American Transience
 

The Lord knows the days of the upright,
And their inheritance shall be forever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time,
And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
But the wicked shall perish;
And the enemies of the Lord,
Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish.
Into smoke, they shall vanish away.

Psalm 37:18-20

Popcorn popped. Can't wait to read the adventures that are about to be shared!

I was literally just wishing yesterday that you would post another spectacular adventure on here!

Great
 

Oh great and I thought I was going to achieve something at work this week. Now I'm checking VansAirforce every 10 min.

Sounds like a wonderful trip Scott. Thank you for sharing with us.

Thanks again for your help in Merced.

Can't wait!!
 

Hi Scott,

I was telling my girlfriend about your amazing adventure last year. She is going to read it this weekend. I was mentioning that I doubt you would be doing another long adventure for a while.

I log on and here's another incredible adventure. Absolutely can't wait.

I'm going to have to bug out on this thread. too much foreshadowing of gloom and despair to come. I feel like I'm back in Church.

Wow... powerful as always. What's sticking with me right now is the photos of the hotel. I once co-wrote a song called "Outlook In"... a wistful acoustic ballad. I think my lyrics might fit somehow with your transient tale:

Doesn’t always go the way you want it to
You don’t always get to do what you want to do
There are times it seems you’re chasing all of your dreams
And they’re getting away

It can’t always go your way
It won’t always be your day
But you wait it out, and the good times
They may return

Oh well, oh well
Oh well, oh well

(written by Dan Frost and Martin Filiatrault; from the Dan Frost Confluence album "Positive Identity"; copyright Elephant Trunk Music BMI and Clownbreath Productions 2005)

I'll follow along for most of the story and the cool pics, but, since I don't do religion or church, the god-stuff narrative is lost on me...

But, I dig these trip reports; makes me wish I had the time to do a long haul trip around the country like this.

Let's let Scott reflect in his logbook. I will be still,,,,and listen.

Respectfully
HR

Scott, does your still camera yield the wide aspect ratio, or are you cropping the photos that way?

Scooter

Press on

Boomer

Squished
 

Scott, I saw that somebody ask about the format you were using for your pictures and I see that you changed it.
Now they are squished too narrow. They were perfect before :-(
Is that what everyone else is seeing?

>>Problem Fixed, thanks!

They started showing up squished at post 23. Perfect before that. At least on my end.

Yep, they're a bit squished. Another problem; now I want to move to McCall, Idaho!! Looks just a wee bit purtier than SE Texas...

Scott, I'm loving the detailed narrative and quantity of pics. Thanks for taking the time to post about your adventure for those of us following along through our monitors. Inspiring stuff.

Side note: pics look fine to me. They aspect ratio is wider than the average 4:3 picture, but I imagine that is intentional.

are you still on this voyage or is this finished, I see July 4th?

40 days
 

I thought it was a 40 day trip that was day 4:)

Almost like writing a book.
 

Scott is probably going to be posting this trip write up over the next month or so. It takes me quite a while to even make a single post and I'm still having trouble posting a single photo. I can't imagine the time it's taking Scott to arrange all his photos and trip notes into a presentable flowing presentation. :)

I'm in Scott, keep it coming.

Great Stuff
 

I'm in too Scott. Your comments make me chuckle and I love the photos and the journey you are on. God speed.

Keep it coming!!
 

I'm not religious at all, but am liking the exploration aspects of this trip. I can't wait to get my plane done and start exploring like this. Great pics of America so far!!

Nice trip log, thanks for bringing it to us, I lived in Mc Call for a few years in the 70s as a kid, I can still see main street has not changed much, but the rest of the town has exploded, reminds me of Tahoe a little, Nebraska looked like a ghost town, spooky looking.

What a great day for you!

Unfortunately the Perryville flying only got to #2 on my priority list that weekend as a bunch of my college friends descended on Chicago instead. Sorry to have missed you Scott!

I did make it to PCD for the eclipse fly-in. For such a small community, they did a great job taking care of the reported 139 airplanes that flew in. According to a local police officer welcoming incoming pilots we were #105. They also have the best fuel price around! I was fortunate that they got their fuel sales up and running shortly after my first flight, and I had included PCD in my Phase I test area.

I've often been surprised and occasionally amused at the randomness of dropping in at small town airports. Sometimes you are totally alone, not a soul in sight. Other times you just stumble into events like pancake fly-ins, local celebrations and a lot of other random stuff -- usually cool. You really just roll the dice and see what happens.

Glad to see you are enjoying the country side, looks like a lot of these airports are becoming ghosts towns, is the privet pilot becoming extinct? not much going on aviation wise? enjoying your posts.

Is it just me?
 

Is it just me? But are we starting to see a resurgence in general aviation due to all the airlines' missteps? Seems like a record crowd at Osh this year may be some forshadowing? Or maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part.

Thanks for highlighting the beauty of midle America.

It seems to me that the airports/runways are doing OK (perhaps due to FAA money?) but the FBOs are slowly disappearing and only self-serve fuel is remaining...

The towns themselves seem to be looking a bit, shall we say, less than prosperous. Perhaps this is all a sign of the population shift to the larger urban areas.

Which isn't so good for GA, if that's the case, due to the crowded airspace environment and the lack of local facilities.

Dave

Indeed. Jekyll Island is also the birthplace of the Federal Reserve Bank. See The Creature from Jekyll Island.

Thank you Scott for your VAF Novels posted, not only the inspiration to fly your RV like many dream too but also your talent in writing. Your honest ups and downs of small airports is all too real, I still can't help smiling about the latest natural emergency I've experienced several times just off the runway prior to the hold short line....
I've read a couple of the complaints in this thread, Perhaps some have quit looking forward to the next chapter and some have discontinued. As for me keep writing it as you see it because I'm looking forward to it!

I agree, with the prior poster. I thoroughly enjoy your travel reports (as well as all others such as Vlad's etc). Having made a month ago a cross country flight which started in N. CA and went via Oshkosh to Belfast ME and then back, I have some empathy for your experiences, though I don't camp. Keep the reports coming--I am a subscriber and look forward to each one!

There is an important lesson to be taken from Scott's experience. It's about time. We have so little of it and are willing to share even less of it. Yet it is only in sharing our time with others that we experience the truest generosity of spirit.

I'm building my aircraft at the airport and have lost countless hours of "productivity" as a result of folks walking into the hangar. I welcome them all. Some of them come with idle curiosity, some with a burning passion for flight, and yet others with stories which have enriched my life. All in exchange for a little bit of my time. It's a great tradeoff. Spend some time with a stranger - you never know just how that visit may change your life.

Having spent 9+ years building -4,always had garage doors open ,an welcomed all kinds of visitors,exchanged many stories,it's the people we share time with that makes aviation so great and wonderful !

These serial adventures from Scott (and of course Vlad) make the workday shorter and a whole lot more inspiring...keep them coming...

Nice write up about Immokalee, FL (KIMM) . Your statement "Once I crossed the first major intersection and began pedaling through downtown, I began to wonder if I was even in America anymore. It looked more to me like I was in Mexico." just goes to emphasize that "America" is so much more than the single ethnic nation some think it is. You really realize the grandeur of America when you fly to and experience places like this.

:cool:

note from a moderator
 

Let's not inject politics or current events into Scott's travelogue. He is documenting his amazing journey, extraneous posts are non-productive and could run afoul of VAF policy.

Agree - I deleted my post

Air mattress?
 

Scott--

I was wondering about your air mattress. Do you have to blow that up by mouth every time you want to use it, or do you have a 12V compressor?