John & Anne Wiley

2013/05/09

Going to Ground

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 06:07

After looking at weather and 3.2 zillion other factors a few days ago, we decided to take a break from flying and rent a car. Going to ground, so to speak. The ground we’re wandering now sure is beautiful!

0996 Clarion, PA Spring

0996 Clarion, PA Spring

As I discovered a few years ago, my father’s fathers are from this area and my last name’s actually Walley. So we’re going to the ground they walked, looking for landmarks on this 1865 map.

4834 Farmington Map

4834 Farmington Map

Some very kind and helpful folks at the Clarion Historical Society provided plenty of pointers and details that I can piece together and put into a genealogy once we’re back home.

4857 Life Preservers

4857 Life Preservers

Thanks to their tireless work preserving the memory of lives long past, I stood on the ground where my great, great, great grandfather rests.

4983 Ancestral Ground

4983 Ancestral Ground

Today we drove to Armstrong County beginning to search even further back, for the ground of my ancestor born about 1740. I wondered if he’d ever visited this, the oldest church in Western PA.

5102 St. Patrick Church

5102 St. Patrick Church

Wandering the large cemetery behind us in this pic, we half expected to see a Walley marker but weren’t surprised when we didn’t. At the top of the hill behind us, the riot of Life was exploding with the same fervor my apical paternal ancestor enjoyed 250 years ago on hills near here.

7536 Colorful Ground

7536 Colorful Ground

Over the river a rainbow erupted from this ground into the sky binding cloud to mountain, lest the world should fall.

5108 Unbroken Thread

5108 Unbroken Thread

2013/05/07

Clarion Call

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 04:01

After lots of “planning” (remember, we make plans and then weather or other factors often turn everything upside down), we met Uncle Ed for dessert at the City Hall Cafe in downtown Waterbury. Fun to sit and enjoy a last visit with him surrounded by photos and memorabilia going far back into the history of this town so prominent in family lore. Outside the dogwood was in bloom and Anne caught this one in the parking lot.

0971 Dogwood

0971 Dogwood

Then more planning and logistics, and we took to the air. Soon we climbed much higher than our usual touring altitude to get well above the scattered clouds, and found ourselves greatly enjoying this different perspective on the forests, farms, rivers and lakes of Connecticut as it merged imperceptibly into Pennsylvania.

7374 Wild Spaces

7374 Wild Spaces

On our first Big Adventure flying the Eastern U.S. we expected cities, houses and farms everywhere so it was surprising to see such vast tracts of wild spaces. Unlike further West many of the farms here are small, and even the large ones often rotate and mingle crops so it’s more fun to fly over them.

7432 Patchwork

7432 Patchwork

Before long we climbed even higher to fly among majestic monsters forming cloud canyons and mountains that look solid yet fluffy, sometimes gracefully swirling in slow motion as we pass.

7417 Translucent Giants

7417 Translucent Giants

As evening approached, we toured Crown, PA and then descended into Clarion. We enjoyed a long walk around town, and paused to admire this 1880-something building that my ancestors perhaps once visited.

0991 Changing Times

0991 Changing Times

It stood here when there were no cars. What could people have imagined those magically colorful flame-less traffic lights are for other than some repetitive entertainment? What would they think of a descendent seven generations hence casually flying over in miraculous Tripp to explore their region?

2013/05/06

Seven League Boots

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 04:34

Before starting our flight from Stow, MA to Waterbury, CT today, I put on some magic boots.

0957 Magic Boots

0957 Magic Boots

These charming boots are warm and giggly, and all I need do to put them on is stand still by the door. Especially if I have the suitcase by my side. When I want to take them off there are no laces, zippers or velcro to bother with. All I need do is make a motion as if to tickle them, and presto! They not only instantly are off my feet, they scamper away squealing with delight in opposite directions. 🙂

4764 Hartford

4764 Hartford

The whole family piled into the car with us and all our luggage, and we chatted merrily all the way to the airport. After our wonderful visit, we put on our other magic boots: Tripp. Like the old fables about magical Seven League Boots, she can take us quickly from place to place. Soon we were passing Hartford, and then minutes later we saw the ever more familiar Waterbury.

7369 Waterbury

7369 Waterbury

New England towns and cities boast many silent smokestacks and innumerable beautiful churches, surrounded by neat rows of tidy homes like these. From the surrounding area, family gathered to welcome the wandering Californians with a delicious dinner. One topic at the table was how Tripp makes such experiences possible by whisking us so quickly from place to place, friend to friend, and one family gathering to another. Such happy and enchanted “boots” we have enriching our days!

0963 Family Fun

0963 Family Fun

2013/05/05

Plum Day

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Tripp — John @ 02:48

Today we flew in two planes up to Plum Island not far (by air) from Boston, and I got this pic of Zubair and family in theirs.

4737 Zubair Flying

4737 Zubair Flying

It’s spectacularly beautiful from the air, with an intriguing mix of colors and shapes wrought by nature and the hands of humanity.

4742 Parker River Refuge

4742 Parker River Refuge

The town is picturesque too.

7335 Newburyport

7335 Newburyport

The bay formed by the Merrimack River mouth right next to the airport has an especially refreshing look, though the clusters of homes out on the sand bar seem vulnerable to storms.

7330 Merrimack Mouth

7330 Merrimack Mouth

It’s a fun airport with lots of friendly people who volunteer their time and labor to keep it in such great condition, including a fun grass runway I used for takeoff for our return flight.

7341 Plum Island Airport

7341 Plum Island Airport

I was admiring patterns made by the tide in shallow water when I noticed this boat with its outboard motor tipped up and a man wading to pull it through the mud.

4743 Mud Walk

4743 Mud Walk

We dropped all our passengers at the airport where Tripp’s sleeping, then Zubair and I flew the two planes over to the airport where his plane lives and then back together in Tripp where Anne caught this homey scene as I landed.

0946 Evening Return

0946 Evening Return

Now we’re all warm from the glow of the day, and “plum tuckered out.” 🙂

2013/05/04

Boston

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random — John @ 05:50

We’ve flown near here several times on this Adventure, but now we’re finally here in Boston with Zubair & Momina and their fun kids. This morning it looked like we might not be able to fly out of Martha’s Vineyard, but it cleared enough this afternoon. We overheard a pilot on his cell saying, “Gay Head is better,” so we flew past it on the way here.

4514 Gay Head Light

4514 Gay Head Light

Crossing to the mainland the clouds were more broken so we climbed and got great views like this. [update: the captions didn’t show on the rest of these pix for some reason, because I had to post from our Nexus 7 last nite. Hopefully now they’re fixed because I’ve updated from my computer.]

4592 Small Island

4592 Small Island

At the tip of a nearby peninsula was this fancy manse.

4603 Fancy Manse

4603 Fancy Manse

A little later I noticed this walled garden, then saw the tall fence.

4629 Prison Garden

4629 Prison Garden

We talked about how quickly our lives would change from freely wandering the skies if we were wrongly accused of some crime. But soon we’d met up with Zubair and were flying toward Boston for a glorious aerial tour.

4649 Boston

4649 Boston

We were pleased to be able to get close enough for this great view of the old Commons.

4690 Commons

4690 Commons

Soon we landed back at a small airport near Zubair’s place, and saw this Piper Cub leap into the sunset for a classic scene from years gone by.

4697 Flying History

4697 Flying History

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