Ted Grussing
… I like the name and I like the feeling of being out there on the highways … or above them. It was a nice flight down to Falcon this morning and it was nice to have the talented people at Performance One Aviation finishing up a few minor blips I had with some of the avionics in the ship. Falcon is kind of a mess these days with runway and taxiway closures, but today I got to fly a more or less normal glider pattern (none of that 5 mile final stuff) and they approved a climbing turn to the north on takeoff … which translated into a climbing right turn beginning at about fifty feet above the runway climbing at 1650 feet per minute … a thanks to the tower for the courtesy, frequency change approved and on the way back to Sedona.
I decided to fly a little lower so I could get better views of the terrain along the Verde River and leveled at 8500’ msl … but the clouds beckoned … after getting a wide grin on my face looking out at the wings and that great feeling of I’m really up here ( I try never to lose that feeling) I pushed the throttle full forward and pulled back on the stick and went above the clouds . What fun!!! I started my descent after crossing into the Verde Valley and headed north well east of Camp Verde. I looked at SR 260 wending its way up and out of Camp Verde and the Verde Valley and remembered the many times that we have driven that route … first into Pine and Strawberry and then on to visit friends in Payson. It was beautiful with fields of yellow wild flowers, beautiful blue skies with puffy white clouds. It just had a warm feel and it is good to see more than just the beauty of Red Rock Country … so put yourself in one of those cars down there on the highway and look around you as you travel up the road. How fortunate can we be?
Home, visited with a few friends and then to the Hilton for dinner with friends and the magical music of my friend Anthony Mazzella … I hope that you will attend the Salon that Andrea Houchard and I are presenting at the Mary D. Fisher Theater this Saturday at 1:30PM and you can buy tickets at: : http://prod5.agileticketing.net/WebSales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=31411~e8932fbb-a9ae-4437-a638-ff0cf1793527& This will have some of the very best aerial shots I have taken.
After the salon, relax, shop some of the galleries … go across the street to Zainey’s for a frozen yogurt, stop in at Sedona Giclee Gallery next door to look at some beautiful work that friends of mine have hanging on the walls there. Then head down the road to Relics Restaurant where Anthony will be performing in the evening and I’ll be there collecting the admission to the show … $15 if you are eating otherwise $20 … this is my new career path … Anthony has promised me a cheeseburger somewhere down the road … or was it a steak?
Have a beautiful day … your choice … why would you not choose to have a good one?
And smile … what a treat to be breathing and interact with friends, family and those who will be.
Cheers
Ted
But from the brooding beauty of the night, and daily dancing shafts of golden sun …
The mystery and wonder of the world … that play the soundless music of the soul
And fill the heart with memory’s olden dreams … From these will come at last your faith in God.
— Max Ehrmann