The Latest Toy

Well, I decided to come home for a little bit, get away from the Southern California fast life ;) There is surely nothing nicer than waking up to the sound of Dragonflies!! It was pretty overcast, so I didn't fly today. But, Joe convinced me to go out with him and see if we could get a bit of road rash. After my little desert tuck-n-roll, I figured, why not, I heal quickly ;-)

We have this new toy, and I've forgotten what it's called already, but it is something like a skateboard that has been cut in half so that each leg/foot can move independently. You just put each foot on its own metal plate with wheels. But, unlike skateboard wheels, they aren't side by side for stability, they're inline, like inline skates. So, it takes quite a lot of coordination and a strange sort of sweeping action with the back foot to get moving. They tend to try to force you into the splits ;-) and are pretty unstable, so I was suprised to come home tonight with no road rash whatsoever. I first thought it might be simpler if they just had some straps to go over the top of your feet. But, you see the first time you lose control that the ability to dismount quickly is key!

Here are some shots!

The Mount

Its a lot harder to get onto that you would think. The plates don't balance flat, so you have to either tip them up as you're starting off, or you have to have something to hold on to.

And here's one of the expert.

....and the dismount

I'm such a klutz!

Mojave Airplane Graveyard

The desert is by far the coolest thing this town has going for it. My parent's house is kind of on the edge of town, so it only takes a few blocks of running before I am out into the desert chasing jackrabbits through the sagebrush. I have been running nearly daily. It seems there's not much else to do in this town and I am still determined to lose that belly ;-)

Lancaster is the nearest normal sized town and I discovered on the first trip there (its about a 40 minute drive) that the airplane graveyard that Alex and I had so much fun visiting several years ago is no more than 15 minutes from Cal City. We were chased away by a security guard who called us "complete idiots" for not noticing the sign that said "Absolutley NO Pictures." Although he threatened to, he didn't take away our cameras, so we came away with some real close up shots of very large airplanes. Turns out, we were complete idiots because neither of us noticed the sign, even though it was quite obvious when he angrily pointed it out to us. Anyway, it's not exactly a graveyard. What I am told is that it is more like a parking lot for commercial airliners that are not currently in use. That makes more sense as many of them looked rather new and in good shape.

We get a gorgeous sunset nearly every night. Here's one taken from the back porch of mom and dad's house. Sometimes I feel like I moved from one bubble to another being here in our own little world. Mom and dad bought a house right in the middle of where everyone else is building their's. GW's is just across the street, along side Charles' (one of JB's co-workers at Sportvision). Dale (one of JB's childhood friends) is building his house right next door to mom and dad and Mark (my baby brother) is building his second one about 2 blocks away. JB's is apparently fairly close too, but I haven't been offered that tour yet.

They said "California is the place you ought to be"....

So I loaded up the suitcase and I move to California....City that is!!

Ok, a certain dork was complaining that I hadn't updated the blog in ages and he was sick of seeing pictures of girls flying in dresses. So, here I am with nothing to say and very little to even show. The point of the blog was to post pictures of my travels for the family to see. Well, here I am with the family! I doubt they want to see pictures of it. So, I'll have to make some stuff up!

Anyway, California City isn't a total hellhole. The Mojave Desert is kind of cool if you can get a little bit outside of town. There are Joshua Trees all around. From the time I used to rock climb in Joshue Tree National Park (pre hang gliding, of course), I have always thought they were the most beautiful desert trees, in a bizarre way. Apparently they are native only to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. Here's a really nice shot of a Joshua Tree - not mine, I just found it on the internet.

Questivities

I'm here at home for a few months enjoying the slow life at Quest. After returning from Australia things were nice and quiet here, but they are starting to pick up again thanks to some gorgeous summer weather that just doesn't want to quit...even now in mid November.

We've had a couple of fun events here over the last month or so. The first weekend in November we had Quest's 10th Anniversary Party and fly-in. Lots of people showed up for a mini competition, barbeque and poker tournament. Everyone had a blast and Bo went home with all everyone's poker money!

Tammy Burcar is visiting here for a few months and she organized the first all-girl "formal" fly-in. We dressed up in our evening gowns and ran around the field looking pretty silly waiting for conditions to improve. Finally late in the afternoon it looked decent so we all took off in our dresses, each with bouquets taped to our uprights for the bouquet drop. It was great fun and I'm sure we'll have to do it again soon!

Fly Girls

Best Dressed Tug Pilot

I suspect there's no one that has been to Quest that doesn't know who the world's best tug pilot it!! It's Lisa of course - anyone who hasn't had a chance to fly behind Lisa, give a it try and you'll see what I mean! I don't think this girl can give a bad tow, period! (ok, ok, I know, I am her biggest fan!)

Nancy Smith Raring to Go!

All Dressed up and Nowhere to go (but up!!)

My job....ground crew ;-)

Darien - Looking so Grown Up!!

Right to Left - Judy Leden, Russel Brown, Judy's Man, David Glover

World's Best Tug Pilot

Journey Home

Corinna and I arrived today in Munich after a loooooong flight around the planet. We drove from Newcastle to Sydney yesterday with Stuie and then flew from there to Kuala Lumpur (9 hours) and then on to Vienna (11 hours) and then to Munich (1 hour). I will fly back to Orlando tomorrow after a bit of catchup on my sleep in Munich. It has been a lovely trip and I am happy to have made a lot of great new friends that I will hopefully see again very soon.

I got to finally meet Tony Barton at Newcastle. He is a great American pilot who has lived in Australia now for quite a few years. He was a well-known comp pilot but he stopped competing right about the time I started, so I hadn't met him before. He does tandems on the beach all day long with a nice little landing on top in an incredibly small spot - I wouldn't be attempting that anytime soon. I also got a tour of the Airborne factory from Scott - very tidy and organized place and everyone is super friendly! We started talking about it over lunch and I realized that there are very few hang gliding factories that I haven't visited....really just Aeros in Keiv and maybe one or two other small ones. I guess I might have to make that my mission....to see them all.

We were able to spend a few hours in Sydney yesterday and shopped at the Paddington Market. It's a great outdoor market with jewerly and arts and crafts. Stuie is a great shopper and put up with us speeding around the market looking for a hat for Corinna. Of course, we were having such fun that we lost track of time and found ourselves speeding to the airport and nearly missing our flight.

Leaving Canungra was very very sad, but I did get to fly again on the last day, thanks to Jonny. He is the best host and took me to Mt. Tamborine for a quick flight. Although both Jonny and Lee warned me not to leave the mountain too low, I was a bad girl and found myself on that big floater in a headwind that had me not quite making the landing paddock. Lucky for me I found a little something that took me up again. I'm really enjoying flying these floaters around....they are so easy!

Here are a couple of random pictures - me launching at Beechmont, Tony spot landing, Jon Sr. (the only one I could understand on the radio thanks to his lovely American accent :-) and Kath Kelly and her big new belly (she's due in February, so she'll be ready to fly again for the Women's worlds in May and we'll get to see her and Lee and the new little guy then!)

Byron Bay

Corinna decided to head down to Sydney a bit early to arrange our tickets back home and visit with friends. We took her to the airport and then promptly spent all of Jonny's prize money....no, not on anything fun, but on new tires for Jonny's car. Today we had a nice little drive down to Byron Bay. The town reminds me very much of Santa Cruz....kind of earthy and full of hippies and vegetarian food. We met up with Curt and watched him do a few tandems in the 25 mph wind. It looks like a fun place to fly when there is a little less wind.

Post Comp

The competition ended just as expected....Jonny won! But, it was a close race right up to the last day when Jonny went in with just a few points over Dave Sieb in 2nd and Atilla in 3rd. The last day turned out to be difficult and rather turbulent. Dave and Attila both went down very early and only Jonny and another Aussie pilot ended up making goal. This is the 5th year in a row that Jonny has won the Canungra Classic. Being the superstitious dork that he is, he probably wont want win it next year....we'll see :-)

Durand Homestead

The Durands have been the most wonderful hosts here. Judy cooks awesome veggie food every night and we all sit around the table telling funny stories and making fun of each other....feels very much like home. I start to like it so much here that I may just stay forever :-) Corinna convinced Jon and Judy that they should adopt both of us...I have the right first name already, so I would fit right in with Jon, Judy, Josh, Jonny and Gemma.

I haven't been up early since the comp ended, but Judy got these great shots this morning of the view from the deck and a kangaroo munching on grass in the front yard. I've decided it's worth dealing with the snakes (which I haven't even had to do) in exchange for all the other cool wildlife around here. I am starting to spot kangaroos all the time now and I even saw 4 baby crocodiles while chasing Jonny to goal on the last day....ok, they weren't really crocodiles, but they were some of the biggest lizards I have ever seen!!

The young girl in the picture is the lovely Gemma. What a sweetheart she is!