America From 5,000 Feet

Aircraft:
Piper Arrow II (PA28R)

Distance:
6064 nautical miles
6,978.3 statute miles

Destinations:
24 different airports

Time:
61.2 flying hours
22 days 

Thanks, Mom :)

The final leg back to Chesapeake, VA

 Today is the day that our trip comes to an end.  We will be traveling north along the eastern seaboard with our final destination being that same place we left three weeks ago.  It’s going to be bittersweet coming back to Chesapeake this evening.  We will have successfully completed our trip and will be back with friends and family.  But it will mark the end to the biggest adventure of our lives.

Henry Miller’s quote, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things,” is a good summary of what we’ve experienced on our trip.  We’ve been to dozens of airports, from cities to wide open fields, ocean to ocean, but when I think back on things, I don’t remember a runway.  I remember the the scenery, the clear sky at night, waking up with the sun, and meeting people who all led their lives in these tiny corners of the country.  We’ve learned to see things in a new way.  We met people who had never been east of the Mississippi, whose entire world was this place that neither of us ever thought we’d find ourselves in.  It’s made us appreciate how lucky we are, not only to have the ability to travel, but to live in a country in which we can freely move and see its beauty.

I hope those of you that have received mementos from this trip have enjoyed hearing from us.  For those of you who have not yet gotten something in return for your generous donations, don’t worry, we will be sending them out in the next few days as we wrap everything up.  

We will of course be posting more as we look back on “America From 5,000 Feet” but for now know that the journey is coming to an end.  We can’t thank every single one of you enough.  Just knowing that you’ve been keeping up with us on this website has made us feel enormously blessed.  We hope to see all of you soon and celebrate our successful journey. 

We returned to the East coast yesterday morning and landed at Spruce Creek Fly-In here in Port Orange, FL. 

Final Approach to Runway 36 at New Orleans Lakefront

Departing College Station, TX yesterday morning, we flew to New Orleans, Louisiana to grab lunch on the historic Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of downtown New Orleans. After an enjoyable flight over scattered clouds in Texas, we encountered a severe storm system that was building up just to the West of New Orleans. We passed over the Mississippi River (this time at the southern coast!), and set up for our final approach into New Orleans Lakefront Airport. With the storm approaching very quickly, I kept the speed up to try and beat the rain. Upon landing, I encountered my first microburst, which is a sudden downdraft of air that spreads outward in all directions. I was landing on a runway pointed directly north and winds were reported to be calm when we were approximately one mile away. Just as I crossed the threshold, a sudden gust of wind came from the East and blew us off of the runway. I reacted by lowering my right wing and lining myself up with the runway again before touching down. The control tower then reported to us that winds had suddenly gusted from the East up to 25 mph just as I had crossed the threshold. When we turned onto the taxiway, the rain and lightning caught up with us. If we had been 30 seconds slower, we wouldn’t have been able to land. After waiting for the rain to clear, we drove into town and ate at La Bayou on Bourbon Street. We ordered fried alligator as an appetizer and authentic creole jambalaya for lunch. 

After leaving Phoenix last Thursday, we flew through the morning and arrived in Austin, TX. It was the first time that I saw a sunrise from an airplane. Since we were both completely exhausted from the seven hour flight, we slept virtually all day. The weekend was spent with friends in Austin, TX at the University of Texas, and then in College Station, TX at Texas A&M University. Ryan and I both thoroughly enjoyed celebrating our arrival and visiting with our friends that we rarely get to see. 

Phoenix, AZ

Storm at the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon, AZ

This morning, we grabbed some souvenirs from Ocean Beach in San Diego, CA and departed Montgomery Field to fly a long four hours to Phoenix via the Grand Canyon. Ryan and I were both extremely impressed by this natural landmark and were glad to be able to take pictures of the canyon from this rare perspective. Regulations permitted us to fly along the canyon at low altitudes tracing the Colorado River. Thunderstorms were developing just North of our location and we decided to proceed to Phoenix.

Surf City, California

It is very common for plans to change during our flight trips. Twice now, our destination has changed during flight and it’s always turned out to be a great experience. We left San Francisco and were halfway to Oceano when we were able to receive the automated weather from that area. It turned out that fog wouldn’t allow us to land at Oceano, so we’d have to be diverted elsewhere. When I pulled out our aviation maps to look for alternates, we noticed that Los Angeles wasn’t very far. At that point, we both realized that in order to adequately experience America (for our viewers’ sake of course), we’d need to properly experience Los Angeles, CA. We landed at Long Beach airport and reserved a hotel room at the Waterfront Hilton Resort across the street from Huntington Beach (please understand that these expenses came from personal savings and that all donations were applied towards airplane costs). The concierge at the Hilton offered us a beach side room on the tenth floor. Ryan asked, “Is it sweet?”   “…yeah, it’s sweet.”   “…okay, we’ll take it.” Needless to say, we really enjoyed this form of camping a lot better. The next day, we explored Huntington Beach and watched the US Open of Surfing for a few hours. We also decided to go visit downtown Los Angeles, eat lunch with Peyton Rose at UCLA, and then go see Hollywood. Later that evening, we departed Long Beach and headed to San Diego. The sunset over Southern California was very impressive. We flew past Long Beach, Laguna Beach, and Miramar (where Top Gun was filmed). Today, we plan to explore San Diego!

Today, we spent a few hours in downtown San Francisco. We were both impressed by the culture here, particularly all of the street performers. We saw the one-man band, street acrobats, mimes, dancers, and various musicians. So far, we’ve been to numerous cities and have realized how vastly different cities are, but also how similar they can be. Now, we’re packing up and getting ready to camp at Oceano, California tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll be on our way to Los Angeles and Catalina Island! Expect great pictures!