John & Anne Wiley

2013/03/21

Change Is Constant

Today’s plan was to reach New Orleans at dusk. Instead the winds blew us into Galveston.

0017 Galveston

0017 Galveston

We thought Hilton would be a comfy hotel, and liked the low rate they quoted. Has a great loop pool with swim up bar. Not that we can drink anything without inducing a sleep-deprived coma. But we’re happy. 🙂

Galveston Pool

Galveston Pool

The smiles faded considerably after we learned that Hilton doesn’t include internet unless you’d like to pay the “Why didn’t I think to ask that before registration” tax. They call it “Hilton Honors.”

So here I sit in swim trunks and bathrobe typing this in the lobby where they do offer internet. Are we stubborn to pay so much for a nice hotel on this very expensive Adventure and then refuse to pay their annoying fool’s tax? I hope we can remember this with the simple mnemonic, “Hilton DisHonors” their customers. So I guess right now I’m a little Grumpy Happy, but the swim will help. Maybe we will get a drink, paid by savings on the fool’s tax. 🙂

2013/03/20

Bending the Curves

Well, it took me a long time to take care of other stuff and then sort out the pix. We both shot a lot of pix at Big Bend, and the file numbers overlapped so I had to manually sort everything from two cellphones and three cameras. When I was a kid our family had one camera, and my sister hoarded it. Now most people have several, and photophiles like us have even more. Here’s why. 🙂

5216 LC View

5216 LC View

We woke to the majestic mountains of Las Cruces, thanks to Becky who gave us this view room at a bargain rate. We got a clearer look later, but farther away due to hustling to make up for time lost preparing charts at the airport preventing my intended detour for a closeup.

5219 LC Departure

5219 LC Departure

Fili, the wonderful man who drove us in the hotel shuttle back to Tripp said something he loves about living in Las Cruces is going to orchards in the green belt along the river on hot days. Here’s an overhead view I like of a home nestled among the bare trees.

5226 Green Belt

5226 Green Belt

Later at Big Bend, Anne told me to snap this landscape because it was on my side of the plane and she really likes the combination of colors and textures.

5300 Devil's Playground

5300 Devil’s Playground

Heavenly places like this get a bad rap in their Anglo names sometimes it seems to me. When there’s time I want to look up the native and Spanish names for this. When we took a very refreshing stretch break thanks to Marty, I learned something after she and Marcos graciously posed for this lively pic.

5315 M&M with A&T

5315 M&M with A&T

I love how M&M are both holding onto Tripp. They’re both excellent pilots and part of their excellent airplane collection is in the open hangar behind them. Well what I learned is that the spot Anne loved so much in the pic above, is the absolute fav of both M&M and several other local pilots. Wish we’d had time to descend and get a better look! But a sudden storm was brewing and we wanted to see more of Big Bend before dark. So glad we did!

5350 Into Mexico

5350 Into Mexico

Not long after leaving their private airport (3TE8) and warm Texas hospitality I got this view into Mexico with a shaft of light through the clouds gracing a river that joins the Rio Grande. By far my fav pic of the delightful day. Later as we neared Terrell Airport (6R6) for our turn direct to San Antonio, the sunset gave me one last memory of this amazing day.

5430 Farewell 3/19/13

5430 Farewell 3/19/13

Pretty in the Dark

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Islander Adventure — John @ 04:30

San Antonio was especially pretty in the dark as we landed, happily away from thunderstorms that had popped up to the North.  Very smooth (and fast, due to tailwind) flight from Big Bend. About to download pix from the camera, so will add to this and share some of the beauty we saw today…

2013/03/19

Forget and Change

We forgot how beautiful the desert around Tucson is. The rocks and plants have an austere magnificence.

5159 Rocks & Catcti

5159 Rocks & Cacti

Even tho we loved it back then, we’d forgotten how much we loved the Sonoran Desert Museum. But it’s so changed, too! Vastly bigger than what we remember, and many more people there. Our favorite attraction among many was the hummingbird exhibit.

5105 Hummer

5105 Hummer

Reminded me of visiting the San Diego Zoo, on a smaller scale. A similar sense that you were at a widely famous attraction. Maybe we have to forget in order to change, or even to perceive change. If our memories were completely lucid and fixed, seems to me that meaningful change would be very difficult.

When we visited Tucson years ago, it had a small town feel. Today it felt like a really sprawled city, with reminders of the past sprinkled around the edges and a thick layer of haze pulled over it.

5198 View From the Edge

5198 View From the Edge

L.C. Quick

Filed under: Islander Adventure,Random — John @ 02:18

Fair winds smiled on us, providing a 1/3 boost in speed with only a little bumpy air downwind of mountains. Happy to try a hotel tonite. 🙂

(sent from my phone)

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