Flying

It's been a year or more since my last flight, this past week I flew to Phoenix and back and I am still in awe of just being able to look out the window and see what only the birds and God could see just a couple of generations prior. I look across the land, miles and miles into the distance or straight down if I choose. I didn't have the window seat on the way to Phoenix, so mostly I read, with an occassional glimpse out the window. My wife had the window seat so I could lean over whenever I wanted to get a look, although she would probably have given me that seat if she had thought about it before hand. I saw San Francisco and the ocean as we climbed away from the Oakland airport, then the coast disappeared under a blanket of fog just south of the city, somewhere just south of the zoo. We climbed and banked south and eastward and after we leveled off I could see the Monterey Bay ( if you guessed by now, we sat on the right side of the plane, in the last row, so no wing was in the way to obstruct our view. That's what happens when you get stuck with the "C" group on your Southwest boarding pass, I'm not complaining, but it seems that most folks tried to get seats near the front of the airplane , I guess so that they cou7ld get off faster. I didn't care , I was in no hurry)We could see the Santa Cruz and Watsonville area and I remembered the last time I flew to Watsonville was almost 20 years ago in a Cessna 150 with three little boys , one in the co-pilot seat and 2 in the jumpseat in back. Nice feature if you can get one. They were small then so we were probably at or under gross. The three of them combined probably weighed less than my flight instructor Noel! I had decided to fly to the Watsonville airshow in my buddies' old plane, so we took of from Hayward and headed south, climbing over San Jose international as we headed towards the Santa Cruz mountains. After we climbed up and over, we started descending towards the Watsonville airport, following highway One, when we were close enough to see the airport, the air traffic controllers saw us and said to fall in behind a DC3 that was in the pattern turning crosswind. So we looked and there it was , we dove into the pattern and had to keep the throttle full to the hilt to keep up with that old bird. The controller told us to keep up and I may have said we're trying already!! Ding dong it! It was cool, we landed on the left and the DC3 went to the right and we had a great time.
So now I see the Monterery peninsula or rather the point, out towards Pacific Grove, and the curve of the bay falls away as we head inland over the valleys and farmland. I go back to reading a bit then I look and see some mountain peaks covered with snow on their northern sides. I'm guessing we are near the southern end of the Sierras, near the Owens Valley, Somewhere down there is 395, my favorite mountain highway, although I usually only cruise it in the area around Bridegport. I'll be there again this summer(Lord willing...) So now a lake comes into view further to the south after we pass the snowy mountains. This must be the Salton Sea. Somewhere down there is Palm Springs, Indio, and Death Valley. I look for runways, thinking we must be near Palmdale, but I don't see any. We are probably 5o miles from the Salton Sea, and now I realize how barren the land is below. I read awhile more and an occasional look out the window reveals desert and low mountains, the land wrinkled in places, smooth in others where I imagine lakes and seas spread their waves on the shores of prehistoric places. I go back to my newspaper to see the days news. I haven't finished the front section of the San Jose Mercury and we are beginning our descent. The seat belt sign lights up and everyone finds their seat.
I havn't been to Arizona in a jet before. Three times I have driven along the southern border going to and from Mexico. Once as we returned from the mainland after trekking the Baja peninsula in a 1967 VW bus,and then crossing over by ferry to Mazatlan. Another trip took us from Fremont, California to Mazatlan and back again, skirting the southern Arizona desert and heading towards the inland side of the Sea of Cortez. As we bank around the Phoenix area I see mountains ringing a large plain, and almost endless development as far as the eye can see. I'm shocked somewhat, not having realized how much growth has occurred here over the years. The little mountains, that poke up here and there across the plain give this place such a rugged character, but as we descend I can see neighborhoods with their swimming pools and streets in every direction, even some farmland that shines green in the morning light and a few small lakes here and there. I am amazed, I thought we were going to the Pleistocene or something. What a surprise. I guess that that train ride through Dinosaur land at Disneyland has tainted my imagination since I was young.
I can see the downtown and the Diamondbacks stadium up ahead as we line up on short final. The ground is rushing up as all objects return to their normal scale except for the closest ones as we touch down and zoom down the runway, the engines reving up to full throttle again as the reverse thrust in engaged. It's good to have cheated death again as my flight instructor used to say. Off to the hotel we go...
The Arizona Grand is a family oriented hotel, with all the water park features. Two big slides, the endless river, the simulated beach with waves, a mini ocean if you like. Great place except for the coffee and beer. A hotel that charges what this one does really should provide free coffee, don't you think? I mean a small cup of coffee for three bucks that isn't even as good as Starbucks!! Come on now! Get a Starbucks or Peete's in there. And a small hot chocolate for $3.50 !@#$&*:(^$!! Give me a break!! And for all the pluses, the beer in the room sucks. A canned Heineken for $5.50!! Yikes!! It tasted terrible. They could at least get something descent in plastic bottles like they serve at AT&T, formerly SBC, and previous to that Pac Bell Park. A nice Anchor Steam woulda been cool but why not get some great Porters?? There's lots. They could get Flying Dog Porter on tap if they wanted. Maybe the owners don't drink beer. Or maybe they don't frequent the resort often. Well I hope they read this. Get some decent beer. At least they had lime for my Tecate on tap at the water park. Three bucks for the beer should be tops and a $1.50 for the coffee, that's it. Everything else was good, even having to hear all the noisy little kids running around. Except of the smoking. There were a couple of 20 somethings smoking at the pool. There's no ash trays anywhere so that should be a clue. They need to post no smoking signs here and there... The golf course is great. Now I don't golf mind you, but I enjoy a nice walk along a well manicued lawn, and there were lots of bunnies (not playboy unfortunately, although there were plenty of bikinis at the pools and waterpark...) and quail to make it interesting. It is amazing to see beautiful green lawn on one side of the walkway and cactus and rocks on the other. Amazing. Where they get all the water I don't know, unless it is underground in some mysterious aquifer. That's what Phil thinks. Whose Phil? He is the husband of the lady my wife works with. We were travelling all together now. (more about that later)Anyway I enjoyed the walk up the hill behind the hotel, it has a fabulous view of the surrounding mountains and the plain upon which this suburban oasis sits, out here in the former wild west. How and why do so many people inhabit this place? If I was an explorer in the bad old days when the Spaniards or even the first native Americans came to this place, I would stop and say" What teh hell am I doing here??!@#$%!!? There's no water that I can see, the rivers are all dry,there's no hotel, no beer, no bikinis, no nuthin. I'm outa here!! Except for the stark beauty of the land. And this beautiful golf course, with bthe nice homes built alongside it. What would the cowboys think? Their horses would be drinking out of everybody's swimming pools and the cowpokes would be bathin nekked right there with their ponies. Thank God for progress. We caint have no nekked cowpokes playin in these nice rich folkses back yard, ding dong it!
So I finished my walk, Lord knows I needed to do some excerise. We ate so much. Three square meals a day! Way too much food. Intaking that much food wore out my buttocks. Usually I have a cup of coffee and a pastry for breakfast, and then a sandwich or some leftovers in a tortilla or maybe yogurt an a banana. But three full course meals a day? WHEW!!I was stuffedddd. Too much already have I eaten. Today, I had just one Starbucks Grande with a maple scone and at lunch some dried fruit and nuts, maybe 3/4 cupful, a soda at afternoon break around 3:00 and that's it so far. Tonite I'll eat a decent dinner, something cool and refreshing since it is hot, in the low 90's . Too hot for April in the bay area, that's for sure. It's ok for Arizona, which brings me to my next point. The weather in Phoenix was great! Cool high 60's the first dat, 70s the next, maybe low 80's the 3rd day and when we left Sunday it was in the low 90's. Not bad for the desert. It was hotter and more uncomfortable when we got back to Oakland. So my walk ended and I nwent to have my 1st square meal of the day.
We went to the waffle house and when we left we smelled like those big cones they make at some of the ice cream parlors (are they really parlors?) But the breakfast was. They some hashbrowns that have cheese mixed in. Cheese browns or something like that. The waffles were a bit thin, my wife makes way better ones. Hers are big and fluffy, and they stay that way too, not all thin and sagging like the Waffle House made. But I didn't order waffles. I only like Mrs. M's wafflees. With strawbwerries and whipped cream they are excellent, almost orgasmic. But I digress. We left that place smelling like waffle cones and went out into the clear Arizona air, cool and fresh, just like spring in the bay. From there we decided to drive somewhere, so we opened up the hotel magazine that suggests all the different places to go when in Phoenix and there was an ad for the Frank LLoyd Wright school of architecture and his former residence, out somewhere past Scottsdale. So we all agreed and headed that way.
The freeways in Arizona are very clean. They also appear to be very new. And they are aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The walls are decorated with poured in place concrete that has all manner of decor, some wavy lines some concentric circles others straight lines horizontal and some vertical. And best of all they made giant geckos, as though they were clinging to the walls.
So we went down the road, the freeway popping up ocassionally so you could see above the buildings around you. The mountains that poke up suddenly make me wonder how they came to be that way. Were they thrust up from below when the earth was young? Or were they carved and eroded over by ancient seas and and wind? They are so jagged and angular that I think that flowing water would have softened their edges. Perhaps they were islands left high and dry from seas that retreat, the waves breaking off chunks and pieces as they crashed against them eons ago. Billions and billions of years ago... poor Carl, may he rest in peace. (Sagan, that is.)
After leaving the freeway, one has to pass through some very nice residential neighborhoods to get to Frank's old place, Taliesin West he called it and I tell you it is old. Built in the 1920's, it has undergone rennovations over the years. It is interesting the way Frank built it. They used rocks from the surrounding area in a series of poured in place walls, placing one flat side of the rock against the forms and holding them in place so the flat side would be visible after removal of the forms. The first students of the school built the place and subsequent additions were made as the facilty and the home for the Wrights was incorporated. Initially there were no windows, which is fine in summer, but I would think the occassional storm would whip the students drawings right on out of the buildings. They added glass eventually. The roof was made of canvas ties, large sheets suspended from the rafters, which got wet and rotted over time. They have been replaced and rotted again, even though some translucent materials have been used. It lets lots of light into the rooms in a soft diffused fashion. He. Mr. Wright also designed the furniture, some very low chairs and tables. The door openings and lintels were very low too, no more than 6 feet. He was 5'8" tall. No sympathy for tall folks. Some of the rooms do not connect with one another, one has to go out under an overhang perhaps, or cross a courtyard to pass from one to another. Frank also built an aluminum bathroom. The concrete walls all around the bath were lined with the metal sheets and trimmed with thicker pieces to tie the sheets together. A man's bathroom, very industrial. It was tall and narrow however. Only one person could really use it at a time, and it had a skylite at the top, like a chimmney. There is a large dining hall where the students eat, and really the number of students is about 30 total that are accepted to the program every year. They actually live , or rather spend the nights away from the main building complex, out in shelters that they built themselves or restored. They are small, perhaps just a one bedroom. These about a hundred yards away from the main buildings and there is no running water or bathrooms out there. He (frank LLoyd Wright) wanted them to be close to nature, like rattlesnakes, or gila monsters. What was he thinking?? .