Posted Monday July 15, 2019
I've made lists. I've checked them, frustrated at the handful of items that are either undoable or need to wait until later; gratified by all the crossed-off items. I've checked the weather. I've checked the gas prices, and looked over my route, for the first two days. I've cleaned the house. I've even flown the approach to a few of my probable destination airports in the simulator.
I have, in short, done everything I can. And now it's time to wait.
I decided after some research that Tuesday (tomorrow) would be the ideal day to leave. It gives me a few days' leeway in case the weather does anything stupid, thus also giving me a few days' leeway in case everything works out and I decide to follow a whim or spend more than land-refuel-check-takeoff time somewhere.
It's amazing the amount of reflection that's possible before a trip. On Sunday, realizing that I was ahead of my prep schedule and had a lovely afternoon with nothing pending, I flew up to Bellingham and visited my friend Alex for a quick dinner. It was good to be in the plane again, though in my current many-days mindset, the hour's flight to Bellingham went by in an eyeblink.
Despite being an eyeblink, it still gave me plenty of time to wonder if I'm doing the right thing. I've known for months that this would be an awesome, occasionally challenging trip. There won't be any insurmountable obstacles, unless the weather or the Rockies really have some lead weights hidden in their respective gloves (and to be clear, it would still be the weather doing the punching if the Rockies give me trouble).
But on that flight to Bellingham and back, it all seemed kind of silly. Why spend so much time away from the comforts of home? I considered my packing list, with its single change of clothes, and spartan aspect; it being so out of deference to not loading everything + kitchen sink into the tiny plane. Why put myself into a situation where I'd probably have to sleep multiple nights on an uncomfortable sleeping pad in a tent while mosquitoes buzzed around and tried to turn me into the world's itchiest pin-cushion? Why willingly fly into a part of the country where my political views are at best unpopular, and at worst could get me assaulted or killed? Why subject myself to restaurants where "vegetarian" is a bad word, and the closest they come is salad with chicken on it, because chickin ain't meat? Why leave my comfortable little bubble?
Of course, the question contains its own answer. Despite moving house a mere two months ago and only barely feeling settled, I am living a very comfortable life, unchallenged in any of my beliefs, and unable to expose anyone to ideas they have never considered before. The greatest hardship I have in life is trying to reign in the chocolate habit.
I don't embark on this adventure specifically to challenge myself. I'm going because I want to visit this airplane Mecca and see for myself the wonders of a godzillion acres of airplanes and airplane nerds. The challenges are simply a side-quest that needs to be accomplished to fulfill my goal. I will become intimately familiar with supermarket bread/cheese/tomato sandwiches (a staple of the Europe trip) and grilled cheese and iceberg salads. I will hold my tongue when the group conversation turns to politics, unless there's an expression of honest curiosity for my views.
It also gives me a prolonged period where my main task is to fly the plane, which I love doing. A prolonged period where it is completely acceptable to recline with a good book or spend time really writing when the thunderstorms above make flying impossible. An opportunity to meet new people. A chance to see more of this country, which I have mostly not seen despite decades living here. A period of time where it's utterly respectable to just listen to Critical Role podcasts (a recent passion) and imagine different realities from my own.
It gives me the chance to bring you along with me, too. I'm looking forward to writing about my adventures and giving you a view of what it's like to fly the World's Slowest Plane (it's not really) 2/3 of the way across the country and back, and attend the World's Biggest Fly-in (it really is).
I hope you enjoy the journey. If everything goes according to plan (and the weather forecast for tomorrow looks like maaaaybe it will), I'll be launching toward Sandpoint, ID in the early afternoon, landing by about dinner time and tanking up on cheap avgas and some supermarket bread n' cheese.
As a bonus for reading all the way to the end of this emotional novella, have some test footage of Norbert the Dragon flying back from the Bellingham area to Snohomish:
Oof, Youtube really doesn't like footage straight out of the camera. Never fear, the actual trip videos will look better. That was recorded at 2.5k, but not re-encoded, which means that the Youtube robots are displeased with it.
Copyright © 2019 by Ian Johnston.