Our yard in a magazine...kind of

Our landscape designer, Beth Mullins, pulled a few strings and got our yard into Gardenista.
Although the pictures are a couple years old, it's still pretty true to the original plan. The plants are much bigger, of course, and we have removed and replaced a couple that just weren't working out.

RETIREMENT!

So, I boxed up all my old uniforms...aside from one set for prosperity. Pretty surreal. Funny thing, about 6 months ago, shopping at Safeway, we bought a 300 count sandwich baggies. At that point I realized THAT was the last box of baggies we would ever need to buy. Just told that story to Kim today, and she flipped out..not really.. but was a reality check, for sure!  

We had a wonderful time with Holly and Randy New Years at Key West, Florida. It was a triple celebration, H&R's 25th Wedding Anniversary, Holly's 55th Birthday, and my retirement, after 35 years with FedEx. Tall Ship sunset cruise, Float plane trip to the Dry Tortugas, and Fort Jefferson, and a bucket list, for me, a ride in a Pitts Special! Fred Cabanas gave me the ride of my life in his S2-C. He took off, held it low over the runway, then a hard pull to almost vertical to leave the pattern! He quickly gave me the controls, and asked to level at 3000. Wasn't too hard, but the Pitts was like nothing I had ever flown. Leveled out, then Fred then says to put it in a dive. Not sure of the airspeed, but he says "pull up"..."more"... for a loop. Next, aileron rolls.."hard right".. COOL! A couple more rolls,a couple more loops, and He asks me what's next. I told him I wanted him to fly, hammerheads? First hammerhead, we went on our back and fell through. Next one, Fred nailed it and we did a beautiful turn back to vertical straight down He does 4, and 8 point hesitation rolls, an Immelman, a Cuban 8 with snap rolls on the 45 degree down line, and then....a Lomcovak! And a good one, at that, at least that's what Fred said. We did tumble, end over end, and that was the only time the whole ride that I felt just a little confused! We started back to the airport, and Fred told me to fly it back. Runway in sight, probably 2 miles, and 20 degrees out, I FLY IT BACK! Fred says to get it down to about 10 feet...at 200 mph mind you... and fly down the runway. End of the runway he says "pull hard", and up we go, this time I'm flying. Unbelievable. Fred, then quickly takes the controls, and we're on the ground 10 second later.

The Galloping Ghost crash

The Reno National Air Races always coincide with my birthday. In 2011 this was Friday, September 16. Around 4:25 p.m. I witnessed what would be the most terrifying thing, up to this point, in my life. My good friends Bill Clark, and Steve Kuhn, were sitting in Section 2, just 100 yards or so east of the Box Seats where the plane crashed. A woman maybe 20 feet in front of us got hit with debris. We dodged one that day....

I've collected some of the better videos, as well as some shots of the beautiful rebuild of this amazing aircraft. We were all pulling for Jimmy this year, and it was looking great until IT HAPPENED.

EAA Sport Aviation article about Jimmy, and the Ghost.
WarbirdAeroPress photos of the rebuild.
Jason Schillereff's fine video of the last race, including the dramatic over-bank, and pitch-up.
This video was shot very close to where we were.
A nicely edited YouTube video.
Not real sure how this person managed to keep shooting. A bit close!

Italy 2011

Havasupi Hike

After an 8 mile hike to Supai Village, Johnny and I did an additional 4 mile round-trip to Havasu Falls. Next day, a 7 mile round trip to the New Falls, Havasu, and Mooney Falls. Everyone in our group hikes out the next morning, but Kim and I opted to helicopter out. Quite the E-Ticket ride.

ifly INDOOR SKYDIVING

Kim and I defied gravity the other day, if only for about a minute at a time.
Lots of fun!

Backyard Makeover

2 months and 2 days from the spray paint to planting 107 plants. Beth Mullins from Flora Grubb Gardens designed the space using some oddities we already had.