/12
Dreams & Schemes
We’re ramping up. The dreams and schemes going into our Islander Adventure are pretty intense. So much to learn, plan, get, and do before we take off! Looking at this pic of Goleta Beach just now made me realize the Caribbean is going to look similar.
4742 Bahamaesque
Both have beautiful beaches, ocean, boating, fishing, diving, swimming, and lots of blue. The sky here is often similar to pix I’ve seen of the Caribbean. But the ocean, not so much. Here it’s a deeper blue that’s more serene somehow, and there it’s brilliant and a lot warmer for water sports.
So today I’ve invested quite a bit of time figuring out the maximum distances we’ll be flying over water.
Water Crossings
If you’re interested, you’ll probably need to click for the larger version to make any sense of this. In essence, it turns out the first water crossing from West Palm Beach to Grand Bahama Island (about half an hour) matches the one between Great Inagua and the little island just off Haiti.
Many (most?) pilots don’t worry about long water crossings, even in single-engine planes like Tripp. Lucky Lindy is oft quoted saying two engines just give you twice the chance of something going wrong. That’s fine, but more important to me are two things:
1)Engines have become vastly more reliable since Lindy’s adventure, and Tripp’s Lycoming 0360 is among the very best. Engine troubles of any sort on planes like Tripp are very rare. But the only sort of engine trouble I’d concerned about on a long water crossing is sudden and severe power loss, and that is much more rare still. Almost unheard of. Still, I do all possible to minimize that tiny chance.
2)I fly high. No, not in that sense, silly! Planes like Tripp glide quite well, serenely going about 1.5 miles per 1,000 feet of altitude. So unlike the innumerable pilots I see taking off from SBA toward Catalina past that scene of Goleta Beach (above) staying low as they head out over the water, I climb to always be within gliding range of land. Tripp is quite safe for going into water (for us that is – Tripp would probably eventually sink and become a fish refuge), so the concern is about being far from shore. Anyway, on those two long Caribbean crossings we’ll be beyond glide to shore for about six minutes. So even if the fickle finger of fate were to choose that moment to touch our trusty powerplant, we’d land near shore.
Now maybe you’ve never thought about this (or don’t want to!), but for me it’s a big part of contemplating a Big Adventure that includes big water crossings. If we do go beyond the Bahamas, it will be a small factor in our decision along with all the international ramifications of passing near Cuba and Haiti, possibly stopping in Dominican Republic, and visiting Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands.
John & Anne Wiley 
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