Saturday, June 25, 2011

Going Away, Coming Back, Being Home

KenmoreAir has been flying us in smaller planes than their Cessna Grand Caravans. These are Piper Navajos; only one less passenger seat, but much less baggage space and presumably more fuel efficient. Anyway off we went. Just after takeoff I had a good look at Ocean View Cemetery, where S. and I visited Raymond Carver's grave last month; the Olympics were looking all snowy and distinguished under a mostly cloudy sky.

  

Florida had four generations of my family in it, and ibises. I don't talk about them here.

I thought mostly about the Pacheco Fire above Santa Fe where I used to live.

The trip home was endless, nineteen hours from wake-up to walk-in-the-door-at-home. The nonstop flight from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas flew right past the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and I saw the fire plainly. It was still early in the morning, no towers of smoke but only a steady low puffing, with winds spreading the smoke and carrying it east across Puerto Nambe and Santa Fe Baldy. (Later the same day the fire was very active and burned into Rio Capulin, lofting 24,000' columns of smoke.) On the Las Vegas/Seattle flight had a fantastic good view of Crater Lake. I was too busy looking to think of getting out the camera, until it was too late.

Back on Kenmore, flying in past the harbor, I could see a log ship, which appeared to be already fully loaded, and several other big ships moored around. I meant to get down to the harbor Friday after I went to work at the tribe, but somehow didn't manage it. Looked out the window in the afternoon and there by golly was the log ship steaming west. No, I never looked it up, have no idea who she was. Shame on me. I'm disgraced as a ship-watcher.

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