John & Anne Wiley

2012/10/02

Relativity

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 07:42

Way way back when I was getting my pilots license, seven years ago, flying to an airport more than 50 miles was a Big Adventure. Sure seems like thirty years ago! Now that I’ve landed in every U.S. state and Canadian province, anything less than 300 miles is a relaxing day trip. Such was the case flying from SB to San Jose to visit relatives not long after we’d just flown past it coming home from the AB Joy adventure. The first pic I like from that flight is this hippie house on a hill.

3797 Round House

3797 Round House

OK, you’re right – it’s not a hippie house, or in fact a house of any kind. It is indeed a water tank. But for some reason I’ve always thought it would be cool to live in an old wooden water tower, and put a sun deck on the roof. Anyway I like how the tank, white aerial survey X, and the grass trim shape all interact visually. Next up is a velvety texture.

3817 Velvet Ground

3817 Velvet Ground

I like how the undulations show up, and how they mix with the adjoining vineyard geometry. But I also get a sense of stressed land that’s saturated with salt or something that’s making those whitish areas. This was actually a pretty smokey flight, due to all the fires back then (8/31), so most of the pix didn’t turn out well. Like this muted one of the visually striking Pinnacles.

3834 Hazy Pinnacles

3834 Hazy Pinnacles

Descending into San Jose along the 101 I enjoyed the interplay of wind, water and trees at the small reservoir(s) between 101 and the old Monterey Highway.

3843 Reflections

3843 Reflections

I reflected for a moment on the many times I’d been along one of those roads, and the relatives living and gone who lived nearby. Also the new relative whose birthday we gathered to celebrate. So many changes and milestones between birth and death, yet perhaps relatively few.

0138 Relativity

0138 Relativity

2012/09/30

Last Leg

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 06:59

I’m feeling it all over again. The way it was knowing that the day we left McBeth would be the last on our wonderful AB Joy adventure. Luckily it was varied and beautiful just like every other day of the trip. We began with a berry good walk under some tall trees to stretch our legs and stain our faces with wild blackberry juice.

3681 Forest Road

3681 Forest Road

Joy’s not in this pic, because she was already foraging. Before long Tripp had lifted us effortlessly above it all again, and I circled back toward the airport to gain altitude.

3699 McBeth

3699 McBeth

The runway is just above the trees at the bottom, and we took off West (to the left). That’s the Klamath River at the left edge, and the rock dike is the gray line just above the runway. Our hotel was near the right end of the town, and Tripp was parked in the small cleared rectangle of cut grass on the far side of the runway about in the middle. It doesn’t look like much from here, but climbing over the 30′ dike and back through brambles and barbed wire carrying some heavy stuff at midnight wasn’t easy. Was fun though. 🙂

3705 White Blanket

3705 White Blanket

I’d initially planned to fly out to the coast and along it like we’d done in Oregon the day before. That white blanket that greeted our takeoff is why I decided to climb near the airport instead. Once we were high enough to see that we didn’t need to leave the coast completely, we turned south and climbed gradually higher within gliding distance of the highway. I’ve already shared a pic of the North Pass Fire, but thought you might like the starkness of this one too.

3712 North Pass Fire

3712 North Pass Fire

It seemed to have skritchy hair on the right, but maybe that’s because of the sleep we had. 🙂

I’ll close this AB Joy recap with a pic from our luxurious stop in Sonoma. We enjoyed a delicious picnic in the park across the street from the Basque Cafe.

3741 Relaxation

3741 Relaxation

Next I’ll start to bring you up to date on some flights we’ve enjoyed since our return. After that maybe I’ll share that we’re contemplating a new Big Adventure to the East Coast. If we decide to spend another big chunk of our savings… 🙂

2012/09/29

McBeth Sundown

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 04:46

Still looking at pix from that same day along the Oregon coast, I like this one of an empty giant stone portal on the beach. A doorway of perception, does it open out or in?

3483 Doors

3483 Doors

Both I guess, like that kids song, “Go in and out the doorway…” Next in today’s stone collection this row of stone blades slicing sky, and in raging Oregon storms, giant waves.

3512 Blades

3512 Blades

Nearby is a walled garden of secrets. Looks like pirates would’ve hidden out in that cave, and their treasure might still be in there. Or speaking of stills, maybe rum runners used it on dark nights. Those clumps on the foreground cliffs guarding the entrance are cormorant nests.

3515 Garden

3515 Garden

By now we were well ready for a stretch break, so after much discussion we chose the charming town of Bandon. You can make out the angled light brown rectangle of the airport just right of center beneath the distant hills.

3527 Bandon

3527 Bandon

After feeding Tripp and meeting an energetic young caretaker as we jumped, stretched, and ran around, we took off into the much longer shadows and flew a little long after takeoff so we could get a look at the town.

3544 Abandoned

3544 Abandoned

Judging by Bandon’s abandoned forest of pilings in the harbor, this was once a thriving town. Logging I guess. Now it’s a friendly little town struggling to adapt to the new economy, and beckoning us for a return visit when we’d have time to find our way in for some exploration. Eight minutes later we passed a quiet estuary where this kite surfer was riding the same strong evening winds that were adding to our speed.

3554 Wind Rider

3554 Wind Rider

I have a bunch more pix from this last hour of flying but the light was fading, haze was increasing. So let me end with a tale of two beds. First, the best hotel bed we enjoyed on this adventure, at the spacious and delightful Phoenix Inn hotel in Olympia.

0357 Best Bed

0357 Best Bed

Now, let me digress for a moment to describe the lay of the land in the quiet little village of McBeth just above the mouth of the Klamath. It’s surrounded by a tall rock dike to protect it from tsunamis like the one from AK that destroyed it in the 1960s. I’ll show you daytime aerial pix of it in the next post, but for now imagine us landing just before dark and debating whether to pitch our tent or get a room on the other side of the tall dike ringed with barbed wire. We ended up scoring a bargain room about $20 less than our Olympia room, including a ride with our stuff around the dike into town. It had a tidy 1950s motel flavor, and this bed.

0404 Worst Bed

0404 Worst Bed

Now you may notice something unusual where the gold blanket starts. That’s our queen-sized airmat on top of two double beds pushed together. When we’d tried the bed it was so uncomfortable that I climbed over the dike and two barbed wire fences in the dark to carry the heavy airmat back to the room. The only hotel bed I can recall that was worse, is one we had at the volcano park in Hawaii many years ago. It was missing the mattress, and we had to sleep on the box spring. This one was better. A little. But that didn’t dampen our fun together, and I could hear the gals laughing at the top of the dike as they waited and worried about me falling. That bed is another great memory from the adventure. 🙂

2012/09/28

Interactions

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 04:46

Maybe it’s because of my fascination with human interactions, that I often notice all sorts of other interactions. Like the ones that have created this scene.

3439 Grasses & ATVs

3439 Grasses & ATVs

If you click to see the larger version, you can just make out the two ATVs at the bottom just left of center. More natural interactions like the ones between all the rivers and creeks, and the Pacific where they meet, are also fascinating to me.

3442 River & Sea

3442 River & Sea

When I first saw this next scene, I thought it was a word someone had carved in the dune.

3447 Dune Grasses & ???

3447 Dune Grasses & ???

Any ideas? This next one’s more subtle. See if you can pick out the interaction here that caught my fancy, before you read the caption.

3457 Dune & Shadow

3457 Dune & Cloud Shadow

No, that’s not our shadow again although we do seem to smile at it often. But here’s an interaction we were directly involved in.

3478 Ship & Tripp

3478 Ship & Tripp

I flew a little offshore to check out this ship and thought someone might wave from the deck, but I don’t see anyone outside. I found out later it’s an Army dredge. Last up, an epic interaction of some Greek elements.

 

3482 Earth & Water

3482 Earth & Water

2012/09/25

Calming Coast

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random — John @ 09:23

The Oregon coast looks wild with the scars of violent geological forces further tormented by raging storms, yet on a nice day like this it’s so calming.

3115 Tortured Stone

3115 Tortured Stone

I like how the line of trees marches down the slope toward the sea, shoulder to shoulder to face the weather. The shapes and textures tell tales of torment from wind and sea.

3128 Resting Head

3128 Resting Head

The sandstone point in this one is a giant dragon’s head asleep in the gently lapping waves of this unusually calm Pacific. Further along, a quiet waterfall returns raindrops from their long journey home to the sea.

3131 Silent Fall

3131 Silent Fall

As we skim past, the sun behind us illuminates a deep cave hidden beneath a hardy clump of gnarled trees next to a vein of colorful rock.

3134 Hidden Cave

3134 Hidden Cave

As we pass another rock face the trace left by countless birds looks for a moment like white hieroglyphs from people long ago.

3161 Rock Art

3161 Rock Art

When cliffs yield to dunes, our shadow fleeting across the sand impersonates a giant seabird startling the small creatures huddled in the grass.

3172 Passing Shadow

3172 Passing Shadow

Our flight along this shore in the other direction a few days before is reflected in this opposite view to the south past now familiar offshore arches.

3176 Familiar Arches

3176 Familiar Arches

Placid tidepools and foam whirlpools offer a hypnotic serenity that pulls a sigh from me, remembering this contemplative passage.

3197 Placid Pools

3197 Placid Pools

A jumble of soft shapes and colors somehow especially pleasing to my eye almost brings the feel of sand between toes and the whisper of breeze in trees.

3241 Soft Place

3241 Soft Place

A magical dune from Arabian dreams mixes water, trees, and rippling sands to enchant the weary traveler.

3434 Dream Oasis

3434 Dream Oasis

Now we decide to stop for rest and to consider where we’ll spend this night. After consulting the gals, various charts and several other sources of information we choose the little town of Bandon. Such an awakening back into this millennium as we approach the welcoming airport. This has already been a day to remember, and there’s more yet to come.

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