Sam And Saundra's Second Time Around - Part 65

Sam And Saundra’s Second Time Around – Part 65

Alaska

7/9/11- 8/3/11 - Talon Air Adventure 

We get up early, early 9:00 am.  We do not have to be there until 1:00 pm, but we do not want to miss it. We climb into Brutus, with Denise, Devin and Christine in the back. Brutus speeds over the Soldotna Bridge, through downtown Soldotna and a little further. On the other side of Fred Meyer, we turn left, down a quiet, narrow residential street.  Nice houses. Lots of lakes.  We Turn left again between a couple of buildings and park just short of another lake.  We stand around, Looking extremely intelligent and important, and we are finally given the nod to board.

Well, Extremely Something

 I’m excited! Another one of those “I can’t believe Sam is doing this” activities. The vehicle holds 16 or more. There are only five of us. I did not mean to be the first. Hopefully, I was not pushy.  But no one got in front of me.  Probably smart.  Sam tells me that they need a copilot and gives me a small nudge into one of the front seats.  I did not resist.  I put the radio headphones on.  I failed to tell the pilot that I could not hear a thing over that headset.  I focused on the outside and if he did not know his job – Oh Well!!  I could see up and around totally.  Great Sunny Day. We start to move. We taxi to the left.  Very smooth.  The pilot hits the power button and off we skim across the water.  What a spray! We casually lift off of the lake and the pontoon thingings come with us.  Up we go.  Flying from Soldotna all the way to Kenai – the town.  ‘Oh My Goodness’ views of Cook’s Inlet, mountains, rivers, other small planes.  No air traffic controllers. I am taking pictures, glancing back to make sure Sam is enjoying his trip.  He is.  I am looking at all of the gauges in front of me.  All made by Garmin.  (Wasn’t our Stevie Wonder made by Garmin?)  I snap a picture, ignore the steering gizmo in front of me and keep my feet away from all pedals. 

High Lake Next To Glacier

We fly over the bay. I focus forward and see a mountain, complete with glacier, rushing towards us.  This glacier is pretty dirty looking.  Getting closer, flying oh so close, right around the higher parts of the mountain to get a real close to the mountain top lake and the blue rough waves of the glacier.  A lot of rocks can be seen in the ice.  That is probably what makes it look dirty.  I figure the rocks hitched a ride with the glacier, since most mountains usually move way too slow on their own. I think that the rocks will be eventually filed down to a fine powder, and when some of the glacier melts - voila! Glacial rivers will be given signature colors. The picturesque, dark blue lake was awesome, but ignorable next to the glacier and the movement of the plane. Did I mention we were up close?