John & Anne Wiley

2010/08/30

Early Winter

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Relationships,Tripp — John @ 21:53

I once scribbled a rough poem with the same title as this post, sitting on the tree stump that was then the front porch of the small cabin I built between two lakes a few miles outside the small town of Smithers, B.C. Though the view was different from there, the Presence of the mountain towered over my loneliness. Looking again today at this photo, a wide spectrum of powerful feelings is somehow summed up in a long, deep sigh.

0262 Return To Mountain

0262 Return To Mountain

More than with the first photo I posted from that flight a few weeks ago, this one connects because we’re sitting at home with time to reflect. Being a California native that was my first real Winter, and marking the end of my first marriage it was also a very cold season of my life. How miraculous to have transcended this icy passage shouldered up to Anne’s warmth, with Tripp’s stout wings lifting us effortlessly behind the throaty song of her engine. An archetypal journey with mythical steed.

0266 Cascade of Memories

0266 Cascade of Memories

I have paused in the refreshing mists of many waterfalls since this one draining the glacier on that peak. Each has cleansed my wounds with rainbows of acceptance and awareness. Nourished my arduous climb back into the light of Loving and Understanding.

2010/08/28

Speaking of Which

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 09:27

Speaking of weather, rather than risk getting fogged in at Oceano we flew our dear friend along the shoreline to Montecito and fog was flirting with the shoreline. Unheard of for late August here, but these are unusual times it seems. Sure was beautiful, and maybe Anne will share some of the shots she got on the way out. I got these two coming back.

0975 Andree Clark Bird Refuge

0975 Andree Clark Bird Refuge

I imagined the waterfowl hunkered down with their feathers fluffed up against the cool sea breeze. The recently famous Clark estate is disappearing into the fog at the top where Cabrillo bends and at the right you can see colorful shelters set up over tables for some event at the SB Zoo. Montecito Country Club is still in the sun at the bottom of this pic.

0981 Hidden Harbor

0981 Hidden Harbor

Santa Barbara Harbor is all but hidden in the fog, with the stadium at the picturesque SB City College still in the clear. It was a beautiful game of peek-a-boo flying along the coast, and we could see the fog moving inland and then vanishing just in from the beach. The airport was completely clear, and I kept one eye on it the whole time just in case. Such a beautiful flight.

2010/08/27

Weather

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region,Tripp — John @ 20:21

We’ve been watching weather because we’re flying a friend the short hop to Oceano. As you may recall that’s one of our fav nearby airports. Because it’s on the beach, fog can be an issue in early Summer. Well, with this year’s freaky weather the fog is sitting offshore there today so we’re waiting for a satellite update to see which way it’s moving before we meet our friend at the airport. I’ve been catching up on email, and came across one sent in appreciation of this blog that ended with the words, “from a cold wet August in Aberdeen, Scotland.”

Got me thinking about how much Santa Barbarians take weather for granted. It’s basically “Goldilocks” weather here (not too hot, not too cold – just right as in the “Three Bears” kids story). Because our small section of coastline runs East-West, the wind and ocean currents are disrupted. The result is often better weather than Los Angeles in Winter and better weather than San Fransisco in Summer. The one drawback people here like to whine about is coastal fog, but I like it! Any time the fog gets annoying, it’s a few minutes’ drive to reach sunshine (half as many if it’s possible to take off from SBA). Local pilots have tried in vain to coax me into getting an “IFR” license so we can take off in fog, but even tho Tripp’s equipped for it I’d rather spend that extensive training cost flying us in clear air where we can see the magnificent and endlessly fascinating sights of Santa Barbara.  Can you tell we like it here? 🙂

2010/08/26

More Missed

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,Random,Tripp — John @ 21:18

We’re taking care of some stuff around here right now, and then going out to SBA for some Tripp pampering time. She gets an oil change today, and we’ll start getting her ready for another adventure. While taking a break right now, I looked at more pix from the NxNW trip and found one in particular that I’d meant to post.

Flying NW from Winnipeg, we didn’t get any more pix I really like (beyond the stuff already posted) until we stopped for a stretch on the way to Regina. Sometimes a name on a map captures my attention, and the aviation chart showed a small airport directly on our route and about halfway named Unity. We of course had to stop!

0101 Unity

0101 Unity

Update: as you may have noticed, Anne had already blogged about our Unity stop during the NxNW trip.

0099 Gordon McClane

0099 Gordon McClane

Another pic I like from this day’s flying is one Anne got that I hadn’t seen until recently. I liked the colors and shapes at first glance, and it reminds me of so many small lakes and ponds we saw but didn’t snap.

0102 Toon Dog Pond

0102 Toon Dog Pond

Looking at it just now during upload I noticed something else I like. Do you see a cartoon shape in this one? The yellow outline of the pond traces a Snoopy looking cartoon dog with nose bottom-right and ears top-right.

Last for today, here’s another one I like of beautiful Edmonton. You can see how well the layout mingles countryside, suburbs and city.

0171 Edmonton Context

0171 Edmonton Context

I sure hope the good planning you can see in this pic continues with the preservation of the downtown airport that so effectively complements the larger international one on the outskirts. It would be a shame to undo the generations of hard work developing such a great place to live and work. Multiple airports bring many advantages in commerce and air safety.

Merry MariTimes?

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,MeriTimes Adventure,Random — John @ 09:30

Well, tonight we started talking about another trip! It’s remarkable given that we’ve been mostly holed up, haven’t even done any of the short regional or SoCA flights we’d imagined, and haven’t completely unpacked from NxNW. On the other hand, it’s very handy having lots of stuff from the trip still piled together where we can use it as a starting point for a hopefully much lighter load for the next big trip. Will this be it?

When I lived in Canada for a few years everyone seemed to always be talking about The Maritimes. That’s the eastern part of Canada, and having lived only on the west coast for a while it seemed far off, exotic and a bit romantic – especially after adding years of hearing about that region since. I’ve seen a few intriguing articles about it recently, including one in an aviation mag. We also want to visit the two remaining continental states we’ve missed: AR & CO. We’re also itching to spend more time in NYC and DC, and would like a return to FL with lots of other ideas along the way.
Tonight we sketched out a potential vision of mostly “fly-camping,” with the nights numbered and increasingly “flexible” as the list progresses:
1 GRAND CANYON
2 CO (probably through Denver)
3 NB (Omaha) or Iowa
4 & 5 Chicago (hotel?)
Dayton, OH?
6 London, ON
7 Ottawa, ON
8 Montreal  (hotel?)
9 Quebec City
10 New Brunswick
11 & 12 Newfoundland?
13 Prince Edward Island
14 Nova Scotia
~~~
15 & 16 MAINE  Bar Harbor & other areas?
17 & 18 Boston – Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard?
19 New Haven
20-22 NYC (NJ?)
23 Philadelphia
24 & 25 Pittsburg – Dayton?
26-28 DC
…..
WV, KT, TN, MS, AR, AL, GA, FL (incl. Keys & Bahamas)??
Home via??
Help us! As you can see, the flexibility gets really squishy by the time we leave DC. We could be home in a day or two direct, or meander for weeks. Weather, exhaustion, mood, and perhaps most of all money would all be factors. So tonight we begin to dream about it.
Any comments, suggestions, ideas??
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