John & Anne Wiley

2010/08/09

Pleasant Surprise

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Inner World,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 06:14

We planned to fly down the coast from Medford, but not long after leaving I-5 heading southwest we could see a solid low cloud layer completely covering the water. Tomorrow I’ll post some pix of a few clear areas we saw, but before long we headed inland along the 101. We decided to stop at Sonoma for a stretch, lunch, and fuel for Tripp. The landing was fun, with a short (2500 ft.) runway with trees at both ends and strong gusting crosswind, but easier than several of our landings on the Big Adventure flight last Fall. Ron the airport manager loaned us his pickup so we could drive the two miles into town for a sandwich. What a glorious little community!

From there we went southeast to clear the complex airspace over the Bay Area. We’d planned to fly over the Golden Gate and possibly SF, but the whole bay was covered in a blanket of white (another great reason to go along the eastern foothills). Soon we’d dialed in SBA on both GPSs and were headed directly for home. Then our thoughts turned to low clouds and fog. As night fell at about Paso Robles we were high over familiar terrain, and could pick out the lights of SLO and Oceano which was amazingly in the clear. But over Santa Maria hung some low ragged clouds. Once we could pick up the aviation weather radio from Santa Ynez we at least knew it would be possible to camp there if SBA was like most of the coast under the blanket. Then with everything set for maximum range we could dimly hear SBA weather say “landing Runway 25.” Now for anyone who knows this airport that can only mean one thing: clear skies!! 🙂

So thanks to this pleasant surprise we are now sitting amid piles of stuff (amazingly tall, given that they all came from trusty Tripp), breathing stale air with all the fans going, and beginning to enjoy the pleasures that only Home can bring. We gave each other a quick Alexander treatment, and now I’m sipping a glass of pinot. Life is so very sweet. It will take days for us to put things back into some semblance of order, and the rest of our lives to process the magnificent adventure we’ve just had from SBA to Soo to Ketch and back. Even typing those few words my head is brimming with unbelievable images and delightful memories. I may never get over the surprise of our good fortune in finding each other, building a life together that is perfect for us, enjoying the warmth of family and friends, still having good health, and even having access to flight and enough funds remaining to fly off on adventures like this. What a pleasant surprise indeed! My heart is full.

2010/08/08

Anne Won’t Stop

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 18:29

As I finished shaving just now and Anne was still typing feverishly on all her pent up blog posts, she titled this photo for me.

0375 Anne Won't Stop

0375 Anne Won't Stop

When I silently picked up her camera from the table by her right hand, the serious furrowed focus associated with her blizzard of typing instantly transformed into that brilliant giggling girl I love so deeply as she said, “Anne won’t stop.”

In case you’re wondering, I’ve already resolved to buy her a better laptop! I absolutely love that she’s beginning to blog, and she needs a better tool for that. This morning I walked the few steps we were too tired to take last night, and borrowed the cable so she could plug hers in rather than try to use the weak wifi in our room.

All this of course has me thinking about Life, Meaning and Love on this first day of our tenth Official year (we’ve been married by my definition since 1983, but our 18 year “engagement” before 8/7/01 is another and rather long story). One of the things I most enjoy about our time together is Noticing. We’ve helped each other to joyfully notice ourselves, each other, our environment and the relatively small slice of our planet’s billions of people that we’ve had the pleasure to encounter. Not just those like the girl dedicated to her cheerful work cleaning rooms and stocking the free breakfast room here. Nor even just the people we pass once on the street and never see again. Some of the latter leave us with a treasured “snippet” of their conversation, and many a glimpse of an expression that conveys a slice of what was in their consciousness during that few seconds. Beyond those, ever more often we strive to notice everyone and everything, because in that noticing we feel more alive and connected with our world.

So some of this was going on in me when I noticed her typing and tried to capture some essence of Her to preserve for myself, to share with her, and to share with anyone taking the time to read this. May these few words help us to wake up to the incredible beauty within and around us.

Club Medford

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Relationships,Tripp — John @ 06:14

Our ninth anniversary began in a foo foo Montana resort that most guests apparently flew to in their private jets where rental cars and limos waited at the airport, and is winding down with us snuggled into a moderately priced (but amazingly well-appointed) room in Medford. While it was a great room and a scenic setting, I was secretly glad to be away from the sometimes  snobby elite who all but ignored us dragging our travelpro along the paved trails as they cruised by in SUVs and golf carts. We did meet some warm and wonderful people there of course, and had a great time. Guess I’m just not cut out to be rich, which I guess is fortunate since I’m not. 🙂

What memories this day has brought us! Our first stop was for fuel in Coeur d’Alene, where we also found one of those truly patient and helpful aircraft mechanics (aka A&P) who will chat as you use their expensive tools to install an inexpensive part – and then give you a discount on the part (a landing light in this case). Tripp happily fueled and vastly more visible to other planes in the sometimes thick smoke (it’s everywhere!), we cruised over town admiring the aquatic setting.

0726 Water World

0726 Water World

Somewhere along the line from there to Bend I saw what is easily the most bizarre looking farm of the trip. It looks very much like a giant landing instruction sign for extra-terrestrials.

0731 Martian Message

0731 Martian Message

Not far away is what I call the Clump Farm, where another enterprising farmer has managed to make use of every last inch of usable land.

0733 Clump Farm

0733 Clump Farm

We were fascinated by the area where the Snake meets the Columbia, as you can see below.

0743 Bewteen States

0743 Between States

0744 Water Worker

0744 Water Worker

0750 River Art

0750 River Art

Just be glad I spared you a few. 🙂

We caught Crater Lake just at sunset, and to our surprise there were quite a few cars driving around the rim. The light was so golden!

0773 Crater Lake Sunset

0773 Crater Lake Sunset

We glided down into Medford just as dusk was settling into the valley, and maybe Anne will share some tales about our adventures on the ground before getting to the hotel. She’s been frustrated by her computer’s weaker wifi, so sometime soon you might see a bunch of “new” posts from her that she’s been saving up. I love the photos she takes and the stories she tells, because her perspective expands my enjoyment of our fun together.

So we celebrate the culmination of another year, and begin anew tomorrow. A woman once asked me what Anne and I do for fun and without pausing to think about it I simply replied truthfully, “Everything.”

2010/08/07

Banff

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,Random,Relationships,Tripp — John @ 05:46

One of the things about aging is that we tend to repeat ourselves. I’ve surely already mentioned “prop advance” for example. That mental condition I’ve noted in relation to flying a small plane. You remember: the opposite of “jet lag” where flying a propeller plane like Tripp creates a time warp that gives the impression of more time having passed. You do a few things in the morning, fly for an hour, and when you land anything you did before flying feels like it was yesterday. My theory is that it’s due to “dream time” akin to the flying dreams I used to have so often before becoming a pilot. Because flying low and slow as we “prop” pilots do is so similar to those dreams of drifting slowly above the trees and houses, wandering here and there on whims. OK, so this entire trip has been absolutely stuffed with dream time of that kind.

This morning as I walked out to prepare Tripp for our flight South from Edmonton, the Canadian military air show team named of course the Snowbirds flew a few hundred feet directly overhead in tight formation. Since I didn’t have the camera you get to imagine how cool that was. Here’s how they looked over Tripp’s tail as they taxied to parking.

0566 Snowbirds

0566 Snowbirds

Soon after takeoff on our way toward Rocky Mountain Home where we’d re-enter the valley south of Jasper, we flew over Mameo Lake and I wondered if the person driving the boat was purposely making patterns in the orange stuff floating on the lake.

0574 Mameo Squiggle

0574 Mameo Squiggle

After crossing some prairie and passing what from the air was an unremarkable Mountain Home, we passed back into the magnificent (though still smoky from all the nearby fires) Canadian Rockies.

0579 Gateway to Rockies

0579 Gateway to Rockies

High on the slopes, we again floated by many glorious features and innumerable waterfalls few but enchanted prop pilots and ardent lonely climbers will ever see.

0585 High Falls

0585 High Falls

Because the weather reports had been a bit iffy and the smoke was likely to still be thick, we considered skipping this high pass to save for a future return trip. It didn’t take long for the miracles sliding slowly endlessly beneath our wings to remind us why so many people visit this area.

0618 Peaceful Blue Lake

0618 Peaceful Blue Lake

People are down there, most probably oblivious to our presence, lost in their own activities and reveries. Not much further, we had all but given up spotting fabled Lake Louise because it’s so small and poorly marked on charts and maps. Glancing up from the town we first saw a small lake, and in a couple of miles the grand old lodge suddenly emerged from the smoke and mist. Wow.

0634 Lake Louise

0634 Lake Louise

So this is what we’ve been hearing about all these years! Soon the grand lodge next to the rapids at Banff provided some idea of how this town got its start. Imagine when this was the only hotel for many miles.

0694 Banff Lodge

0694 Banff Lodge

We have several hundred photos from this part of today’s flight, and even though most are marred by the smoke each is a treasured reminder of the stunning beauty we saw. Many times during the passage we remarked on how on our other flights we’d take pains to snap photos of striking features that today we just admired in passing. I hope we can go back in clear air and do a better job of sharing a tiny slice of the overwhelming scenes we enjoyed today.

Now there were some downsides to our marathon nearly five hour route today. We dodged several nasty storms, adjusted our track many times, endured some light turbulence and even made our first brief flight through light hail. After then fighting some moderate headwinds we arrived late, exhausted and a bit lightheaded from high altitude here in Glacier Park, MT. We’ve booked a cottage at Meadow Lake to begin our 9th anniversary in style and comfort, and have just enjoyed a great meal with a glass of wine to help us transition back to the delights of some ground-based activities tomorrow before we take flight yet again. Great way to start a weekend! 🙂

2010/08/06

Friends in the East

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Relationships,Tripp — John @ 06:44

We flew back toward the East again today, through Jasper again, and landed in Edmonton again, for a wonderful evening with two people we love.

0280 Allie & Joshua

0280 Allie & Joshua

Allie and Joshua gave us a midnight tour of the town after a great meal, and demonstrated yet again that best friends make the best marriages.

Our journey here provided an even better view of Mt. Robson because the clouds parted for a moment during our passage. Too bad there was so much smoke from all the fires, because this could have been a stunning photo. Hope you can imagine how much better it looked in real life for us.

0549 Mt. Robson

0549 Mt. Robson

We climbed fairly high to get closer and above some of the smoke, and for some reason Tripp seemed to run a bit hotter than expected. She cooled down again later, so maybe it was due to having nearly full fuel so she had to work harder. Near the top left of the peak in the photo above you can see the “face” we spotted, and here it is in a closer view.

0542 Rock Face

0542 Rock Face

OK, so it’s not Rushmore but maybe we were tired or it was the altitude. 😉

The views straight down were much clearer than the mountains this time, and the color of the glacial water seemed all the more striking.

0552 Turquoise River

0552 Turquoise River

I also liked the swampy area nearby, with its variety of shapes, textures and colors.

0554 Swamp Snake

0554 Swamp Snake

So tomorrow we’ll see what the weather portends. Could be we’ll head South to begin our journey home, or the skies will cloud up and nudge us to stay and spend some time exploring Edmonton by day. Any advice or suggestions?

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