Sunday morning coming down

Turning onto final, runway 14, at KSRQ

Always fun to give a blog entry a clever name, and while the title references a Country & Western song, sung by Johnny Cash, this is a story about another Johnny and his cash......paying for a great cause.

That picture is of the final approach back to Sarasota, Florida.  It was taken from the back seat of a Cessna 172, being flown by my John B, as PIC (pilot in command) with his flight instructor sitting right seat and observing.  I went along for the ride, having sat in on the "cross country navigation" class taught by Universal Flight Training's John Andrews.  Sunday morning, I should have been in church, but I had scheduled a flight lesson of my own.  In the end, my son took my time slot, and I was happy to be the guy in back, taking pictures and enjoying the ride over to Sebring, Florida and return.  It was the highest that JB or I had flown prior to this date, as we went over at 5,500 feet, and came back at 4,500.  If you are a FaceBook friend, go there and you'll see about two dozen pictures.  Since I'm moving very slowly in my own training, perhaps my future will be aerial photography.

Now, with all this beauty on a Sunday morning,
I think this would be a good place to reprint a
favorite poem, written by a Canadian pilot in the Battle of Britain.  It's called High Flight:

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung. High in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air........

Up, up the long, delirious blue, I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace.  Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

About the author:  John Gillespie Magee, Jr., born in China in 1922 to an American father, a British mother, both missionaries.  In school, he wrote poetry and sonnets. In 1940, rather than go to college he chose to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, and subsequently was sent to Britain.  His most famous work, High Flight, was inspired by a training flight in a Spitfire during August 1941, where orbiting at 33,000 feet, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem - to Touch the Face of God.  He wrote the poem upon landing that day.

Now, we were a long way from 33,000 feet, and the 172SP was nowhere near a Spitfire Mk 1, but the feeling was easy to understand that Sunday morning.  Someday, hopefully, my son will be at the controls of a jet flying at 33,000 feet, and look back to that first cross country where he was above the clouds and experiencing that same sense of wonder I had, a proud papa sitting in back, wearing the JAFO hat.

Cole explores Jungle Gardens in Sarasota

This blog entry has a few pictures, but if you're wanting to see more, go to my FaceBook page.

This past several days, we were graced with the presence of Caitlin, our daughter, and 22 month old Cole Robert Kreienkamp, our only grandchild.  He will turn two full years on November 11, 2013, but this visit is just a "tune up" for my wife, who'll go north following the Rock & Roll cruise - which will be followed by the Hawaii cruise.

So, we organized our events around the local weather, and since 19 of the last 21 days featured rain, we had to work quickly.  Yesterday we get to the point where Dad put on his jungle "boonie" cap and and lead the family patrol deep into the Sarasota Jungle Gardens, where fierce alligators and crocodiles (yes, they have both) and snakes share space with parrots and flamingos.

Elizabeth had been there, MANY, many, years ago, but it was a first for me, Caitlin and of course Cole.  I found the place surprisingly nice, tucked away in a very small (in terms of acreage) property between US 41 and the Sarasota Bay.  The place was one property, with the fellow who developed it living there for a number of years.  The house he resided within is not a small restaurant/snack bar.  No lions or tigers, but plenty of birds to view.  The place is classic Old Florida, where these type of facilities used to be along all the major highways, BEFORE the Interstates came along.  It may be nostalgic, but I did enjoy it immensely.

Today, the ladies are headed out to St Armands Circle, the local shopping mecca, while I hold down the fort with Ripley who has been one of Cole's newest playmates.  After all, I have leftovers in the refrigerator from our visit to Outback Steakhouse that second night of the visit - somethings are new each time Cole visits, including the visit to the airport to see his Uncle's flight school and look at the small private planes, but somethings remain the same (the perfunctory Outback visit).  Tomorrow, depending on how tired they are, Caitlin and Cole may accompany us to church.  I'd blow it off, except that I volunteered to be the lay reader, and Elizabeth and our friend Mark will be singing a duet during the offertory.  Fortunately, we have two cars here.

That's it from Longboat Key and Jungle Gardens, Sarasota.  Go view my Facebook page for more.