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This photo was taken facing SouthEast on Wednesday, June 16th 2021 at 12:17pm MDT.

Where the picture(s) were taken:

KSAF-KBOI

Santa Fe NM to Boise ID, a little over 800 miles at 16,000 feet. Towards the end of the flight there were front quarting winds of 54 knots which slows down a 200 knot cruise a little bit.

ATC (Air Traffic Control) brought us in very high, over 11,000 feet, with about 15 miles to the airport. Boise is at 4,000 feet above sea level so we had to lose 7,000 in 15 miles while travelling about 200 miles per hour. This means we had about 4 minutes to drop 7,000 feet, or about 1,700 feet per minute for what seemed a very long time.

Fortunately we were straight in runway 28L cleared to land.

Slow the airplane down to under 117 knots, flaps full, speed brakes up, point the airplane nose down aiming to be at 500 feet at just about the short final distance to the runway. In this configuration the airplane speed never increases above 100 knots so that once you get to short final height you can level out and make a normal landing.

The day was beautiful with many scenic sights along the way.

Duchesne River Canyon near Myton UT.

Random moutain ridge with snow near Kamas UT.

All the ski resorts near Park City UT.

The Great Salt Lake.

Had a late lunch at a Mediterranean place in Santa Fe NM - La Casa Sena - just off the main square. The food was excellent and the drinks were fantastic!

Cumber Gin & Tonic

• Aviator’s Gin
• Fever-Tree Cucumber Tonic Water
• Very thin slice of cucumber for looks
• Lots of ice
• Pretty glass (Ridel!)

Elderflower Gin & Tonic

• Aviator’s Gin
• Fever-Tree Elderflower Tonic Water
• Edible flowers on top
• Lots of ice
• Pretty glass (Ridel!)

This photo was taken facing South on Monday, June 14th 2021 at 1:43pm MDT.

Where the picture(s) were taken:

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This photo was taken facing North on Monday, June 14th 2021 at 8:35am MDT.

Where the picture(s) were taken:

Last few days Robyn and I have revisited all the great food places we’ve eaten at before (plus a few more).

We found a great little new place to sit, relax, and have a glass of wine - Herves.

It was unusally hot for Santa Fe and Herves had semi-indoor seating in the shade with pretty good wine. We ordered Bruschetta. Robyn’s was with hummus, sun dried tomatoes and red peppers. My was salmon and green chili cream topped with dried capers. Both were pretty yummy.

Here is a closeup of the Bruschetta with hummus, sun dried tomatoes and red peppers. I definitely need to try and recreate this when we get back to Florida.

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This photo was taken facing SouthEast on Friday, June 11th 2021 at 3:33pm MDT.

Where the picture(s) were taken:

KINF-KSHV-KSAF

Robyn and I flew from Inverness FL to Santa Fe NM stopping for gas in Shreveport LA. Beautiful day for flying. About 8 hours in the air and 1,700 miles in distance. We left Inverness FL at 6:33am EST and arrived in Santa Fe NM just before 2pm MST.

We averaged 220 mph and 17.7 miles per gallon.

Landing at Shreveport was very interesting because on short final (about 2 miles from the airport) we overflew Barksdale AFB at about 1,000 feet above all the B-52 bombers sitting on the ramps.

The weather into Shreveport as overcast clouds 1,200 feet to about 3,000 feet. We did the ILS 14 breaking out of the clouds at about 1,200 feet above ground right above the B-52 bombers. If I wasn’t so busy trying to land I could of had some great pictures of the Air Force flight line.

Flight from Shreveport LA to Santa Fe NM was very nice. Overflew Iowa Park TX along the way and saw the Bradford’s old house.

This was a long day of flying and the rest of the flying days will be much shorter.

About a month ago Robyn and I flew to South Padre Island Texas to visit with my son and friends. We had never flown into Harlingen TX before so this time we flew into Harlingen and rented a car to drive to South Padre. While at a local Harlingen AT&T store we asked where was a good place to eat. They referred us to Pepe’s Mexican restaurant. Robyn and I stopped there for lunch and had some of the best guacamole I had ever had.

I knew that when we got back to Florida I would have to try and recreate the receipe.

After a couple of tries Robyn and I think the receipe is pretty close.

The guacamole only takes about 5 minutes to make you end up with about 5 cups (quite a bit).

There are a couple of key concepts to get right to have the perfect guacamole.

• use fresh ingredients
• use a molcajete (large mortar and pestle)
• mix loosely to get a nice chunky-ness

Let’s start with the ingredients:

• 2 japalenos
• 2 avacados
• 1/2 onion
• 3 roma tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 bunch of cilantro
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

What is a molcajete?

From wikipedia - “The molcajete was used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures, including the Aztec and Maya, stretching back several thousand years. Traditionally carved out of a single block of vesicular basalt, molcajetes are typically round in shape and supported by three short legs.”

I got ours on Amazon. They mostly come in sizes of 2 cups, or 4 cups. I managed to find a 5 cup version, but it is really heavy.

The secret to getting the consistency correct is in how the ingredients are mixed.

First dice the hard ingredients: japalenos, onion, cilantro, garlic. And then place the diced ingredients into the molcajete along with the salt and pepper.

Now mash the petsle until you get the consistency of the mixure you like. I usually grind for less than one minute.

Diced and ready to grind

Ground to consistency we like

Dice the roma tomatoes and place them in a medium sized bowl. Add the ground mix you must made also:

Last we need to mash up the guacamole. We use one Haas and one normal? avacado. Cut the avacado in half and scoop the avacado out with a spoon into the molcajete. Mash up the avacado until you get the consistency you like. We like it a little chunky.

Avacado just spooned into the molcajete

Avacado mashed

Add the avacado to the mixing bowl that already has the diced roma tomatoes and the ground mix of japalenos, onions, etc..

Stir everything up in the mixing bowl with a large soup spoon. Put it back in the molcajete to have a great serving presentation.

Ham Radio Shack

A year ago Christmas I got my Amateur Extra Class ham radio license. I’ve been slowly accumulating radio stuff to eventually put together a ham radio station (shack).

Things have changed quite a bit since I used to sit as a young kid and watch my dad work his ham radio rig. His rig was very large, contained many tubes, had tons of dials, and a confusing amount of switches on the front.

I ended up getting a tiny, state-of-the-art, SDR (software-defined-radio) that covers many different ham radio bands. It is probably the Swiss Army Knife of ham radios.

I bought a smallish, unobtrusive, multi-band antenna and today I finally got it installed:

A small test of receive capability quickly got me listening to people from Vermont, California, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, etc.

I’ll have to try this a little more once I get back from summer vacation.

Summer Vacation 2021

Early last year (before COVID) Robyn and I started planning our 2021 Summer of Travel adventure which will begin mid next month. We have access to a small private plane and will be fly clockwise around the United States. We flew counter-clockwise several years ago and had a great adventure.

We’ll be meeting up with various friends and family along the route. The dates on the map are approximate because adverse weather may affect our travel days here and there. The McMinnville, Newport and Mackinac Island dates are pretty solid. If you are close to any of the cities on the days we’ll be there, and want to meet up, let us know.

When we get ready to fly I’ll post the flightaware.com link for people that want to following our travels. The hours on the map are approximate flight hours to get from one city to another. Our first travel day to Santa Fe NM is the longest (6.5 hours of flying) requiring a stop for gas in Little Rock AR.