Everyone can relax – I found the notes. They were in the margins of the Sudoku book I use on flights, to take my mind off the fact that we are ignoring the laws of gravity and relying on “flight physics” or whatever to be transported from point A to point B.

What I failed to do, during the trip, was keep the camera handy on the plane, so I didn’t get any shots through the windows. Sorry ’bout that.

During the leg from Phoenix to Denver, I had a middle seat so the Sudoku kept my attention. On the leg from Denver to Tampa, however, the view out the window kept pulling me away from the puzzles. I used to live in the Denver area, and I was happy to see it come into view, and very sorry to see it go.

Once in the air towards Tampa, I noticed some of the crop fields that were in circles (radial irrigation, with a fixed point and sprinklers on pipes that travel in a circle to water the crops) were planted in sections; this caused a bit of curiosity in the farmer part of me – were these different crops? Same crop in different stages? I noticed this first over the Colorado/Kansas line, but it continued for some time.

Just before we crossed into Kansas, I happened to glance out and down in time to see a westbound airplane below us. We weren’t at the correct angle to catch the name of the airline, but it was close enough to make out the window shapes. I had just read an article in Popular Science that the navigation rules allowed for separation of just 1000 feet, in place of the older 2000 foot rule.

In case you are wondering how I knew where the flight was, Frontier Airlines has DirecTV available in the seat-back sets. Being the miserly sort I didn’t buy any channels, so my set was stuck on the advertising that rotated with a mapquest view of heading, altitude, and speed. (PHX – DEN 500 – 505 mph @ 30K feet; DEN – TPA 525 – 605 mph @ 37K to 40K feet) They also serve Coke products and Sun Chips, so I was in heaven. (wait – don’t tell my wife I drank Coke on the flight. I’m supposed to be sticking to water)

I forget, living in the arid southwest, that the midwest and southern states are very damp. There are meandering rivers with the attendant ox-bow lakes, silver dollars of ponds and short strips of man-made lakes everywhere you look from above.

As much driving all over the country as I have done, I still marvel at the land; it’s folds and wrinkles, flat land and mountains, the way the water has left it’s signature on the formation of this land mass. Seeing it from the air increases my sense of God in all things – even as I am praying that this hollow tube of aluminum continue to defy the law of gravity.

The mighty Mississippi – a whole lot of water in no particular hurry to join the Gulf of Mexico. Alongside, more ox-bows, and evidence of very old ox-bows, left behind, eventually filling into a marsh, then solid ground, and now being tilled and worked by farmers. A high bank on one side, and a shallow rise on the other of a crescent field in the middle of the checkerboard that is found everywhere farms are staked by fences.

Crossing into Alabama, I catch sight of something new – below us, there are several large fires, almost like entire fields on fire, the long trails of thick white smoke pointing to the east explaining our air speed of over 600 mph – with a tailwind, we are making good time. Again, my curiosity is aroused – what’s burning? Is it fallow field, being cleared of unwanted growth? Random lightening strikes? (that can’t be it – it’s a clear day, with high clouds – actually, the clouds are below us) I spotted these fires even in southwest Georgia and the panhandle of Florida.

The flight crews on Frontier are friendly and seem to enjoy their job. They don’t have the polished banter and patter of Southwest, but they do keep things light and enjoyable.

Next time: A photographic journey of the drive from Tampa to Phoenix. Be warned – I only stop for gas, and this is mostly flat land!

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