Flash kept some fast company today, starting with this Navy jet that rolled past as we prepared for takeoff from El Paso.
We enjoyed being routed over the city before turning West, because it gave us a glimpse of the downtown we'd wandered yesterday on foot. It also provided a safe and fast view of the border crossings where cars, trucks, trains, buses, cycles and pedestrians funnel down for what can be a multi-hour test of patience.
We had intended to fly low to enjoy the desert scenery, but after a few thousand miles droning over scattered shrubs (about ten minutes of clock time) we climbed higher. Flying a mile up helped us enjoy the scenery more and also speeded our crossing of the desert. As on nearly every flight of this Big Adventure, yet again we had tailwinds! Crossing from NM into AZ we saw one of the few clearly delineated state lines of this trip, looking toward Mexico. The AZ side has big round irrigated fields while NM looks more natural.
In the mountains about 20 miles toward Tucson from the state line is a vast area of stone pillars we hadn't seen marked on the charts or noticed on the maps Anne brought. We took many pix, and this snap of two stone armies facing off across a ravine is a small slice.
Now that we're home, we've learned that it's the Chiricahua National Monument.
Rather than spend the night in Tucson we decided to land for fuel just past there and press on to make for a shorter flight home tomorrow. The airport we chose happens to be the final resting place for acres of jets. While some were being torn apart, others were prepared for storage until the economy recovers and some were getting routine maintenance. Very surreal place, especially for a pilot. Flash seemed a bit sad to taxi freely among her faster parked cousins, and eagerly leapt back into the air when we discovered the airport no longer sells fuel.
It felt good to land in California, and we're enjoying the least expensive hotel of the many on our trip. We had permission to set up the tent right next to the plane at the Blythe airport, but decided that wouldn't provide much sleep since there's a construction crew doing night work on runways and the airport comes to life in earnest at sunup. So tonight we dream of home, unlimited sleep, our many adventures of the past month, and having easy access to more stuff than fits in two backpacks or a small plane. Will we ride around town on our new old tweaky tandem bike?
2 comments:
You must be getting really close to home!
What an amazing variety of things you have seen and experienced on this trip!!! Isn't it!!!
I was just thinking of that when I see these dry, dusty hills rising up behind the airport in El Paso, and remembering those amazingly bright, wet, cold and so colorful autumn leaves from New England.
Big cities (like New Orleans and New York), small sweet little towns, places way out in the bush and the desert. Bright autumn leaves, irrigated agricultural places, dry deserts. Snow up north, warm Atlantic waters in Florida. Aaaaahhhh, what a wonderful journey.
And then there's the journey of your lifetimes, seeing where you lived when you were born, and a toddler, and where parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents lived their lives. Seeing and being together with people you are related to in your blood, all in such different and far-flung places. This has been a journey and Big Adventure in more ways than one. It's also been a journey into the backgrounds and roots and connections of your own lives.
You will be different, I think larger and more vast, and also more connected in many profound ways, when you get home.
THANK YOU for sharing it all with me!!! What an amazing adventure this has been!!!
OH! And all that traffic at the border of El Paso, with all those cars and trucks so clogged up on those roads! And you flying free as a bird, above it all!
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