Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

I am not in Kansas anymore. I know, the saying is more than old. The folks in Kansas have a great base. It is something I revere as part of my aspirations of farm life. I am off to Europe again Saturday. I arrive in Prague, Czech Republic Sunday. We have a intense agenda. The Pareto Rule applies. "Get 'r done" in a Global City DJ and I are looking at buying property in Costa Rica. It is difficult to schedule the visit/purchase because of work/project compulsion. And of course, spending much time there is a bit of a time-management conundrum as well. Actually, my vision is really developing a respite for friends and family from around the world. I can see a very nice visitor register (on paper) emerging, which of course is priceless. The guy on the scooter... I had to take a pic. It was awkward taking the pic. I am glad I did. It was just too weird. What emotion does that image evoke? I get a few. Interestingly enough when we were on the Interstate in Kansas w...

I ran into this bug this morning in the parking lot in Duluth. I was thinking I had to go to central America to see a land insect this size. That's my shoe there. I almost tripped over this guy. Yes, he was alive. I kicked him to make sure.

I hiked about 10 miles on the Appalachian Trail (AT) yesterday. It took a while to get to my start place on fire roads. It was maybe 13 miles off the pavement. It was a nice ride through the woods. It was a little like driving the jeep around the property in Berkshire. It was similar, but the jeep is a lot more fun around the farm. The hike of course was great. I went to the top of Springer Mountain again, but from the other way, not from the approach trail. I met a few folks. Some were finishing up an 8 day trek from North Carolina. It is a culture that's for sure. At the summit we were in the clouds and it was misting and a bit rainy. It certainly felt like I was in the clouds. My new hiking shoes worked very well. The GPS on my phone did the trick is showing where I was. The ceiling was a bit low this morning on a trip up to Gainesville, GA. in N53057. I am getting better with ATC and the Atlanta airspace. Learning is what it is all about.

The sad news yesterday was that the Liberty Belle B-17 burned up. I toured the plane a few months ago. I took the pics, but not the one on flames. Thank god they had a good place to land and everybody got out. Gasoline! and lots of it.

The past week has been a blur. DJ has been in Atlanta for a few weeks. We went and saw Loretta Lynn in concert. What a trip. She won't be doing a whole bunch more concerts, I suspect. The weather up in NY continues to be difficult. If it isn't bridges washed out, it is high winds ripping barn roofs off like mine. The neighbors barn roof got wrapped around the wires. OK, already, I understand about the destructive aspects of weather and time. I cropped one of the photos from last weeks air show. It is pretty unbelievable what some of these guys do especially when I find myself a bit to the left or right of the center-line all to often on landing. I expect to be in the air pretty much every few days for the rest of the summer. The high temps certainly affect aircraft performance. Just because an airplane has four seats doesn't mean it can carry four people. When it is 95 degrees out the newer 172s can only carry 2 people my size, full fuel and a sandwich or two. ...

I have flown about 200,000 commercial miles in the last year. There is a pic below that shows what 200k miles of of boarding passes looks like. Now that the paper boarding passes are being replaced with electric ones on smart phones that image will get more rare. DJ and I did some exploring in Atlanta. There still is quite a bit to explore. One thing is for sure the people are nicer (less rude) in Atlanta than anywhere in NY. That grows on you. I have a few stories about that. That is the Olympic torch from a more local angle. We went to the Varsity, the local burger place. We went to Stone Mountain park for Memorial day and hiked the 5 mile Cherokee trail around and over part of the giant chunk of granite. It was an appropriate place for a Yankee to spend Memorial day. Stone mountain park is really a giant memorial of confederates. There is no secret about that and there are no memorials for other folks of the civil war. The sermon at church in the morning was about memorializing...

I am back in Atlanta after being away for two weeks. Time flies when traveling. We got a lot done in England and France. And the week off in NY was definitely worthwhile. I had some nice Fois Gras in France, but of course it isn't that fancy when you are in France compared to the US. All the food is fancy in France. I am sure I am not alone when I say "I haven't had a bad meal in France." Even a simple cafeteria is special. I guess the personal highlight of the trip was going through the "chunnel" underneath the English channel. The train was about 28 train cars (double decker car carrying), and only fractionally full of cars. There is not much to do on the train. You can get out of the car and go the restrooms, but there isn't much more than that. The crossing took about 35 minutes. It was different.