07/06- 1ere semaine/1st week

L'evenement de cette semaine?
Sans aucun doute le fait que je me suis pose "aux vaches", ce qui veut dire dans le milieu du vol a voile que je n'ai pu rentrer au terrain.Certain d'entre vous savent que j'ai un planeur, et jeudi dernier, les conditions etaient superbes: rues de cumulus, plafond a 11000 pieds, et des pompes dans les 2-3 M/S. Helas, un orage du mauvais cote, long d'une quarantaine de kms (c'est qu'on plaisante pas ici) a fait que je n'ai pu rentrer au terrain, et qu'a l'inverse, j'ai du me derouter sur le terrain de "Buckeye", que vous voyez la en photo.Ce ne fut pas triste, car nous avions ma voiture, qui n'a pas de crochet. C'est donc vendredi qu'il a fallu aller chercher le planeur avec la voiture de madame, enfin bref, on a fait dans les 400 Kms ce jour la a vadrouiller a droite a gauche pour tout rammener dans l'ordre!
Ceux qui connaissent l'Anglais, saurons apprecier la traduction de Kate, elle a plus de verve que moi ce soir, je pars me coucher!

Hi folks! How's it goin'? Well! Let me tell you about our week! ;) Starts out with Richard and I heading out to the new gliderport in Estrella this Thursday July 6th, off the Estrella mountain range. Estrella is quite a bit away, so we never know how the weather will be "down under." We head out. Takes about 2 hours by car. After we get the glider together he heads out. Seems like the perfect day! Great clouds (gliders pilots love that stuff). Big, billowy white stuff wherein he heads up to 11,000ft! All without an engine. Unfortunately, this bit o' billowy white stuff quickly turns into a monsoon and cuts off his return to the airport. As Richard put in, calling me on the radio from 9,000ft - he can't even see the airport. So, he tries to wait it out. But the storm keeps pushing him further out - far past the point of no return. So, because he is my good, intelligent husband, he takes to an alternate site - Buckeye Airport - which you see in the photo. So, I head from Estrella to Buckeye to pick him up. However, the car we have doesn't have the hitch. So...it isn't until the next day with the other car that we can return to retrieve his glider - left all alone in Buckeye to wait out the night!

Pour recompenser un tel effort, nous avons louer un C172, l'air etait si calme, que ca aurait ete dommage de ne pas aller voler avec le soleil se couchant.

L'Arizona, c'est beau, surtout apres les orages, une visibilite proche de 100 kms, et puis ca sent bon les cactus!

Well, hi there again! So, where did we leave off??? Oh, so I drive to Buckeye to go get my sweet love, Richard. There he waits, on this lonely stretch of runway (actually, the tarmac, but who wants to get technical??). It's a very pretty airport. A good one for practice for us newbies, because it's non-towered. Well, so the next day, good ol' Friday July 7th, we head off in the wee hours of the AM to now drive back to Estrella, get the trailer, then drive back to Buckeye, get the glider, and then drive back to Estrella, to dump the glider (figuratively, not literally - though, at times, it did occur to us to do some literal figuring). Anyhoo, needless to say, things never seem to go as easy as they seem they should. Long story short... About 300+ miles later we got the glider back to Estrella, not without some bumps, bruises, and sun burns to boot.

Afterward, to award us for our long hard days of work, we decided to do one of our very favorite things and take a ride around the Northwest valley. Turned out to be a pretty, pretty night, with lots of distant clouds through which the long day's sun set behind, illuminating them in a brillant glow which seemed to reach right into our hands. (See the last two pictures of our trip). Needless to say, I look a bit tired and sick - too much fast food these last few days. Due to my fast-food instilled illness, Richard had to assume command. Regardless, however, it was a sweet flight. God bless Cessna (Piper no good!). :) :)