Some bright morning when this life is over

I'll fly away! Oh, Boy! And I did, too!

Cousin Rustryder called me at work yesterday about four and totally surprised me with the offer, long made, but for years unkept, of taking me flying with him!!!

Oh, yeah! I would be there to meet him at 5:30ish! My first thougt was I wanted to share this experience with a friend and he said one more would fit but the weight limit would not really do four, I could only offer to one. I did offer but had to leave a message to meet us if they could. They didn't get to come, oh well, I tried.

I offered dinner because I knew he would not have been home to eat yet and he accepted. I had a fit trying to stay at work after that, I wanted to GO! I got out and picked up a tailgater for us and the cousin who is always late was already parked there!

I exchanged greeting hugs with a bounce in them! It was, and always is, good to see the cousins but he was giving me such a gift! Wow! I was flying already just anticipating the ride. I'm just full of exclamation points today still over it!!!!

I have flown. I like flying. I love take offs, I love the landings. I feel alive with the risk they offer. I always flew in big planes before, this one was a Cessna about the size, inside, of a Beetle Volkswagon. It was like flying on a motorcycle except the leaning in the turns is built in, not needed for balance, but it leans you anyway. I loved it.

I loved the little door under the wing. I loved the guages and dials and maps and GPS and I loved the headphones that muted the roar of the engines and let us talk just like in the movies. I loved having the controls on my side, too! I was good, but I had rudders and stick and wanted a chance to try them. I got that later and found I didn't care who was driving, I just loved being up there, I didn't need to control the plane just to know I could was good enough.

I actually have come to treasure rides I get with trusted drivers in my passenger seat. Some one else has the con and I can just enjoy who I am with and what we are driving by. Sometimes I get tired of having to drive myself all the time, though I do like driving.

I trusted the Rustryder enough that I never even got nervous, not even during landing. I could see he was paying attention. I had totally no worries going up with him. The take off was great! He had already gotten down once, I knew he could again. I just asked lots of questions and exclaimed over the view and how fast we could go. With no real perspective 140 mph doesn't seem very fast but when we went from where I work to where I live it didn't take five minutes in the air, maybe three...Whoosh! and then you are there!

He let me say where I wanted to go. I got to see the places I love from the sky. We went all over! I was seeing it not from 20,000 feet, but between 1000 and 2500 most of the time, I think. Even that close it all becomes so small you can only see what men have made, you can't see the humans hardly at all. They are just too small.

I got to see my shop and the house and the lake near where I grew up. I saw bigger lakes and swamps and a field with just one huge tree in the center of it just tinged with the fall colors. I saw a double tanker truck parked out beside the field. I think it was probably fertilizer waiting to be used. I saw the Thinks it's a Big City, it ain't. I saw villages and junk yards. I saw where my friends and family live and many things between. I saw other planes go by, I saw the roads of cars going home for the day.

I loved the view from the sky. I watched the day turn into sunset and the red sun reflecting under the wings so it looked like two suns setting. But it meant the ride was ending, Cousin had to get back to work.

That was another really fun part. He repairs planes for a living. This one had to be flown for four hours to moniter the repairs. The ride was free for both of us! Oh WOW! How much fun was that? I think you probably can tell, for me, LOTS doesn't even cover it.

It was all so beautiful. It is such a change in perspective when you can see so much more at one time that your mind can't take it in. You are used to seeing from ground level. You see each thing as you come to it. From there, instead of the pond and farms and tunnels of trees I drive through each day, I could see from work to home almost all at once. I could see the whole city, clear out to the farms. What takes so long to navigate on foot or in a car is really all close together. It's the way we do it that takes so long. It is how we experience the distance between. It is in how we see it.

Places we think of as hours and miles away are only minutes and inches from the air. It's another perspective change. It made my head spin. I couldn't take it all in.

I think it was - added to the other flights I have had - the final bit that lets me expand my mind to the view of the earth from space and the concept of it that only astronauts seem to have. I think I got more than a hint of what they were trying to express. I have seen the photos of our planet dressed in clouds but I understand the difference between a picture of Mount Rushmore and standing in front of it. I add that all up in my head and I think I get a bit of how they feel about it.

I feel like I understand better how much everyone and thing here is interconnected and interdependant though we think we are all far apart. It's how you see it if you have to walk coast to coast, very far away. But from the perspective of the moon it is only ____ that far.

It's just a tiny planet. So far it's the only one we have. The pit for waste is not so far from the water tower in the next town if you look over both of them at the same time. You see the effect it can have. From down here it seems like far enough apart, not from the sky. They look right next to each other.

I feel like I am not saying this very well. Did I feel bigger because I could see further? No, I felt smaller because I could see so much more. I have felt something like this staring at the stars too long in the dark and feeling how tiny I am here. I guess you have to experience it. It doesn't share well in words.

I couldn't see the people from up there, just the things they build. I could see that there were people by the things they made. My eyes couldn't pick them out from that distance. I knew that they were there. I see you all every day down here. I am built to be down here with you. But I loved my time in the sky.

Cousin Reb and Rusty, Thank you!