David_Nelson
Well Known Member
With all the fairings nearly complete, my boss getting on my case about needing to take vacation, the Wife going out of town for the week, and the WX outlook looking good, what else to do but to spread the wings a bit.
The original plan was to depart Taylor, TX (close to Austin) explore the southwest, camp out at Kern Valley, CA, head north towards OR and WA then make my way back down the east side of the Rockies back home camping along the way. That was "the plan", anyway.
Given the remote,and sometimes hostile, country I was going to be flying over, a lot of priority was given to survival and ability to repair things. So much priority was given to these tasks that I essentially forgot to "plan the fun parts of the trip", per se.
http://caura.dyndns.org/gallery/v/Travels/xc-aug-2012/photo.jpg.html
~~~
I departed out of Taylor about 30 minutes after sunrise and set my sights to Carlsbad, NM to meet up with a friend that I've known since grade school. Cruising along 10,500, layers of clouds pass below me. I'm landing Carlsbad, NM 2.7 hours later; that's normally 8-9 hour car ride.
http://caura.dyndns.org/gallery/v/Travels/xc-aug-2012/DSC_0174.JPG.html
~~~
Departing Carlsbad, NM early the next day, I made my way towards Grants, NM to check the very cool canyons. On my way, I stopped in at Carrizozo, NM to fuel up. While approaching Carrizozo, there was this very peculiar ground formation. It was described to me as a "young lava flow" by the FBO. It is difficult to see in the picture, but off in the distance one can see where the lava originally came out of.
http://caura.dyndns.org/gallery/v/Travels/xc-aug-2012/DSC_0180.JPG.html
~~~
SE of Grants, NM, I started seeing these beautiful landscapes. You may recognize some of them from Findley's recent video post.
- to be continued -
The original plan was to depart Taylor, TX (close to Austin) explore the southwest, camp out at Kern Valley, CA, head north towards OR and WA then make my way back down the east side of the Rockies back home camping along the way. That was "the plan", anyway.
Given the remote,and sometimes hostile, country I was going to be flying over, a lot of priority was given to survival and ability to repair things. So much priority was given to these tasks that I essentially forgot to "plan the fun parts of the trip", per se.
http://caura.dyndns.org/gallery/v/Travels/xc-aug-2012/photo.jpg.html
~~~
I departed out of Taylor about 30 minutes after sunrise and set my sights to Carlsbad, NM to meet up with a friend that I've known since grade school. Cruising along 10,500, layers of clouds pass below me. I'm landing Carlsbad, NM 2.7 hours later; that's normally 8-9 hour car ride.
http://caura.dyndns.org/gallery/v/Travels/xc-aug-2012/DSC_0174.JPG.html
~~~
Departing Carlsbad, NM early the next day, I made my way towards Grants, NM to check the very cool canyons. On my way, I stopped in at Carrizozo, NM to fuel up. While approaching Carrizozo, there was this very peculiar ground formation. It was described to me as a "young lava flow" by the FBO. It is difficult to see in the picture, but off in the distance one can see where the lava originally came out of.
http://caura.dyndns.org/gallery/v/Travels/xc-aug-2012/DSC_0180.JPG.html
~~~
SE of Grants, NM, I started seeing these beautiful landscapes. You may recognize some of them from Findley's recent video post.
- to be continued -
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