How I Spent My Autumn Vacation, Part 1: The Plan and Getting There

Posted on October 23, 2018 by Maria Langer

A recap of where I went, who I visited, and what I saw.

Regular readers may have noticed that I’m blogging a lot less frequently that I had been in the past. I think the main reason is that I’m keeping so damn busy. This means I’m spending a lot less time in front of a computer and have a lot less time to spend getting my thoughts out in this blog. To my supporters — especially those who have donated to help keep this site up and running — I apologize for not delivering the content you expect to find. Please try to accept another promise to do better.

And that’s what this series of posts is about: summarizing how I spend 18 days from the end of September to the beginning of October. You saw some of the pictures in “postcard” posts; here’s a bit more to fill in the gaps.

The Plan

I began planning this vacation years ago — probably as far back as 2014. The idea was to go out to Vermont to visit my friend Tom and his wife Tammy. Of course, you go to Vermont at the best time of year — autumn, when the colors are peaking. But for a few years I just couldn’t get the trip together. First I was busy building and finishing my home. Then I was busy enjoying my home and satisfied myself with local trips I could easily make with my truck camper.

But by 2017, I was ready for more substantial travel.

As you might know, my work keeps me pretty much glued to the Wenatchee, WA area where I live from mid May through August. Last year, I was lucky enough to be able to escape to Oregon for the big solar eclipse; my cherry season work ended just a few days before the eclipse. That same year, I’d decided to move my camper and boat down to Arizona in October so I could enjoy the trip down there. (The previous year, I’d gone down around Thanksgiving and it was too cold to hike or even enjoy the various places I stopped along the way.) So I turned that into a two-week long road trip that took me to visit friends and sites in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. Obviously, I couldn’t squeeze another vacation between my August and October trips — I have to be home sometime.

This spring, I started thinking about it again. I had lots of airline miles on Alaska Air. I had lots of free time after cherry season. I consulted Tom for the best time to come. I consulted my brother, who lives in New Jersey where I’d likely enter the area. And I thought about the other things that I might do when I arrived, like spend some time in Washington DC, taking in a few museums.

I sat on the fence for a week or so. And then one morning I just said “screw it,” and I booked my flights to and from Newark. Cancellation fees would make it very expensive to change my plans. My trip dates were set: I’d leave here on September 22 and return home on October 9 for a total 18 days away

(I should mention here that the only thing that makes trips like this possible is a great house-sitter to watch over my home, my garage-based barn cats, and my chickens, who were producing an average of eight eggs a day. I have the best house-sitter.)

Arriving in Newark

I flew into Newark with Penny, a half case of wine, and a huge rolling suitcase.

Because there are so many wineries in the Wenatchee area, Alaska Air will check a case of wine on a flight out of Wenatchee Airport for free. I packed a half-case box with four bottles of wine, a bottle of locally produced apple moonshine, and two jars of my honey. I padded them around with bubble wrap and shoved two of my scarves in there. As you might imagine, the baggage handlers managed to break one bottle of red wine, soaking — but fortunately not ruining — my scarves. A nice woman at the baggage claim area gave me a $75 credit on my account for the next time I fly.

My brother met me at the airport with his Maserati, which I assume was a gift to himself after his divorce. (Everyone should give themselves a gift after a divorce; my gift to myself was my new home and the flexible lifestyle I’d tried (unsuccessfully) to enjoy with my wasband throughout my marriage.) It’s a low-key black sedan that’s very comfortable and wickedly fast. I got to give it a try myself the very next day.

On the way back to his place, we stopped for sushi. As we polished off an enormous sushi boat, we reminisced about the time years before that’d we’d gone to a favorite sushi restaurant in Teaneck, NJ for “happy hour” half-price sushi and had eaten until we were ready to explode. Langers love good food.

Here’s my brother Norb with the sushi boat we shared for dinner. Seriously: it could have fed four people.

Back at his place, I settled into his bedroom. He’s only got one bed and he let me have it because he had to get up very early the next morning. He’s a competitive shooter and had a match in Old Bridge. He left me the keys to his car — he’d take his Toyota truck. We chatted for a while and then turned in for the night.

(Continued in Part 2: The Farewell Tour)

Polished Stones from Slabs

Posted on October 23, 2018 by Maria Langer

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More polished stones. (Yes, I’m addicted.)

I just wanted to take a moment to share two photos of stones I polished into cabochons posed right beside the slabs I cut them from.

Wild Horse Picture Jasper.

Ahwanee Jasper. I have two slabs and I made two cuts with my tile saw to remove a portion of one slab for this cabochon.

A slab, in case you’re wondering, is a slice of a rock. These were thin — about 1/8 inch. I prefer them thicker — maybe 1/4 to 3/8 inch — so I can get taller, more rounded cabochons. You need a slab saw — a large saw capable of cutting through stone — to make slabs. I don’t have one but I have a friend who does. He’s been cutting slabs from local obsidian and petrified wood that I gave him in exchange for jewelry-making classes for his family. I’ll show off finished cabochons from that soon.

These finished stones and remaining slabs are for sale. I’ll be adding them to my ML Jewelry Designs website and its online store soon. I just need to get better photos of them.

Helicopter Minimum Altitudes

Posted on October 21, 2018 by Maria Langer

I’m working on a much longer blog post, with photos, about my recently completed autumn vacation, but I thought I’d put this shorter post out because it’s quick and on my mind.

It started with someone on Twitter sharing a video from inside the cockpit of a helicopter flying low and fast over a forest road. There were no cars on the road and no poles or wires. It was an exciting little flight that reminded me of the kind of canyon flying I used to do in some very familiar, remote areas of Arizona. See for yourself.

Here’s a screenshot from the video in question.

What followed was a bunch of comments, including some from a few people too lazy to look up the regulations who claimed that flying like that was illegal. When I pointed out that it was not illegal in the US, a particularly lazy, uninformed idiot quoted my tweet with a portion of the FARs in an attempt to prove me wrong. He didn’t. All he proved is that like so many people these days, he’s only capable of reading until he gets confirmation of what he wants the truth to be. The rest doesn’t matter.

Here’s the entire FAA regulation covering minimum flight altitudes in the US:

§91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.

Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:

(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.

(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.

(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.

(d) Helicopters, powered parachutes, and weight-shift-control aircraft. If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface—

(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA; and

(2) A powered parachute or weight-shift-control aircraft may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (c) of this section.

[Doc. No. 18334, 54 FR 34294, Aug. 18, 1989, as amended by Amdt. 91-311, 75 FR 5223, Feb. 1, 2010]

Did you read paragraph (d) and paragraph (1) right beneath it? I did, but the know-nothing twit pretending to be an expert on Twitter didn’t. It basically says that the paragraphs he quoted (paragraphs (b) and (c) above) don’t apply to helicopters.

I distinctly remember this FAR coming up during my primary training back in the late 1990s. It basically gives helicopter pilots permission to fly at any altitude they need or want to, given that “if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.”

Take a look at the video. It looks to me as if the pilot is 50-100 feet off the ground. He’s moving at a good clip — at least 60 knots. (I tried to read the airspeed indicator but couldn’t.) With that altitude and airspeed combination, he’s not operating in the shaded area of the height/velocity diagram (or “deadman’s curve“). That means that a safe emergency landing is possible. And with nice smooth pavement beneath him, there’s plenty of suitable space for a landing if it was necessary. So it’s not in violation of paragraph (a) either.

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Lots of people don’t get this. They assume the altitude rules apply equally to all aircraft. But they don’t. This makes it pretty clear. Trouble is, there are too many self-important assholes out there — especially on Twitter — who share inaccurate or incomplete information as fact — and too many lazy people willing to believe them without doing their own homework.

If you want to read more about this topic, here’s an old, long, rambling post I wrote about an experience related to this years ago.

Oh, and by the way, this post is about whether the flight is legal in the US. I won’t make any comments about whether it’s safe or whether the pilot is using good judgement. That’s a whole different topic.

Making Art From Nature

Posted on October 19, 2018 by Maria Langer

Taking jewelry making to the next level.

I’m feeling rather tickled right now. I just finished this sterling silver and Dorset Marble pendant.

If you follow this blog, you might be rolling your eyes right now. Big deal, you’re probably saying. Another pendant.

But this one is different.

You see, this is a stone I found on my visit to Dorset Quarry in Vermont earlier this month. I figure that an old marble quarry might have a few small pieces of marble lying around and I was right. I picked up about ten thin pieces to take home with me.

Then, yesterday, I took three of those pieces into my shop and used my CabKing to shape and polish them into cabochons.

And then today I picked the largest of the three marble cabs and wrapped it in sterling silver to make this pendant.

This photo gives you an idea of the stages of the creation process, from dirty stone to finished pendant:

And that’s why I’m tickled. I took something I found in the dirt on the other side of the country and turned it into a beautiful piece of jewelry.

Autumn 2018 Trip Postcards: Okemo Mountain Resort

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Maria Langer

Friday was a glorious day in Vermont and, after making a quick trip to Rutland with one of my hosts to run some errands, I headed out to Ludlow for a drive up Ludlow Mountain in the Okemo Mountain Ski Resort. My destination was a fire tower at the top of the mountain that would require a drive to a parking area near the top and a 1/2 mile uphill hike.

Fortunately, the road was paved and in decent condition — I’ve been driving my brother’s Maserati this trip and it does not like rough roads or potholes — so the trip to the top, which crossed several of Okemo’s ski runs and wound through the forest, was pleasant and smooth. I backed into a parking spot among about six other cars in a gravel lot. Then Penny and I continued the trip on foot though a half-open gate up a relatively steep gravel road running through dense forest. The sound of trickling water was present, coming from one side of the road or the other all along the way.

My host had told me that I’d have to walk to the ski lift to see the tower in order to find it. While it’s true that the tower wasn’t visible from the road, I did spot a small wooden sign pointing to a very narrow trail into the woods. The tower was just another 1/10 mile away. We took the path.

Although it was a bright, sunny day, the woods were dark and cool. The path was muddy in some places, with large boulders that kept me out of the mud as I climbed over them. Another sign at a fork in the trail directed me to the left. Moments later, we were at the bast of a small, five-story fire tower with spindly legs and a tiny wooden structure on top.

Here’s a view of the fire tower from its base. I shot this after my descent; three hikers are on their way up here.

The steps were steep and I had to carry Penny. (Another benefit of having a small dog.) I paused briefly for a look at each landing. The view kept getting better and better. The steps got steeper and narrower at each level. Soon we were through the trap door and standing in the tiny room at the top.

Here’s a panorama looking east from the fire tower.

I could also see Ludlow far down in the valley.

After about fifteen minutes of drinking in the view, I picked up Penny again and carefully made my way back down. We met some other hikers as we made our way back down the trail, including a couple who had stopped upon seeing a garter snake alongside the trail. He pointed it out to me and I got a good look as it slipped away into the brush. His wife was apparently terrified and I heard her whining to him about it even after I’d left them behind on the trail.

Back out on the sunny gravel road, we hiked up to the ski lift. As my host had said, I could see the fire tower from there.

The view of the fire tower from near one of the ski lifts.

I also got some great views looking down the mountain along the parked chairs of the lift.

A view down a ski lift at the top of Okemo Mountain Resort.

On the way back to the car, I poked around in the forest a bit. This time of year I’m always looking for chanterelle mushrooms. Although I didn’t find any there, I did find other mushrooms growing out of the forest floor.

The obligatory mushroom photo.

We spent a little more than an hour atop the mountain. then it was back in the car for the drive down and a lote lunch.

An Eclectic Mind

Web site and blog for Maria Langer, writer, video producer, jewelry artist, boat captain, and helicopter pilot. Blogging since 2003.