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The 2006 adventures
of
Albert
&
JJ, the Super
Dog
A journey is a person in itself no two are alike.
All the plans, safeguards, policies and coercion are fruitless.
We find after years of struggle, we do not take a trip: the trip takes us.
-John Steinbeck
Greetings to family, friends, and fellow pilots!
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Since leaving Florida in early June of this year, JJ has sniffed, and been sniffed by, hundreds of other dogs while motor homing more than nine thousand miles across our great nation and parts of Northern Mexico. She has romped about, ran around, and climbed at heights as high as 14,100 feet at Pikes Peak, Colorado and as low as 211 feet below sea level at Death Valley, Nevada.
She has left her doggy rememberings at the flats of the St Johns River and at Ponce Inlet, Florida and at many other cities and towns including, (but not limited to) chronologically - High Falls and Atlanta, Georgia - Pell City and Birmingham, Alabama - Memphis, Tennessee - St Louis, Missouri - Russell and Fort Riley, Kansas - Colorado Springs, Canan City and Denver Colorado - Cheyenne,
Graybull, and Cody Wyoming - Hot Springs, Custer, Rapid City, and Sturgis South Dakota -Idaho Falls, Salmon, Sun Valley, and Blackfoot Idaho - Medicine Springs, Missoula, Whitefish, and Eureka, Montana - Brigham City, Salt Lake City, and Kana, Utah - Las Vegas, Beauty, Boulder City, and Kinsman, Nevada - Flagstaff, Winslow, and Sun Valley, Arizona - Gallup, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Deeming, and Columbus New Mexico -
Palomas, Mexico - El Paso, Texas - Tucson, Why, and Lukeville, Arizona -
Sonoita, Cholla Bay, and Puerto Panasco, Mexico.
As for me, I have been blessed to fly at least one flight in twenty two states, and now, Mexico. The highest was 9,200 feet at Bubba Peters place in Colorado and the lowest being minus 210 feet in Death Valley. Now, if that don’t light a pilots fire, his wood’s wet.
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| We arrived at Puerto
Panasco, Mexico (also known as Rocky Point, Mexico) on November 10 and this is our temporary residence through December. While dogs seem to have a universal language, I need to learn more Spanish before we travel further South into Mexico. My daily struggle here is whether to launch the
PPG on the beach in front of the motor home, fish the bay for triggerfish, snorkel the reef, go clamming at low tide, or just walk the beach with JJ at sunrise.
Puerto Panasco is located at the Sea of Cortez or Gulf of California, and East of Baja, California. Sunsets shadow the shrimp boats leaving port for their nightly
shrimping. (September thru December is the best shrimping) This city is, in many ways, the Stuart and Key West of thirty years ago. A tourist town with dirt roads at the edge, miles of clean sandy beaches, pristine sea, abundant fish and shrimp. But, too, this is rapidly changing. Construction is booming. Beachfront property is rapidly being sold to build housing communities, hotels,condos and villas. And, of course, land prices are skyrocketing, but still a fantastic value compared to USA oceanfront living.
While the skeletons of these hotels are rising out of the sand, construction is slow compared to our American standard. But it will still only be a few short years before restrictive crowding and seasonal gridlock appear. In the meantime we will enjoy!
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| We have many stories to
share so I thought I would start with the onset of our journey in June and write more in future
versions. We left Okeechobee early June and visited with Mike and Carolyn Britt who live in Christmas, Florida. They provided us a hookup for the RV and treated us like family.
Mike fabricated an aluminum swivel platform stand at the right side of the RV driver seat to hold the laptop which I use to navigate the roads through a
G.P.S. program. This program is mostly accurate, and with the voice in/output is safer than trying to read a roadmap while driving. With the Tundra in tow, it’s impossible for me to back up more than a foot or two, and the zoom feature helps me find alternate roads if I happen to get off track and unable to make a U-turn. Thanks again, Mike, that platform has proved to be a great help in our nine thousand miles of highway travel.
Mike cannot resist flight over water, especially foot dragging over the surface. (Very shallow water only! Right Mike?) He compelled me to fly with him nearly one hundred forty miles in just three days. Long (and beautiful) cross country flights mostly along the Saint Johns River. Phew!! Nearly got tired of flying.
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| I also had the pleasure of attempting to fly at Once Inlet (It was a washout) and a twenty five mile cross country flight from the Black Bear Reserve to flyby Ranch at Oxford, Florida with Marty Hathaway and several others. About a year ago Marty guided me on my first beach flight. He prayed for me as I unwittingly flew too far out over the ocean at Saint
Au
gustine Beach. His prayer was mostly fruitful. I landed with the surf lapping my heels. But I neglected to run further upon the beach and my glider fell backward into the ocean. It took us nearly three hours to get all that sand out of the glider and dried. Both Marty and Mike are safe, competent, and caring pilots who will unselfishly delay their own launch such to assist a less experienced pilot. True icons in the sport.
Leaving Christmas, Florida, our next stop was Atlanta, Georgia and a quick tour of Mike’s refrigerant gasses reclamation plant ( the multi-acre roof of which later became his flight deck) and then to Pell City, Alabama to visit Bob and Cheryl Blevins, another fine and gracious couple. I met them about two years ago when Bob came to Flyby Ranch for trike training. Later, he furnished the tubing and expertise to build my first trike. He is another avid flyer.
To be continued... |
 
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