John & Anne Wiley

2011/05/12

Safe Harbor

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,Nature,Random,Tripp — John @ 02:31

Exciting flight today! A bit bumpy until we climbed above the broken clouds, and then a smooth and strong headwind that made for a more leisurely passage over the countless islands and inlets of the Maine coast.

9951 Maine Coast

9951 Maine Coast

The colors got shifted in the above pic, I guess due to all the cloud shadows confusing the camera’s auto white balance, but you still get the idea. Love how the one islet bottom-center is in the sun.

We passed near Bar Harbor, where we enjoyed Fall of ’09 with colorful leaves and exceptional lobster bisque at Maggie’s. Today we just flew by and saw new views from different angles and higher altitude.

0027 Bar Harbor

0027 Bar Harbor

On to Eastport at the Canadian border to get a nice meal for Tripp. This was probably the most exciting landing I’ve ever done, with gusting crosswinds right at the edge of Tripp’s rating and flocks of birds enjoying the fact that nobody else was flying. In fact, we saw people walking dogs along the runway while we were fueling.

0056 Eastport, ME

0056 Eastport, ME

We did a low pass first to gauge the winds down among the trees and it was fine, but we needed to scare off the gulls before landing so I went around again. Notice the burned out buildings on the small point of land about in the middle of the pic. Below is a closeup.

0058 Eastport Ruins

0058 Eastport Ruins

I wonder what this was, and how it came to be a burned out shell. Anyway, after Tripp had all the cheap fuel she wanted we took off much more easily than we landed and made the short hop to St. Stephens, NB. Oh, Canada! We have now begun the Maritimes part of our MeriTimes adventure! Tomorrow if weather permits we might get to PEI or Nova Scotia. Fun to not know yet what the wild Spring has in store for us. Tonight we’re glad to be snug with Tripp securely tied in the wind with the new heavy nylon ropes we bought her in Quincy, MA (and carried them all that day). She looked especially happy in her safe harbor between two hangars, all tied and chocked with her cover on. We’re excited, and happy tired. 🙂

2011/05/11

Reflections

Filed under: by Anne,Has Photos,MeriTimes Adventure,Nature,Random — Anne @ 04:19

We’re happily resting in the capital of New Hampshire, Concord.  Flew only 40 minutes today from Stow Mass.

Edit: John here, adding two pix from the flight. First an interesting waterworks on the outskirts of Manchester, just before we got here flying slow in the strong headwinds to save gas and go easy on the minor Tripp repair item (ADF insulator).

9930 Manchester NH Waterworks

9930 Manchester NH Waterworks

The other is a discovery as we taxied in after landing at Concord. It’s late, or I’d google Pan Am and see if the three planes like this were really an active remnant of Pan Am (each plane has a “Clipper” name) or just painted in that scheme by Boston-Maine Airways whose name is painted above the doors.

9941 Pan Am Clippers

9941 Pan Am Clippers

We took care of a minor but time consuming task on Tripp, then checked in early for us, getting a ‘crew car’ from the friendly folks at Concord Aviation.  This allowed us to see the city and pick up some breakfast goodies, which turned in to dinner as well, giving us time for a swim.  We watched a movie in the room, the first TV we’ve seen in a month, and John concurrently had a long reflective conversation with a friend. Very restful. While here in Concord, I’m looking through photos of Quincy Mass.

I read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams in 2001 and, like really good books do, the feeling and flavor of the era and the story, and my affection for these characters, is still strong.  A couple of days ago, John shared the rustic birth house of our 2nd president John Adams.  Next door to that was a newer rustic house where his son and 6th president, John Quincy Adams was born. The house of his and Abigail’s in later years is on the other side of Quincy, and they aptly named it Peace Field. The house is very large and stately, yet homey, and the gardens and landscape are green and lush. We imagined how all visitors in that day would have needed to spend the night, as transportation was lengthy and more arduous than the bus ride we took from the old houses to their new one.  The house reflected in the water lead me to dreamy reflections of the era and thoughts of all the luminaries who would have visited this esteemed couple.

0104 Adams Peace house

0104 Adams Peace house, Reflections of the past...

Below is also a Quincy treat, a Canadian goose with complete ease of people.  I wondered if the object of its search tasted anything like dandelion wine?

0098 Dandilion Goose

0098 Dandilion Goose

~by Anne

2011/05/03

High Life

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,MeriTimes Adventure,Nature,People,Random — John @ 05:02

One of the many highlights today was a stroll on the High Line Park near the Hudson. It’s a wonder of community collaboration integrating humanistic and creative design with public art installations. At times you feel as if walking in one of those artist’s conceptions of an architecture proposal.

0458 High Line Lounges

0458 High Line Lounges

It boasts a wide variety of small environments from these lounge chairs to a small stadium, covered areas, benches, walking paths, gardens, old rail lines sprouting flowers and trees, and more. It also provides a wide variety of great views to other parts of the city.

0461 High Line View

0461 High Line View

The mood is enchanting. Much quieter than the street below, and people of all ages and cultures are mingling in relaxed conversation or serene solitude. We could see a long stretch nearing completion to the North, so we have yet another reason to go back on our next NYC visit.

2011/04/26

Crown & Down

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,MeriTimes Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 14:45

Yesterday we drove to Crown, PA to walk the lands of my ancestors, and it was interesting at times imagining them there. In the quiet green behind a church I stood on the graves of many on both sides of my grandfather’s family and found it quite powerful to touch their headstones.

7791 Roots

7791 Roots

I stood on the abandoned railroad that was a lifeline to the village before the highway, gazing back into the distant past.

7733 Train On Time

7733 Train On Time

We remarked driving the area, how good a time of year this is for such an exploration. With leaves off most of the trees it was easy to see old cabins and ruins, and get a sense of this as a once thriving village. It has seen mining, farming, and a wide variety of other activities for the industrious settlers. Now it’s making a minor comeback as a retirement area for people seeking a quiet country life.

So today we go down to DC for an exploration of our nation’s roots…

2011/04/25

Up River

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,MeriTimes Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 03:13

We got an uncharacteristically early start this morning, and were rewarded by a pair of cardinals next to the street.

7440 Cardinal Point

7440 Cardinal Point

Life flows downstream when we’re not fighting it perhaps. The troubles of our ancestors flow down to us, and we can choose to wear ourselves out or play like otters. Today we talked about our mutual desire to play more with “frustrating” things. In quotes because in my heart I doubt that anything can frustrate me if I choose instead to enjoy it. So when Dex acted up during our drive today, I took a breath and smiled. Suddenly everything was fun again. I thought of the anger and frustration response learned from my Dad, and how much anger his Dad had taken on in turn from being orphaned out by his Dad. Excellent preparation then for exploring a hollow along a creek, where some of my more distant ancestors most likely lived, worked, hunted, hiked, courted, built homes and families, and left behind impressions of their times.

7504 Ancestral Creek

7504 Ancestral Creek

We pulled into Foxburg for the night and scored a wonderful off-season hotel room with a balcony over the Allegheny, featuring these two views.

7542 Up River

7542 Up River

7520 Down River

7520 Down River

After dinner we went for a long walk, first on a paved path along the left bank of this photo where Anne spotted an expressive rock face.

7577 Rock Face

7577 Rock Face

The paved path was probably on an old railroad because it still sported several old telephone poles amid the smooth slabs of massive boulders.

7599 Pole & Boulder

7599 Pole & Boulder

Then we climbed the steep slope with scattered loose shale and slippery matted leaves, to reach an old abandoned road bed where we followed a deer trail that found sure footing over the many mud and rock slides that had conspired with volunteer trees to obliterate the road. It went up and down with the terrain, so we imagined it had been there for at least a century and probably several. On the way up we passed an even bigger boulder adorned with an open heart etched into the mostly smooth vertical side somehow by eons of trickling water. How many people have paused here on a “honeymoon” journey of discovery?

7634 The Open Heart

7634 The Open Heart

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.