Day 7 - Hawley, PA to Grantham, NH - low, slow and relaxed
Last night was amazing because it was the first time on this trip that I’ve been able to comfortably sleep with the windows open. It was cool with temperatures down in the 50s overnight just the way I like it.
Holly and I had a relaxing breakfast as we continued to chat about life the universe and everything. Visiting with her as well as all the other people I have met on this trip has helped reaffirm my believe that a true friend is somebody that you cannot see for 30 years pick up where you left off.
She dropped me at the airport, and I took my time as I read the plane for flight. It is a small airport with a short, rough runway, but surrounded by beautiful lush, green trees. Because of this, I had to make sure that I did the appropriate style of takeoff that minimize my ground roll as well as shocks to the landing gear.
Once I left it off, I was rewarded with the site of beautiful green force stretching off ahead of me with puffy cumulus, clouds, floating just a couple of thousand feet up but plenty of clear blue sky between them. I headed to the north east towards my next destination, I elected to stay down low so that I could see more detail on the countryside.
One observation that I’ve come to that throughout the northeast of the United States, there appears to be a proliferation of solar cells, both on individual houses as well as larger, solar farms, and various communities. From Indiana, I’ve seen some of these as largest several acres. This is encouraging as we try to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, but it is a noticeable difference from when I used to crisscross the country 30 years ago as an airshow pilot.
Complementing the use of solar is wind power. In the west and Midwest, there are an enormous farms of windmills, towering hundreds of feet above the local terrain. In Pennsylvania, Vermont in New Hampshire, while I have seen some of the large windmills, they’re usually clustered along a single ridgeline and might only be 10 or 20 of them at a time. The difference in the number and distribution of windmills is attributable to the average wind speed in these different locations. Anybody who’s lived on the high Plains can tell you that there is very strong, consistent wind.
As I got up into the Vermont New Hampshire area, I began to see ski areas on the sides of the mountains. In this part of the country, mountains are about 4000 feet tall whereas in Colorado the planes were 5000 feet with the mountains towered to 14,000. Each fulfill the role, but it’s different when you see them.
In addition to staying low, I chose to fly very slowly today. I had many hours to do what should’ve been about an hour and 15 minute flight. I totaled about two hours of flying, along with a 30 minute stop for fuel just south of Albany, New York. After fueling up, I sat on the front wing of the airplane and just listen to the sound of crickets and the breeze and the trees and just thought back about the highlights of this trip.
For a quirky coincidence, I found myself pointed right at the juncture of the state lines from three different states: New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts. There was nothing unique or remarkable about the point as it was just the side of a forest hillside, but I did deviate very slightly to make sure that I went right over it.
Finding the airport was actually pretty difficult to do. It is nestled so far down in the hills that I didn’t see the runway until I was just about a mile from it, even though it was a clear day. Oddly enough, I had been distracted by something I had seen on the ground: Stonehenge or at least a replica of it, as well as a very complex and well developed hedge maze.
When I arrived at the airport in Lebanon, New Hampshire, I was fortunate to find a place to park and walked over to the administration building to find Stu Gillespie waiting for me. He and I were both mechanical engineers at Cornell yet we never met each other until the summer between our sophomore and junior years when we were at a Navy Boot Camp in Newport, Rhode Island called NSI. We got to know each other throughout those six weeks as well as the next few years at Cornell.
Stu went off to drive ships, serving on aircraft carriers and guided missile cruisers, while I went off to fly. Interestingly, enough, both of our naval careers were derailed by medical issues. After he left active duty, he went back to grad school and became a software engineer, focusing on computer, simulations of how gases and fluids move through and around objects. This led him to subtle here in New Hampshire.
About four years ago, he decided to open his home up to foster children which has been a very fulfilling and rewarding role for him. We got to talk about this quite a bit today and it just impresses me how people can open up their lives to make those of others so much better.
Yeah, I went out for a walk in the local woods. It’s so interesting to me as I wander through the woods because I love being there, yet they are so different from one place to another, even from say Pennsylvania to New Hampshire.
We had a great dinner that Stu grilled. We were joined by Preston, a young man who had been a foster child assigned to Stu, but who has aged out and continues to live here part of our dinner included some mini blueberry pies that I baked for us. Blueberry pie is definitely my weakness.
I’m trying to go to bed early tonight and get some rest because although I’ve had a great time this week, I’m definitely feeling tired and rundown.
Tomorrow promises to be fun: I’m hoping to be able to give Preston his first ever ride in an airplane. We’ll see if the weather holds; I sure hope it will.
