04/19/2020

So Sunday is usually fertilizer day but instead of fertilizing all my plants we went flying. I know, what the heck right… who gives up fertilizing for flying??? The last two pictures in the slideshow below are of the airport in Thermal. One of the photos has a dust devil in the background too – thanks Kristin for sharing some of your photos. The Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport is an non-towered or un-controlled airport which means there is no flight tower controlling landings and take offs. It was surprisingly busy as we taxied down to the runway. The pilots have to take extra care to know where the planes are in the vicinity and use their radio’s to inform other pilots what their intent is. Of course the FAA has procedures for non-towered airports and being a boater it is similar to passing through a narrows, just different lingo.

So here is how day Thirty One of our sheltering in place went:

• Kristen and I rode 10 miles in the morning…We petaled it out and got in a good sweat.

• We headed out to Thermal, which is about 20 miles south of Palm Springs with our QuaranTeam friends to get Valentina out of the hangar. I am fascinated with flying and always have a 110 questions for our pilot, John who patiently answers all of them. Valentina was happy to help us fly our quarantine blues away… she and John took us along the western edge of the Salton Sea. Part of the testing to get a pilots license involves being able to do a 360 turn at a 45 degree angle without losing or gaining altitude. John obviously has a pilots license and he is an instructor as well, so I totally trusted him when he said he wanted to practice the turn. It’s a little freaky and cool at the same time. I took this video part of the way through the turn.

We got take out on our way to the hanger and had a standup “wing” lunch prior to taking off. What a great way to spend the afternoon and I really felt like we flew the blues away.

• We sat outside and enjoyed our late afternoon Gin and Juice with John and Kristin at their place.

• Dinner was Blackened Hangar Steak, Lentils with Beet Greens, Garlic and Red Onion and Asparagus.

• Worked on this blog post.

Day Thirty One was almost normal again too… the unexpected invite to go flying was such a welcome diversion. Finding a bit of joy in each day is something we all some times take for granted but is especially important in these uncertain times. I hope you found a bit of joy in your day too.