Andrew's Birthday Parties

This year, Andrew got something really special - we celebrated his birthday with his grandparents and other family members. First we celebrated in Ohio with my family a few days before his actual birthday. My parents, my aunt, my grandmother, my cousin and her son, and my cousin's family from Tennessee were all present.

Back in Virginia, we celebrated his birthday again with Susan's family.

Christmas At Gram's

After our long drive, we were ready for a good dinner. We loaded up gifts in my parent's minivan and headed to Gram's house. Andrew was very excited to see his second cousin Mikey, who is just 10 months younger. They immediately started playing together and didn't stop for three hours.

Although I love the home-cooked food, one of my favorites when I'm home is Italian Sausage from Capri's restaurant. Once again, I was not disappointed. Dinner was great, but we couldn't get Andrew to stop playing long enough to eat. But then, who could blame him. He spent most of the day in the car and he needed to burn off some excess energy. When he finally started getting hungry, he found the cookie plate and asked which cookies were safe for him to eat (he has a serious peanut allergy). We divided the plate into groups of safe and unsafe cookies. He grabbed a snickerdoodle and returned to playing with Mikey.

Then came present time. Both Andrew and Mikey got a present to tear into. Then Mikey got another and another. It didn't take long for Andrew to notice this fact. I guess at his age, the quantity is the most important thing.

After a while, we noticed that Andrew and Mikey were downstairs and it was far too quiet. I went down to check on them and found a large Thomas layout on the floor. Andrew and I quickly started making improvements. Before long, we had created a bypass loop around the outside and started pulling in other toys as props. In one section, we had the alligator swamps. In another, we had a pride of lions eyeing the trains as they passed. The herd of elephants was causing derailments on another section of track. And who knows what the zebras, giraffes, and dinosaurs were up to.

Bedtime for Mikey finally arrived and the fun was put on hold for the evening. My wish for Andrew is that he will find some friends his age to play with in Florida. It's so good for him to have this time with Mikey.

To Ohio

This morning we started our second road trip - to my parents' house in Toronto, Ohio.


View Larger Map

The drive up was nice, but we did have some issues with the new GPS - so much so that I was about to throw it out the window and drive over it a few times. The GPS wanted us to take US 17, but I wanted to stay on the interstate. As I drove past the exit, it recalculated the route. Three times in a row, it told me to take the next exit and return to US 17. And three times I ignored it. On the fourth recalculation, it ran out of memory and crashed. I restarted it, but unbeknownst to me, it forgot our destination and was simply showing our current track. This was not an issue at first... until we missed our exit to pick up Interstate 270 to bypass Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. is very nice this time of year, but it was not part of my 'get-to-Ohio-as-quick-as-possible' plan. We unfortunately missed our exit and wound up on I-395 in the heart of D.C., which eventually leads to a 'T' intersection in a rather degraded part of town. Yikes.

Susan re-programmed the GPS while I floundered around looking for something recognizable. I was on I-95 south when the GPS told me to turn around and head north. I did as I was told and finally we were back on the correct path. After about 30 miles, I cooled off and started respecting the GPS's decisions again.

With our setback, I was even more determined to get there quickly. As we entered the Pennsylvania Turnpike, my stomach started speaking to me. After a half hour, hunger overtook the need for speed and we stopped for a bite to eat at one of the service plazas and took a break from the highway.

The route took us practically through downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; my favorite big city growing up. There's been quite a few changes over the years, but I always feel like I'm almost home once I pass through the Fort Pitt tunnel heading west.

After all the round about driving in D.C., we still managed to get to my parent's house in just over seven hours. I find that pretty amazing.

Christmas Eve with the Haksch's

As per tradition, Susan's family celebrates Christmas together on Christmas Eve. I was tasked with picking up Susan's brother in Ashland. When I returned, dinner was ready. This was followed by some carol singing, then the distribution of gifts. From what I can tell, a good time was had by all.

To Virginia

Early this morning, or late last night - depending on how you look at it - we began our road trip to Virginia for the holidays.


View Larger Map

According to Google Maps, the trip should have taken 12 hours and 42 minutes. According to our new GPS (thanks Dave & Cathy), the trip should have taken 13 hours and 22 minutes.

At 3:00AM, we were out of bed and finishing the packing of the Honda. By 3:25, we were on the road heading north. We stopped for gas/snacks/bathrooms three times along the way and to switch drivers. We pulled into the driveway in Virginia at 4:30PM; just over 13 hours later. Not bad.

The biggest surprise about the trip was the lack of cities along the way. Other than Jacksonville, Florida, there were no major cities until we reached (and bypassed) Richmond, Virginia.

Christmas Card 2008

For the past three years, we have visited Flower World in Maltby, Washington, to take our family Christmas card photograph. This year, we're in Florida, so we had to find a good alternative. We had a few ideas for places outside, but finally decided to take the shot in front of our Christmas tree.

As it turns out, Susan heard from a friend in Washington that Flower World is not doing the poinsettia tree this year. I guess we would have had to find an alternative regardless.

CFI-A Lesson 2

Early this week, I finished up the missing details of Lesson 1. Today, I started Lesson 2. According to the syllabus, I was supposed to present a pre-flight briefing covering the four fundamentals of flight - straight & level, turns, climbs, and descents. After that, I was supposed to teach the four fundamentals in the airplane, while also covering everything else involved in a typical training flight - weather, airport information, take-off and landing distance, pre-flight inspection, engine start, ATC communications, taxi, run-up, take-off, etc.

When I first started, my nerves kicked in and I was mess. I could barely think or speak. My instructor interrupted and told me to relax. I took a few deep breaths and started again. As expected, the pre-flight briefing blew past the 30 minute time alotted and stretched to about an hour. I was not surprised at all. I went into it with eight pages of notes! I completely ignored six of the pages, and still ran 30 minutes over the limit. The four fundamentals are, well, fundamental maneuvers. The instructor must impress upon the student just how important they are and that they be performed correctly from the very beginning of training. I focused on covering everything the student would see, hear, and feel, in addition to how to correctly perform the maneuvers.

After I completed my brief, my instructor critiqued my performance. He was pleased, then went on for another half hour about things I should consider adding to my brief. I informed him that I had all of that in my notes and he said, "I didn't say it would be easy". My take away from this is that the pre-flight briefs are just that - brief. As an instructor, you must know what information to present during the pre-flight brief and what to cover in the airplane. It's just not practical, timewise, to cover an entire topic completely and thoroughly.

Normally, we would have gone flying next, but time was short and I hadn't completed my Piper Warrior Cadet pre-flight test (hadn't been given the test ahead of time). So we called it a day and will complete the flight portion of Lesson 1 next time.

New Tires for the Honda

The tires on the Honda were showing their age. It's not at all surprising; they've been rolling along for over 80,000 miles. They've served us well and got us safely across the country. But with the prospect of driving to Virginia and Ohio in a few weeks, we decided it would be wise to have a little more tread between us and the pavement/snow/ice.

On two separate occasions, I researched the current tire market. Consumer Reports listed four tires as their best buys, but none of them are available in my size. I was on my own. So I started looking for local tire stores to see what they carry in my size, then working backwards to get reviews for those tires. I eventually widdled the choice down to two tires, both by Goodyear. One has excellent traction qualities and good comfort and noise characteristics. The other was just the opposite. I was leaning towards the latter, but it wasn't in stock. The salesman offered a pretty good deal on the tires in stock and we went for it. The deal included a 30 day, no questions asked return policy, so if the new tires are too rough or noisy, we can return them for the quieter tires.

As the old tires came off and the new ones were installed, Andrew and I watched from the sidelines. We were both quite impressed with the hardware involved with mounting and balancing tires. Then the owner offered Andrew some Mega Blocks and a cabinet full of toys, including jet planes and Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel. Andrew started playing with Thomas, but soon switched to the planes and setup a nice airport at the end of the runway (black runner carpet).

The alignment of a BMW was taking longer than expected, so the owner offered to show Andrew the store room. We walked into a small room with tires on shelves from the floor to the 20 foot high ceiling. A worker showed how he reached the tires on the top shelf by climbing the racks. Andrew was impressed. Andrew played in the tires for a while, then it was back to the airplanes.

Finally the Honda was put on the alignment machine. Unfortunately, Honda does not provide adjustments in all three dimensions on the CR-V. They adjusted what they could and we were finally cleared to leave. Andrew was not in any hurry to leave. He was having a great time. The owner offered to let Andrew take two planes home with us. Andrew picked the F-16, but couldn't decide between the B-29 and the F-111. The owner graciously let Andrew have both. What a great guy. Given a choice, I'll repay the kindness by giving him some more work in the future. In tough times, and times are pretty tough here, it's nice to see great customer service.

Vero Beach Christmas Parade

After a full day of playing and riding bikes and enjoying the 70 plus degree sunshiny weather, we drove to the park near the beach to see the local arts festival, play at the playground, and kill a little time before the big parade. One of the vendors was selling wind chimes and that was all Andrew needed to see. He could literally spend an hour playing with chimes, listening to all the different sounds they make. I was more interested in the smell of onions and sausage cooking at a stand on the next row.

We went to the playground for a while, then moved on to the boat launch, where we saw three large pelicans sitting on the tops of the pier supports. Then we drove to the beach park and played while waiting for the parade to begin. As it got darker and the temperature started to drop, I wondered if I would be warm enough in my sandals, shorts, and shirt. I soon discovered that I wasn't; I had to put on my fleece jacket and cover my toes with a beach towel, then I was perfectly comfortable. I'm not certain, but I think this is my first Christmas parade in shorts!

At 5:30PM, the police motorcycles kicked off the parade. They were followed by the Vero Beach High School band and the fire department. Surprisingly the parade kept coming and coming and coming. Each float had a number and I know I saw number 67 go by before it was all over. Finally, Santa Clause rode by in the bucket of a fire engine ladder truck.

During the entire parade, Andrew was not with us. He was swinging on the swings, talking to the teenage girls who were hanging out nearby and a teenage (almost) boy he met. Afterwards, while pulling out of the parking lot, a group of girls walked by our girl and said, "Good-bye Andrew" as we drove past. Later I asked why he didn't watch the parade with us. He told me he could see better from the swing because he could get higher and see over everyone.

It's Beginning To Look...

... a little like Christmas.

Tonight we ran some errands in town. I bought some cheap printer paper and mechanical pencils for my kneeboard. I was looking for a small, cheap calendar to schedule my future flights, but didn't see one that I liked. Then we went to the local hobby shop to see what interesting things they have. As I walked down all four aisles (it isn't a very big store), the owner handed Susan a small 2009 calendar which will work perfectly for my scheduling needs. What an nice little surprise.

The hobby shop closed, so we headed out to the car. The sun was just beginning to set. I asked Susan if she needed to do anything else in town. She had some items on her shopping list, so we went to Publix to get some things, and for me, to kill a little time until it got dark outside.

When we came back out, it was indeed dark and the Jupiter, Venus, Moon alignment was clearly visible in the crystal clear sky. But that's not why I was waiting for dark. We got back in the car and started driving the few blocks to Pocohontas park. On the way out of the parking lot, I saw something streak across the top of my windshield. I pulled off the road into the bank parking lot and stopped. I turned off the car, opened the windows and listened. Listening carefully, we could hear a low hooting sound. On a street light pole nearby sat a huge owl! I don't think I've ever seen an owl in the 'wild' before. Very cool, but still not why I was waiting for dark.

On our way again,  Andrew and I called out each Christmas decoration we passed on our side of the car. We stopped at the park and got out. The park has several large, lit decorations, including a tall Christmas tree surrounded by gifts, marching tin soldiers, and two girls throwing snow balls back and forth. Andrew giggled cheerfully as he ran around, inspecting each figure and looking at all the lights. Then we walked a few blocks around town and saw a train with three cars stretched aross a second floor balcony and lots of lights and trees in the local business windows. Eventually we made it back to the park, where we saw an opossum sitting on a branch of a tree.

Just east of our apartment, there's Tara Plantation. It is quite nice, sitting far back from the road with a small lake in the front, surrounded by trees. It has recently been decorated and it quite an eye catcher. We tried to drive in and see it, but there was a private event going on, so we followed the signs to the event parking. When we arrived, we were told that there was a charity event going on and tickets were $50 each! Wow. They also told us that it is normally free, so we'll stop there some other time.

CFI-A Lesson 1

Today was the first of a scheduled 22 lessons for the Certified Flight Instructor - Airplane rating. Earlier this week, I went to accounting and paid for half the lessons. If all goes perfectly, I will fly for 22 hours and have ground briefs for 34 hours. And, with only 22 lessons at 3 a week, that should taked just over 7 weeks. That sounds far too quick to me, especially considering: A) My knowledge and confidence level at the moment (not at all at the instructor level), and B) the holidays coming up soon and my instructor's plans to be out of town. I'm thinking 10 weeks - minimum - is more realistic.

The first lesson is a review of the fundamentals of instruction. This was covered in the first week of ground school, and I even took an FAA exam on this subject. Regardless of all that, this subject, to me at least, is the most theoretical and unlearnable of any aviation subject. Now, if you know anything about this subject, or just learning in general, you'd say, "Well no wonder it is hard to learn, given your bad attitude towards it." That is probably true. But I didn't always have a bad attitude; the material is just hard to correlate in the brain. All I can do is memorize it, but then it doesn't stick and I have to go memorize it all again.

With that said, I went to my first lesson. My instructor grilled me on this stuff for two hours. I found that I have two distinct areas of knowledge. First, I can generally explain a given learning skill or memory concept and even give a decent example of where it would be used in a training environment, if you give my the skill/concept up front. But, if you ask me to list the 6/8/10 different skills/concepts/mechanisms, I draw a blank and spit out one or two. Other than coming up with silly acronyms for these lists, I'm not sure how to memorize them permanently.

I'm planning to make a list of examples for each and letting the examples correlate with the names and maybe that will be the glue that makes this stuff stick in my head. Wish me luck.

I mentioned the schedule of hours earlier. Well, I'm already an hour behind after this lesson because I need to go back to it again and prove that I know all this stuff.

Santa Visits Vero Beach

Santa Clause made an early visit to the Children's Book Store in Vero Beach today. He was available for wish taking and photographs from 11:00 to 1:00. We arrived early and got our ticket for the 'A' group - kind of like boarding a Southwest Airlines flight.

As our time neared, Andrew became more and more nervous about sitting on Santa's lap. I prepped him by feeding him possible questions that Santa might ask; for instance, "Have you been a good boy this year?" and "What would you like for Christmas this year?". I also suggested to Andrew that he might want to tell Santa about our long trip from Seattle, just in case there was a gap in the conversation.

Thanksgiving

This year we did Thanksgiving a little differently. Ever since moving to Seattle, I've spent Thanksgiving with my brother; either at his house or at his in-laws. This year, we decided not to make the drive to his house. This year, we stayed home. We invited a displaced Washingtonian to join us.

On Wednesday, we went to Publix and bought everything we needed. Today, we prepared everything and sat down to dinner at 4:30. For our first try, I'd say everything turned out great.

Commercial Check Ride

The time came to once again attempt to pass my commercial check ride. Once again, it was scheduled for first thing in the morning, which meant I rolled out of bed around 4:30AM to collect weather and finish my cross country flight plan. This time however, the weather was fantastic.

The time finally arrived and I met the examiner. He found a mistake in my Form 8710, so I had to go back and fix it. The form is available online at the FAA web site, but I had already submitted it and my instructor had already signed it, so I had to start over from scratch. I raced to re-enter all the data as the examiner waited.

With the paperwork out of the way, we proceeded to the oral exam. I did pretty well, but had a few weak areas regarding the schedule of weather reports. I simply told him that I don't have them memorized because I always get the current weather before each flight. He wasn't happy with that answer, but moved on nonetheless.

Flying time came, but getting an Arrow to fly is always at challenge at FlightSafety. My plane was given to someone else, but I was able to get one, too. It was scheduled to be back in less than two hours, so I already began feeling time pressure.

While pre-flighting the plane, my pencil ran out of lead. Luckily I had a pen with me as well, so I was able to continue. The examiner asked a few questions about various systems on the plane.

With pre-flight complete, I began giving the briefing and going through the instrument checks. During this time, I again felt time pressure as the examiner's body language and comments expressed that he was in a hurry to get going. I tried to be complete, thorough, and quick with the remainder of the checklist, but I was certainly uncomfortable.

The time pressure continued as I taxied and did the run-up. Once in the air, I turned to my flight plan heading and noted the time. Everything was proceeding as planned, so no alterations were necessary. After a few miles, he asked me to divert to Ochachobee. I'd never been there before, so I found it on the chart, estimated the heading, distance, time, and fuel burn to the airport and headed straight for it. Then I found the airport diagram that I had previously ripped from the A/FD and determined the ASOS frequency, common traffic advisory frequency, runway headings, and traffic patterns.

Upon reaching the airport, the examiner told me to do a soft field landing. My approach was great, but I ballooned a little during the round out and the plane dropped hard to the runway. Strike one against me. I then was told to do a power-off 180 to landing. There was traffic in the pattern, so I had to do a right 360 degree turn for spacing. When I came around base to final, I realized that I was too high. I tried slipping, but still landed several hundred feet too long. Strike two against me. The examiner told me to try that one again, so again, I had to do a 360 degree turn for spacing, but this time, I brought it in perfectly, landing about 100 feet past my targeted landing spot.

Then we went out to do some maneuvers. I started with slow flight, which lead into a power off stall, followed by a power on stall. Then I did some lazy eights, but my altitude was off by more than 100 feet. Strike three against me. For steep spirals, the examiner picked a barn near a grass air strip. I spiraled down to it while he kept commenting about the bank angle not being steep enough. Strike four against me. And finally it was off to do eights on pylons. I was about to find my own pylons when the examiner picked two for me. I turned around them, but they were too far apart and I wasn't happy with the performance, but he seemed to be OK with it.

Finally it was back to Vero Beach. By now, I had little idea of my precise location and the pressure to get the plane back became overwhelming. I scanned the horizon from 1500 feet, saw an airport with a control tower, and flew toward it. That's when the examiner took the controls. Strike five against me, and this one was irreconcilable. I was flying to the wrong airport. He flew us back to the west and then told me to fly to Vero Beach this time. I got my bearings worked out and found the appropriate landmarks and flew back to Vero Beach.

Since that flight, I flew another 1.5 hours with my instructor and he tried to get me lost. He had me staring at my lap while he flew around then finally had me look up and figure out where I was. He also made a great point about lost procedures. Since the only troublesome airspace within 30 miles is Class D, a simple circle and climb to 2500+ feet will get you out of everyone's airspace, and provide better visibility for determining your position. I began a nice smooth turning climb and quickly determined that the inlet I was seeing was Stuart and the highway below me was the turnpike. From there, I had no problem getting back to Vero Beach.

Today, I got the chance to prove myself once again. I met the examiner again, but this time at 1:00PM and without the cross country planning ahead of time. After redoing the 8710, we went out to the plane, prepped it, and headed west once again. The examiner had me fly towards Ochachobee again. After digging out all the charts and information and setting the frequencies, he had me turn towards a smoke cloud near the coast. I told him that there was controlled airspace there and that I could not fly there at this altitude. He then told me to fly into Fort Pearce. I was getting close to their airspace, so I started a 360 degree turn while looking up the airport information. I called the tower and was told to enter left traffic for runway 27. The examiner told me to show him a soft field landing. I did, and this time it was a total greaser. We departed to the north back to Vero Beach.

There were no surprises on the way back. We entered the pattern behind a Seminole and followed it all the way to the runway. On the ground, the examiner made some comments and I thought that maybe I failed the check ride, but he was referring to our previous flight together. He went inside while I secured the plane.

Inside, he was busy doing some paperwork and preparing for his next victim. Finally, he asked me to give him my pilot's license. I thought, "Oh no, not only did I fail my checkride, I also lost my license!". Then he handed me a paper to sign. It was my new temporary license, which includes the commercial certificate. What a relief to have that one behind me.

Seeing the Manatees

Today we drove to Blue Spring State Park to see the manatees. According to the web site, there were supposed to be 73 manatees counted. Yeah, sure, we've heard that type of claim before. While trying to balance optimism and realism, I expected to see about 10 tops. Well, I was certainly proven wrong! In one short section of boardwalk along the spring, we saw groups of a dozen or more submerged below the overhanging trees. It was truely amazing to see so many wild animals in their natural environment at one time. The closest thing I've seen to this is a small pod of less than a dozen Orca whales swimming together in the Puget Sound.

Along with the manatees, we also saw large schools of fish, including the gar fish, swimming in the crystal clear water. On low hanging branches, we saw groups of turtles enjoying the late November sunshine.

What a beautiful day to see such a fascinating sight.

Thanksgiving Comes Early in Sanford

A few weeks ago, Mom asked if we were going to Sanford for Thanksgiving. I told her that we were not because I'd heard that Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dave had other plans, and that Susan invited a friend to come stay with us. Well, apparently I let the cat out of the bag. Mom was able to deduce that Cathy and Dave were heading to Ohio - this was supposed to be a big surprise. Oops.

Since they were planning to be gone on Thanksgiving, Cathy, Dave, and their Florida sibling's families decided to have Thanksgiving in Sanford today, and they were kind enough to invite us to join them.

We drove up Saturday and spent the night at the B&B. Today, we drove over to Nikki and Ron's house for dinner. Our mission was to bring the dinner roll's, so we stopped at Publix on the way over.

We arrived around 1:00PM. We quickly found the dart board on the back patio and started playing 301. Dave beat me and Susan twice. Then Ron and Zak started playing and showed us how it's really done. Ron introduced me to the 'kegerator'. He converted a normal refrigerator into a keg-holding refrigerator, complete with a tap sticking out the front; pretty cool.

The guests soon converged in the living room around the Nintendo Wii. This was a little surprising, since there were football games to be seen, but no one seemed interested in football at the time. We loaded a miniature golf game and started playing 18 holes. Andrew was much more entertained by seeing shots end up in the water than shots going into the hole. There's a lesson we should all take while playing golf for real. :)

Then it was time to eat. Nikki cooked the turkey and stuffing. Cathy made potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry stuff, noodle/cabbage stuff (haluski?), and the pumpkin pies. Jen made a green bean casserole. Everything was fabulous!

After dinner, Andrew and I broke out the whipped cream and pumpkin pie. Ummmm.

Eventually, folks started to leave, but I wanted to see how Guitar Hero worked, so Nikki and Ron pulled out the Wii guitars and loaded the game. They demonstrated the game for us, then Susan and I gave it a try. For those of you who haven't seen it in action, Guitar Hero let's you join a rock band and go on tour. You can play guitar, bass, or drums. There are probably 50 songs you can choose to play. As the music plays, the 'notes' slide toward you on the screen. The 'notes' correspond to the five colored buttons on the guitar frets. You must strum the guitar at the right moment and press the correct buttons, otherwise you will miss notes. If you miss enough notes, the crowd will boo you off the stage.

We started off at the Beginner level, simply strumming the guitar to the beat. Before long, we moved up to Easy then Medium. What an addicting game that is. Nikki and Ron finally kicked us out around 10:00PM (not really; I think they subtly reminded us that they had to work on Monday morning and we took the hint).

FlightSafety Gets New Cessnas

Today I noticed two brand new Cessna 172SP airplanes sitting on the FlightSafety ramp. Their registration numbers are N6343F and N6342X. They are currently registered to Cessna Corporation in Kansas. Each has the latest Garmin G1000 instrument panel and full leather interior. I haven't determined if they have the new Garmin Synthethic Vision Technology (SVT) add-on. After looking at and flying all those all Pipers, it's nice to see some new equipment on the line.

Weekend in Sanford

Since we were already up north for the shuttle launch, we decided to spend the weekend with my aunt and uncle (we already had an open invitation).

Saturday started very early for me. I was up at 5:15AM and ready to go by 5:45. My uncle Dave invited me to join him and his friend golfing. I accepted, although I didn't expect much skill level on my part due to the years that have past since the last time I played. John showed up and off we went. We were the first group on the course - right behind the maintenance guy. Dave suggested that he play against me and John. John and I played best ball, otherwise I knew they'd be waiting for me on every hole. I started off by immediately slicing my tee shot into the woods - one ball lost already. John, it turns out, is as close to a pro as I've ever played golf with. He smashed his tee shot right down the middle. After seeing that, I figured we'd never use any of my shots all day. As it turns out, I was able to sink two or three putts, which kept our score nice and low. At the end of the day, I think I lost four or five balls.

After golfing, we went home and relaxed awhile and ate lunch. Aunt Cathy wanted me to help her upgrade her computer. It had 256 MB of RAM and was seriously slow to task switch. I suggested she upgrade to 1 GB minimum, so we went shopping and bought a 1 GB DDR memory module. The computer was very happy afterwards. I continued cleaning up things and organizing her photographs.

Later, we went to a lake in the neighborhood and fed the ducks. After that, we went in search of the Amtrak station to catch a glimpse of the Auto Train. We arrived about 30 minutes before it's scheduled departure time. Andrew and I walked its length and found a playground near the engines. We played for a few minutes until the train started moving, then we watched it slowly leave. Some day, we may ride this train.

Then we went to Sam's Club and did some shopping. My cousin met us there and proceeded to fill her cart with stuff.

After dark, Aunt Cathy pulled out the marshmallows and Uncle Dave lit a fire in the back yard. This is quite remarkable as I'd never consider doing such a thing in soggy Seattle this time of year. Andrew had a great time cooking and eating marshmallows, but an even better time letting them catch on fire and watching them burn.

Sunday was our lie around the house day. Eventually we found our motivation and went to the local flea market. We didn't stick around too long, before heading back home. Finally, we ate a great home-cooked dinner and headed back to Vero Beach.

STS-126 Endeavour Launch

Tonight I got to remove another item from my "Gotta do this someday" list. I finally witnessed the launch of a space shuttle. Not only did I witness a launch, but a rare night launch.

We drove up to Sanford and joined my aunt and uncle earlier today. From there, we met with my cousin and drove over to Titusville. Once there, we parked in a field and walked three blocks to the intersection of US-1. We arrived about 25 minutes before launch time and the place was packed. We found a spot to stand, but unfortunately did not have a clear view of the launch pad. I moved to the curb and set up my camera on the tripod and took some sample shots at various shutter speed and aperature combinations. I finally decided on 30 seconds at f22 with ISO 100 exposure. I took three pictures; the first is included in this post.

As liftoff began, the spectators let out a roar and I pressed the shutter release. As Endeavour climbed into the clear sky, I waited anxiously for the roar to finally reach us. Unfortunately, it never did. Other than that slight disappointment, I'd say I'm quite pleased with my first shuttle experience and hope for several more in the years to come.

Photos From The Road

I just uploaded a few photos from our road trip to Florida. If you'd like to take a look, check out http://picasaweb.google.com/dastraka/HeadingEast.

Flight Instructor Ground School - Week 3

It's official; I have successfully completed the FlightSafety Certified Flight Instructor - Airplane ground school. Oh yeah, and I passed both the course and the FAA Flight Instructor written exam. FlightSafety even gave me a very handsome plaque to hang on my wall. Here was the schedule:

Monday
08:00 - 12:00 Commercial Maneuvers & Emergencies
13:00 - 15:00 High Altitude Operations

Tuesday
08:00 - 10:00 Flight Instruments

10:00 - 12:00 Student Presentations

13:00 - 15:00 Practical Test Standards Emphasis

Wednesday
08:00 - 10:00 Final Exam

Thursday
09:00 - 11:30 FAA Flight Instructor Exam

The presentations this week were the hardest part for me. I can easily go on and on about aviation with a friend or family member - even a stranger on a plane. But when it comes to standing in front of a class and describing a maneuver as if my classmates are new students, I get all worked up and dry-mouthed. This will just be an area I will continue to worry about and work on for the rest of my instructor career. Luckily for me, most of my instruction, at least in the short term, will be one-on-one with the student.

Stuart Air Show

The Visiting Nurse Association sponsored an air show today in Stuart, Florida. I wanted to go for a few weeks, but we didn't buy tickets online. Today, the price at the gate increased by 50% - ouch. We decided to go anyway, but we looked at Google Maps and found an area east of the airport that should have decent views of the show - without actually going to the show.

As we approached the main entrance, I nearly ran into the car in front of me as an F-15 roared overhead at tree top level with full afterburners. It was shockingly fast and loud. I jumped in my seat and nearly accelerated into the car in front of us.

Heading east, we found the south road that we wanted and after a mile or two, found a country club with cars parked near the road in the grass. We pulled in, parked, and joined the crowd. After a few minutes, we pulled out our blanket and cooler and found a nice shady spot under a palm tree.

The show was fantastic and included some amazing planes and pilots. One plane that was not included on the web page was a B-25 bomber. My favorite, as always, is the F-16. One additional bonus for this show was when I discovered the 'air boss' frequency on my scanner. Once I found this, I could hear all the acts doing their shows and the air boss prepping the airspace for the next act.

The show concluded with a beautiful missing man formation of T-6 Texans flying over the crowd.

Flight Instructor Ground School - Week 2

My second week of ground school at FlightSafety is now complete. Here's what we covered this week:

Monday
08:00 - 10:00 Federal Aviation Regulations I
10:00 - 12:00 Weather II
13:00 - 15:00 Navigation

Tuesday
08:00 - 15:00 Election Day - No classes

Wednesday
08:00 - 10:00 Quiz
13:00 - 17:00 Private Maneuvers

Thursday
08:00 - 12:00 Taxi, Takeoffs, and Landings
13:00 - 15:00 Four Fundamentals of Flight

Friday
08:00 - 12:00 Commercial Manuevers, Emergencies
13:00 - 15:00 Presentations I

It was nice having the day off on Tuesday to prepare for the quiz on Wednesday. The focus has now shifted from learning skills to help us teach to what exactly to teach and how to teach it. We did more lesson plans and presentations this week.

Commercial Check Ride

Today I had my commercial check ride... again. The first scheduled check ride was back in September; the day the movers arrived at our house. I canceled that one because we still had a ton of packing to do and I knew I wouldn't have time to think about flying.

With CFI ground school all week, I was concerned that this check ride would not get the attention that it required. Beside that, I hadn't flown since October 20; I'd surely be a bit rusty by now.

After class last night, I came home and read as much as possible while trying to figure out what area to focus on. I couldn't sleep at all last night, so I got out of bed before the alarm and started drawing out my simulated route to Key West. I jumped in the shower, put on my uniform, and headed for the flight line a half hour early to collect the weather and finish up the performance details of the cross country route. After spreading everything out on a table, I realized that I left my Arrow Operator's Handbook at home. I started to go get it, but then realized I'd never make it back before the examiner arrived, so I decided to wait for him first.

He arrived and I told him about my book. He wanted to see my FAA forms. I told him that they were online. He looked, but couldn't find them. Apparently my instructor had not signed the forms. Finally, my instructor arrived. By now, the examiner was clearly mad and I was completely embarrassed. My instructor tried to pull my records, but he couldn't see them. I logged in and there they were, still not submitted. I tried to submit it, but it said that a school administrator needed to approve it first.

By this time, the examiner was beyond mad and had entered a resignation phase. We decided that the weather wasn't good enough anyway, so we scrubbed the check ride.

After he left, it dawned on me that the problem might be related to the type of school I entered. Looking online again, I found that the school was set to Part 141 rather than Part 61. Once I changed this, I easily submitted and my instructor easily signed it.

At least that is now cleared up and out of the way. Weather permitting, I'll get another flight in before my rescheduled check ride, and I'll have some more time to focus on what I need to know.

Flight Instructor Ground School - Week 1

I've successfully survived my first week of ground school at FlightSafety. Wow, I'm tired and mentally drained. A typical day includes three 2-hour sessions; either two in the morning and one in the afternoon, or one in the morning and two in the afternoon. Here's what we covered this week:

Monday
08:00 - 10:00 Fundamentals of Instruction:
              Learning Process
10:00 - 12:00 Fundamentals of Instruction:
              Effective Communications,
              Human Behavior
13:00 - 15:00 Fundamentals of Instruction:
              The Teaching Process,
              Teaching Methods

Tuesday
08:00 - 10:00 Fundamentals of Instruction:
              Techniques of Flight Instruction
              Critiques and Evaluation
10:00 - 12:00 Fundamentals of Instruction:
              Planning Instructional Activity
              and use of Instructional Aids
13:00 - 15:00 Fundamentals of Instruction:
              Flight Instructor Responsibilities

Wednesday
08:00 - 10:00 Fundamentals of Instruction Quiz
13:00 - 15:00 Aerodynamics I
15:00 - 17:00 Aerodynamics II

Thursday
08:00 - 10:00 Aerodynamics III
10:00 - 12:00 Aerodynamics IV
13:00 - 15:00 Systems I
15:00 - 17:00 Fundamentals of Instruction FAA Exam

Friday
08:00 - 10:00 Systems II
10:00 - 12:00 Weather Theory
13:00 - 15:00 Performance, Weights & Balances

There are five of us in class. The other four have been at FSI for a while; three of them from Private Pilot onward. They all have their multi-engine and commercial multi-engine ratings. Then there's me. I have the most time as pilot, most hours, but least ratings. I feel a little out of place, but I don't think the others object to me being there.

On Wednesday, we got to talking about the two simulators on site: a Saab turboprop and an ERJ 145 commuter airline. During one of our breaks, we all went upstairs to see if we could get a look inside the ERJ sim. No problem, but it won't fly right now because it has some tests running on it. We got to climb in and sit in the pilot seats and see the generated scenery with all the instrumentation lit and and functioning. After a while, our instructor found us and joined us. He changed the airport scenery to different airports and weather conditions. It was very cool.

We had the same instructor for all classes, except for Weather Theory. For weather, we had the FSI comedian join us. This instructor had me in tears several times during the two hour class. And the best part was that he knew his stuff really well and gave us tips on how to use the various charts.

After class today, I had to jump back into studying and preparing for my commercial check ride that is scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning. More on that later.

Blue Angels in Jacksonville

While reviewing the temporary flight restrictions (TFR) in affect near Vero Beach, I noticed that there was an upcoming TFR over Jacksonville this weekend. Reading closer, I realized that the TFR was covering the naval air station for their annual air show, featuring, among others, the US Navy Blue Angels. I quickly entered this on my calendar and looked forward to it for over a week. As the day neared, the weather began becoming a factor. Sunday’s forecast was the better of the two days, so we planned for a long drive on Sunday.

Sunday morning, I woke up early, but was not feeling motivated to drive the 3+ hours to Jacksonville, so I went back to bed. An hour or two later, I got up again and realized how beautiful it was outside. Out of nowhere, the motivation hit me and we started packing the cooler.

Turning west on I-295 south of Jacksonville, the highway crosses the St. Johns River with a long bridge. From the bridge, we could see some of the air show performers flying east and west along the runway and over the water. Traffic came to a quick stop and we crawled across the bridge, the off ramp, and along the main highway to the base. This was fine while on the bridge because I was hanging my head out the window, enjoying the show – Susan was driving. But once off the bridge, there was nothing to see due to the trees lining the highway.

Nearly two hours later, we arrived on the base and walked what seemed like two miles to the show centerline. The place was unbelievably crowded. I haven’t been to a major air show like this for years. One thing I quickly noticed was that there was no number 4 Blue Angel in the lineup.

As we walked along the flight line, a Stearman and a Pitts put on a mock dogfight over the airfield as high explosives were fired on the ground. It was all quite amazing, with giant dark smoke clouds slowly rising and moving off to the south.

Fifteen minutes later, ‘Fat Albert’, the Blue Angels’ maintenance airplane, got the show going. The announcer said they’d be using the Jet-Assisted Take-Off procedure, but I don’t think they did. Once the big C-130 was back on the ground, the Blue Angel pilots marched out and were introduced to the crowd. After start-up, each pilot ran through his check lists, then as one, they all tested their smoke system. One by one, they taxied out to the runway, the formation flyers one direction and the solos the opposite.

The formation flyers took off to the east - with a very noticeable hole where number 4 would normally reside. The soloists took off shortly after to the west - one doing a dirty roll right above the runway and the other yanking the stick back and going vertical after a long acceleration just feet above the runway.

The show was fantastic. I was nearly at show center - Susan and Andrew returned to the play area - and I could clearly hear the announcer describing each maneuver. If only there was a number 4 plane, it would have been perfect. 

After the show, they did their standard peeling break-off manuever before landing. It was so fast and so low, I didn't have time to react and shoot some photos. But then numbers 5 and 6 didn't land. For the record, number 5 is Lieutenant Commander Craig Olson from Kirkland, Washington, so we cheered extra loud for him. And then number 1 took off the opposite direction and flew under and around number 5. My best guess is that number 5 was having a problem verifying that his gear was down and locked. Eventually, 1, 5, and 6 all landed safely.

Then the rush began. Over 40,000 people all started racing to their cars. We decided to avoid the rush and walked down the flight line to see all the static aircraft displays and the performer planes. We were able to get about 50 feet from Patty Wagstaff, but not close enough to say, "Hi". We chatted with the Coast Guard guys and watched as some of the planes started to fly home. Unfortunately, the concession stands also packed up and we were pretty hungry.

We started walking to the car when we came across a McDonald's on base. We stopped in and it was packed. Not only was it packed, it was very slow. The McD's in Seattle gets packed, too, but I've never had to wait more than a few minutes. Not so here. Andrew and I went outside and played in the grass while Susan stood in line. I'm not kidding when I say we didn't see her again for 40 minutes, and she only had the drinks - she was still waiting on the food!

Finally we reached the car around sunset and started the long drive back to Vero. We arrived home just before 10:00PM. What a fabulous day it was.

UPDATE:

From the Aero-News Network (2 Nov 2008):

With only three airshows left in the 2008 season, the US Navy Blue Angels will have to make do with one less jet in the performances after two squadron members were removed from duty for having an 'inappropriate relationship.'

Refusing to name the parties in question, Capt. Tyson Dunkelberger, Public Affairs Officer for the Blue Angels, Thursday said simply that the relationship was between a man and a woman. The 133-member squadron consists of 110 men and 23 women; all six of the F/A-18 demonstration team pilots are men.

Dunkelberger added a military administrative hearing is pending to determine further disciplinary actions, which could include removal from the military, the Associated Press reported.

Dunkelberger said the squadron will conduct its last three air shows in November with only five jets instead of the usual six. Blue #4 will be the missing aircraft, though officials stated that does not necessarily mean the #4 pilot is the suspended aviator.

Living The Good Life

Since moving to Florida, all I can say is, "Wow, this is the way to live". I have to keep reminding myself that this is October, not August. It's been in the 80's every day this month. I've been to two pools in my neighborhood, and the beach at least three days a week. I can almost feel my general health improving.

Saturday night, Pointe West held a Screen on the Green event and showed 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' and 'Monster House'. We loaded Andrew's John Deere wagon with blankets and water bottles and headed for the green. I bought a sausage sandwich and Susan and Andrew bought a shave ice. Andrew got scared about half way through the second movie and wanted to go home, but then decided that he wanted to stay and watch the ending.

Sunday, we rode our bikes around the neighborhood. First we had to find the tire pump. After looking through a few boxes, I found one that said "Air Pumps" right on the side - how convenient. Just before calling it a night, we found a sandy road and I showed Andrew how to do burn outs. It's actually quite easy with the training wheels.

Tonight, after flying, we headed for the beach. Susan has a bag of towels and swimming suits always ready to go in the back of the Honda. We decided to try to find the big fishing pier that we can see from our 'normal' beach. We found a small park that we thought would be close and I stripped out of my uniform while Susan and Andrew went ahead. I caught up to them on the beach and there was the pier, about a mile or so south.

We jogged and walked down to the pier, passing schools of tiny fish along the way. Unfortunately, the pier was closed to the public. When we got back to the point where we entered the beach, Susan saw a crab running across the sand. We chased it for a few minutes, then headed for the car. As we drove out of the park, we saw three or four bunnies in the grass. Finally, when driving home the back way, we saw a huge crab crossing the street!

So far, this whole Florida move has been quite an adventure!

Commercial Lesson - Day 28

Summary

Scheduled Time: 8:00AM - 12:00AM (Actual flight time: 1:30PM - 5:30PM)
Actual Hours Ground: 2.0
Actual Hours Flight: 2.2

Total Hours Flight: 21.0

Finally, I can say with confidence that today was my last commercial lesson, but it was almost canceled. When I arrived at 7:30AM, there was no Arrow available. The best guess for availability was 1:00PM, so I went back home, ate breakfast, and reviewed my memory items a few more times.

Back at the airport, an Arrow appeared on the line and I grabbed the keys. After our briefing, it was off to the flightline. For this lesson, we decided to have the fuel truck remove fuel down to the 25 gallon tabs. While they removed fuel, I prepared the plane for flight.

For this lesson, I made a plan that included every commercial maneuver in the practical test standard. We started with a short field take-off, then headed for the practice area at 1,500 feet. The air was bumpy, so I climbed up to 2,500 feet. Unfortunately, it was no smoother at that altitude.

Once to the practice area, we did slow flight and stalls, steep turns, chandelles, and lazy eights. Then, for the first time since starting at FlightSafety, we did steep spirals. We had some disagreement on how to enter the manuever, but we worked it out and proceeded. Three full turns took me from 4,000 feet to 1,500 feet. Then I did turns on pylons before heading to Sebastian for soft field landings and power off 180's. Of the three power off 180's, one was high (slipping down almost worked out, but we floated past the standard distance), the second was too short and required a go-around. The third was looking like it might be a bit short, but turned out perfect in the end.

Finally, we headed back to Vero Beach. I demonstrated the short field landing here and easily stopped before the first taxiway.

Commercial Lesson - Day 27

Summary

Scheduled Time: 8:00AM - 12:00AM
Actual Hours Ground: 2.0
Actual Hours Flight: 2.2

Total Hours Flight: 19.8

Another day closer to completion, but not a big confidence booster. Craig is putting a lot of pressure on me to memorize the FlightSafety procedures. On top of this, he asked me to plan a cross country flight. I spent a couple hours last night trying to complete the cross country planning - to Lakeland, FL, home of Sun 'n Fun. 

I got to bed way too late and the alarm went off far too early this morning. I felt pretty good with my preparation, but not 100%. Craig and I briefed all the commercial maneuvers and we headed outside. I took my time with the preflight, trying to be sure that I was doing things the FSI way.

After takeoff, I was cleared for a northwest departure. I noted my time off and started looking for my first waypoint, which was the 322 degree radial of the Vero Beach VOR where it crosses I-95. This went well. My next waypoint was reached a bit early, but still very close to planned. At that point we diverted to a nearby field (can't recall the name, starts with 'V', too. Valkeria?). I estimated a new heading and time and before long, it appeared in front of our eyes.

At this point, we headed for the Hotel practice area and did eights on pylons. My first points were too far apart, so I regrouped and found closer points. I had some difficulty the first time around, so Craig demonstrated the technique. I noticed that he was not holding the wing on the point, but instead kept the point 'a Coke can' above the wing. I tried this technique and things proceeded quite well from there.

Next came chandelles and lazy eights. In both cases, I was a bit jerky on the controls. I was trying to use headings instead of landmarks, which caused my eyes to stay inside the cockpit much too long, at the expense of my proper aircfraft control. Once I went back to eyes out, things started working out well again.

On the way back to the airport, we did slow flight and steep turns. Slow flight went smoothly, with the plane hanging on the very edge of a stall. Steep turns went perfectly - up to the last 10 degrees, where I managed to lose 100' in an instant while watching the initial heading come around. This is when I miss Mt. Baker and Mt Rainier. With eyes outside, it is very easy to see the initial heading come around. Here in Florida, the haze destroys the horizon, so landmarks are harder to find under the nose.

Reporting in for landing, we had to hold over the outlet mall. We couldn't even get a word in and when we finally did, the controller responded back before I finished talking and I didn't realize he was talking to me. Thus, I got a mini lecture about not responding correctly, then headed south and made circles in the sky until he was ready to let us procede. He turned us to the south to line up on a six mile final to runway 4, with two other aircraft in front of us. Meantime, he had a Beechjet landing on runway 11R. He asked us to slow down, so we went back into near slow flight, but that wasn't slow enough. Next he asked us to do an S-turn for spacing. We did and watched the Beechjet cross our runway as we were on short final.

We have now done all maneuvers at least once, except for the steep spiral. One more lesson to refine my control and I should be ready for the checkride.

Commercial Training - Day 26

Summary

Scheduled Time: 8:00AM - 10:00AM
Actual Hours Ground: 3.6
Actual Hours Flight: 1.6
Total Hours Flight: 17.6

Today was my first day as a FlightSafety Academy student. My assignment before this flight was to complete an eight page written exam covering the Piper Arrow III. I was unable to complete everything ahead of time, so I had to spend 20 minutes of ground instruction time filling in the holes. Then I checked the logbooks and weather - the FSI way. The ATIS was reporting winds at a heading of 080 at 16 knots, gusting to 24 knots. This is something I'd never fly in back in Seattle. But I'm not in Seattle now, and this is Commercial training. A professional pilot needs to be able to handle these conditions, so it was off to the flightline.

We departed straight out runway 11R and continued east to the coast. Then we headed up the coast to training area Alpha South while climbing to 3,500 feet. First we did steep turns, then moved into stalls. This all went well, especially considering my lack of time in the Arrow.

My instructor then gave me the choice of either more manuevers, or landings, so I chose landings. We dialed up Sebastion automated weather and spiraled down to 1,000 feet. Craig demonstrated the first landing, then handed the control back to me. I landed once straight into the wind, then two more times with a 40 degree crosswind. On the last pattern, we did a 180 degree turn to final, which had me first thinking we were too high and moments later thinking we wouldn't make the runway. We did, but not with much wiggle room.

The final objective was to get back to Vero Beach. We flew west for a few miles, then turned south along I-95. At highway 60, we turned east and picked up Vero ATIS. Calling the tower, I was cleared for a right base approach to runway 11R. This landing was just a difficult as the others, as I was bounced around like a leaf in the breeze.

Day one now in the history books, I'm looking forward to one more flight, then my checkride. Then, in two weeks, the beginning of CFI ground school.

Official Florida Resident

It's official - we're full fledged Florida residents now. Thursday, we got our Florida driver's licenses and yesterday, we go our Florida license plates and registered to vote.

Getting the driver's license was a challenge. We heard a tip from the bank manager while creating our new accounts. He said to schedule an appointment online and save the hassle of waiting through the long line. Sounds great - if you have internet access. So we went to the library, became members, and scheduled our appointments. When we arrived, there was no line. We walked up and were told that we need our Social Security cards. Argh! So we went back home and picked them up, then headed back across town. This time, there was a huge line and our appointments were no longer valid. And then the waiting began. Luckily the wait wasn't too bad.

With licenses in hand, we went to see an insurance agent today and insured the Honda. From there, we went to transfer the Honda's title to Florida and pick up new plates. Florida has about 50 variations of plates, but we decided to go simple and get the orange over Florida with the "Sunshine State" text.

Then we raced home to meet the Sears guys. Our washer and dryer were delivered and set up today. We are not lacking much, if anything, at this point.

Our Stuff Has Arrived

Finally, the wait is over - Vester has arrived in his moving truck with our stuff. The movers unloaded the truck very quickly, between brief showers. After the movers left, Andrew and I went to play in the puddles.

There's no doubt that we're going to enjoy Florida.

Official FlightSafety Student

Today, I met the chief pilot. She signed me up for a commercial completion course consisting of 3 hours ground and 5 hours flight time. I also got a package and to-do list that included getting a drug screening and buying my uniform. After peeing in a cup and picking up the uniform and epulets, it was back to FlightSafety for my badge photo.

Wow, I can hardly believe I've reached this point in my life. The dream is now nearly reality.

FlightSafety and New Lease

Back to Vero Beach once again, but this time, to register for classes at FlightSafety and sign a lease. Since we arrived in town a little early, we went to look at a small house for rent. It was farther from the airport than the other two places, but not too far. We peaked in the windows and were shocked to see that it was still being remodeled. We called the seller and told him that we needed to move in today, so no deal.

Then it was off to FlightSafety to officially register for classes. I told them about my commercial rating and they suggested I come back tomorrow and talk to the chief pilot and fill out paperwork.

Finally, we met with our agent and filled out all the paperwork. It was nearly as tedious as buying or selling a house! The owner agreed to pay for the washer and dryer as a reduction of $100 from the monthly rent for 10 months. Very nice.

We got the keys and hurried to Pointe West. We unpacked our little U-Haul and returned it to a local dealer. Then we did some grocery shopping and set up camp in our new empty townhouse. Oh, it is good to be home.

Across the Country - Day 8

Sanford, FL - Vero Beach, FL
Mileage - 112
Miles Driven - 3,501


View Larger Map

Today, our mission was to finish the drive to Vero Beach and find a place to live. Our first stop was Pointe West. We looked at our number one choice. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath two-story townhouse. Andrew said it all when he said, "Let's buy this place." He was impressed with the long staircase. We were concerned by the lack of a washer and dryer.

After checking it out, we stopped at the clubhouse to get some information and found another place for rent just a few doors down. So, we looked at it, too. It was a bit bigger, but a little too close to the lake and it had a gas stove - we really don't like cooking on gas. It was also painted a horrendous shade of orange that was just unacceptable - and we are not willing to paint another house any time soon!

Since it is Saturday, we'll have to wait until Monday to sign a lease. Back to the Dave & Cathy B&B.

Across the Country - Day 7

Clarksville, TN - Sanford, FL
Mileage - 772
Miles Driven - 3,399


View Larger Map

Today was the beginning of the longest leg of the trip. We ate and hit the road a little earlier than usual, thanks to Dave's influence.

Driving through Tennessee was very familiar to me; especially the Chatanooga area. Susan and I visited the aquarium there back in the early 90's while I was working in Alabama. It was fun driving through the twists and turns of the Tennessee mountains.

Then came Georgia - another wide dimension crossing. We bypassed the Atlanta area, but the traffic was still pretty thick. I was quite amazed to find that the interstate passed under the Atlanta airport runways. Somewhere along the way, Andrew was acting up a bit and Susan told him, "You're going to have fun whether you like it or not."

Dave took over driving duties in Florida. He was convinced that his route would cut an hour off of Maggie's arrival time. When we took the exit to head east for Jacksonville, Maggie calculated a new route for us, and sure enough, it was nearly an hour shorter. We pulled into Dave's driveway around 10:00PM and Cathy welcomed us in with a pot of homemade vegetable soup.

Continue...

Across the Country - Day 6

Joliet, IL - Clarksville, TN
Mileage - 485
Miles Driven - 2,627


View Larger Map

Today we had to get up early and meet Uncle Dave near Midway airport. Like all other days, we got off to a slow start. Susan and Gina repacked the U-haul to make room for all the stuff in the back seat of the Honda. Then we went to the Post Office to mail our cooler home, but it cost as much to mail it as to just buy a new one, so we left it with Gina.

Poor Dave was up and ready by 5:00AM, and we didn't pull up to his hotel until about 10:00AM. Having Dave along was Aunt Cathy's idea, and we were all in favor. It would be nice having another driver along; especially for the last long push into Florida.

Dave brought a long a cool little electronic gadget - a Magellan GPS. We quickly named her 'Maggie' due to her voiced route instructions. Dave programmed in Chuck and Melissa's address in Tennessee and Maggie went to work finding the fastest route. Dave had a different route in mind to get out of Chicagoland, and Maggie was not pleased. Every time we 'missed' a turn, her screen would go blank and she'd say, "Calculating route" and come up with something bizarre like, "Make your next legal U-turn and ...". Somehow it is very entertaining disobeying the computer. :-)

Once on the interstates, Maggie was finally happy and stopped complaining. We each drove a few hours, then switched while getting gas or food.

Illinois took a very long time to drive through. At this point I decided that if I ever do a long road trip again, I want to cross all the states along their shorter dimension.

Finally we crossed into Tennessee and Maggie led us directly to Chuck's driveway; although we did have to enter a bogus address, since his address was 'invalid'. Chuck and Melissa welcomed us in and fed us dinner. Andrew played with the boys for awhile, while Dave, Chuck, and I watched the vice-presidential debate on a tiny 9 inch TV. Then we all called it a day and went to bed.

Continue...

Across the Country - Day 5

Missouri Valley, IA - Joliet, IL
Mileage - 436
Miles Driven - 2,142


View Larger Map

Today, we had our last continental breakfast at a Super 8 motel - no more motels for the rest of the journey. By the end of the day, we'll be in Joliet, IL with our friends.

Crossing Iowa was not very interesting. If you like corn fields, then you will love Iowa. The biggest - and I mean that both literally and figuratively - item of interest that I saw was traveling down the highway on oversize load trucks. These trucks had items on them that were at least 75 feet long. The front was round with a large flange containing dozens of bolt holes. But as it continued, it got narrower and flatter. Andrew thought they were wings for jet airplanes, but in reality they were blades for what must be enourmous wind-powered generators. And I didn't just see one or two on the highway; they seemed to appear in groups of three every 15 to 30 minutes.

As we moved further east, we finally got a chance to see a wind farm up close. Sure enough, these beasts are enormous. I can hardly imagine how fast the tips of those blades must be moving.

Iowa seemed to last forever, but finally we entered Illinois. We found our way to Joliet and weaved through the neighborhoods until we reached Ed and Gina's house. Andrew was happy to discover that they had stairs. And a fish tank! We dumped our bags in their spare room, then piled into their new GMC Acadia and went out for Chicago style pizza - after all, we were practically in Chicago.

After dinner, we took some pictures and Andrew hid inside the secret compartment inside the end table. I listened as Ed told stories. One was a fascinating story about the house getting struck by lightning. Ed did a great job of animating the story. Andrew liked it so much, he wanted to hear it again. Since Susan missed it the first time, he told it again and Andrew just ate it up.

Continue...

Across the Country - Day 4

Rapid City, SD - Missouri Valley, IA
Mileage - 498
Miles Driven - 1,706

View Larger Map

The original plan called for a brief excursion down to see Mount Rushmore. Unfortunately, we started a little late again and decided to skip it.

The antelope population continued to amaze us at first, but this gave way to rolling fields of grain.

We'd heard about it before hand, and were disappointed that we didn't see them up to this point, but the disappointment soon ended: we started seeing signs for Wall Drug. At first, the signs were alone and far apart, but as we approached Wall, the number and frequency rapidly increased. To be honest, I really was curious to see what all the fuss was about, but when the exit approached, we drove right past. From the road, there really wasn't much to see, but there was on old-time town on the hill that looked very interesting as we left Wall behind.

Later, we started seeing similar signs for Al's Oasis. This time, however, we were starting to get hungry so we decided to stop and check it out. Susan wanted to eat in the restaurant, but I wanted to sit outside in the sun, so we grabbed some sandwiches from Al's grocery store and sat out by the buffalo statues.

After lunch, we crossed the Missouri River into Chamberlain. While driving through town, we saw a park with a playground. I dropped off Susan and Andrew and went to buy gas. Twenty minutes later, we were back on the highway.

At Sioux Falls, we finally said good-bye to I-90 and started south towards Omaha, Nebraska. Outside Omaha, we stopped for the night at another Super 8 motel. By now, Andrew was getting pretty good at spotting the big 8's from the highway. We went to dinner at a country family restaurant, but walked away unimpressed by the lack of home cooking.

Continue...

Across the Country - Day 3

Bozeman, MT - Rapid City, SD
Mileage - 515
Miles Driven - 1,208

View Larger Map

Day 3 started cool and beautiful. We ate as much as we could at the motel, then got some gas and hit the road. Since we arrived at night, it was good to see the scenery. I'm pretty much convinced that the other time I was in Bozeman, I wasn't really in Bozeman. I think the airport is actually not in Bozeman. I guess I'm saying that nothing looked familiar.

After passing Livingston, the terrain changed into vast vistas of range land. We could see the mountains to the south as we drove through mostly barren land, with occasional Black Angus cows and numerous herds of Antelope. Oh home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play... Somewhere along the way, we also passed Little Big Horn, the famous site of Custer's Last Stand.

Leaving Billings, I started to wonder if I'd ever see civilization again. I've never seen an interstate exit leading to a dirt road with absolutely nothing else in sight. This is one section of highway where you'd better fill the tank every chance you get, otherwise you may find yourself all alone.

Sheridan, Wyoming was a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting a much larger city, for some reason. There really isn't much there.

In Buffalo, we stopped for some gas and a stretch. We parked at the information center, across from the museum and city hall, and walked down to the park by the stream. Andrew found a tall traffic cone to play with and I found a comfortable spot in the shade under a birch tree that was just starting to turn yellow.

Gillette was very interesting. Growing up in Ohio, I've seen my share of strip mining for coal, but this topped everything I can remember. From the interstate, you pass a large hole filled with coal and mining equipment. Coming in and out of the mine, I counted five trains, at least a hundred cars long, full of coal. Then we passed a rail yard with hundreds more cars - some full, some empty.

Sundance was a nice break from the range. It is a nice touch of green after a million miles of tan. Soon after, we saw signs for Devil's Tower and were lucky enough to catch a breif glimpse of it in the distance.

Finally we entered South Dakota. One of the first towns is Sturgis. I guess you have to have a Harley Davidson to understand the appeal of this small town.

By the time we reached Rapid City, it was quite dark. Rapid City was - so I thought at the time - the return of civilation. It had every modern chain store known to mankind. It was extremely overwhelming and left a bad taste in my mouth. There was absolutely nothing unique about this town, as far as I could tell.

Continue...

Across the Country - Day 2

Moses Lake, WA - Bozeman, MT
Mileage - 502
Miles Driven - 693


View Larger Map

Today was our first full day of driving, and I'm exhausted. The day started with a wake-up call from Tom Bodette (Motel 6) at 7:00AM. At 8:30, we were in our seats at Perkins Restaurant in Moses Lake, WA. Our friends, the Weeda's, met us a few minutes later. We ate and caught up and finally said our good-byes around 9:55.

At 10:00, we were once again eastbound on I-90. We should have got gas, but we didn't. Ninety miles later, I was beginning to think I'd be going for a long walk instead of a long drive, but luckily we found a gas station before the dreaded silence of a fuel-starved engine came to be. Soon afterwards, we said farewell to Washington and hello to Idaho. At only 69 miles wide, Idaho quickly disappeared in our rear view mirror. At the Idaho - Montana border, we stopped for lunch at Lookout Pass and rolled the clock an hour forward.

About an hour later, we pulled off the highway in Missoula, Montana for gas and a burrito. The drive from Missoula to Butte was spectular. The scenery was amazing, especially with the fantastic light from the sun beginning to set. In Butte, Montana, we crossed the continental divide, then stopped briefly for a potty break. Then it was back on the highway to Bozeman, Montana. We arrived safely, but exhausted, at 9:30PM.

Continue...

Across the Country - Day 1

Bothell, WA - Moses Lake, WA
Mileage - 191
Miles Driven - 191


View Larger Map

Today was our first driving day. The plan was to visit with the Straka's for a few hours and hit the road by 3:30PM. As usual, the plans didn't work out. Tom and family came up and we went to the park to play and take pictures. On the way, Tom stopped at Car Toys and bought me a Sirius satellite radio. Cool! Our departure time came and went while we tried to shoehorn a ton of stuff into a half ton trailer.

Finally we hit the road at 6:00PM. Our first stop was Issaquah to briefly meet the Lindleys and drop off the Verizon FiOS router. We stopped at the Verizon Wireless store, but they wouldn't accept it. We said our good-byes to the Lindley's in the parking lot and hit the highway. It was dark before we reached the Snoqualmie summit.

Andrew fell asleep in Bellevue and finally woke up in Eastern Washington and asked, "Where in the world are we?" Then he started noticing 'planets' in the dark black sky and the red lights on the windmills.

We arrived at the Moses Lake Motel 6 at 10:00PM.

Continued...

Moving Out Day

Susan and I spent all evening last night - until midnight - packing boxes. Our neighbors stopped by and helped pack the dishes. Susan couldn't sleep, so she got out of bed at 4:00AM and continued packing. I got up at 6:00AM and helped out with the remaining kitchen items and moved back into the garage.

At 9:00AM, the new owner stopped by and gave us a check for some of the items that we no longer need and don't want to transfer back East. He bought the lawn mower, a bunch of gardening hand tools, a hose, the compact deep freezer, the computer desk, and the off-the-air HDTV tuner.

At 10:00AM, the moving truck arrived and backed into our cul-de-sac. By noon, the movers had everything out of the living room. I ordered some pizzas from Papa Johns and we all grabbed a bite. Mom called to catch up and ask us to keep her in the loop as we drive across the country. She also asked me to take lots of pictures, so I need to go grab my camera and get some pictures.

At 3:30PM, 

the movers finished up and the big truck drove away. We scouted out a good location and shot some video while it drove out our cul-de-sac, around the corner, and eventually out of site. With some good luck, we'll be seeing that truck again in about 10-14 days.

At 4:30PM, Susan's former co-workers arrived to pick up the Infinity. While they were here, we showed them our large pile of give-away items. Like a flock of hungry vultures, they descended on our stuff and one by one, started claiming items and loading their van. :-) Before long, the pile was nearly gone. Then we mentioned that there was still a bunch of food in the chest freezer and a couple styrofoam coolers in the give-away pile. They claimed nearly everything. Then we mentioned there was another freezer in the kitchen. Quickly, everything inside was carted out. Then we mentioned that there was still some food left in the cupboard. Like magic, that vanished before my eyes. Thanks to Susan's friends, we now have nothing left to throw away. Fantastic.

At 6:30PM, Andrew and I went to Bellevue to pick up our tiny U-Haul trailer. We picked the smallest one available. It weighs about 500 pounds, giving us about a 400 pound payload. Although the trailer looks tiny in the picture, it is actually pretty big. It will haul about the same amount of stuff as a small pickup truck.