Flying High

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I mean literally "Flying high". Carol and I have flown to various countries.

Once flying over the South American Andes, in the dead of night, I looked out the window and actually saw a red light blinking aways below the wings of our plane. The Andes are over 15,000 feet tall, and we were flying at 39,000 feet. I quickly deduced it wasn't a light on top of a mountain. Then of course I could have had one of those midnight hallucinations. I finally rested my weary brain by telling myself, "We just passed another airplane."

We flew over the Sahara Desert. Keeping track of the plane's monitor, I knew for sure I was over the desert when I took this picture.

A desert is dry. I know the Sahara doesn't have any lakes. But where do those reflections come from?

We flew over the Amazon.

From the picture you can tell it doesn't know where it wants to flow. This shot is way upstream. Many tributaries that size join in. You can imagine how big the river is 2,000 miles further downstream.

We flew over the pacific. The Boeing 747-400 flew at 40,000 feet. Below is a shot of the sun reflecting off the water.

Again over the pacific, this scene was a bit of a puzzle. Among the white clouds are also black clouds. Where did they come from? Note! The black clouds are actually shadows of the white clouds on the water.

Sometimes we fly on itty-bitty planes. Out of Caracas to Port Aiacucho (spell?),Venezuela, our team sent our luggage ahead on a truck because it wouldn't fit onto the aircraft. After our flight, we waited five days before our bags arrived. No use getting bent out of shape, at least the truck wasn't held-up and robbed.

I can assure you, the intimacy of riding on a small plane is worth the crunch. I got to sit with my feet in the cockpit of the plane.

That aircraft was fully equipped with all the newest emergency gadgets. You bet we all felt real safe seeing the flashlight hanging behind the pilot.

It plainly stated: EMERGENCY FLASHLIGHT.  Is't it a wonderful life?


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