We got married Tuesday.

October 8th 2013 - Heidi and I got Married. We wanted to do this soon, and since there are so many changes coming ahead, now in Texas made sense for us.

The lake is beautiful and a big part of our recent lives, why not have the ceremony out on the lake ? Lake side? no Lake ON.

So we paddled on out. Heidi's Mom in the tandem kayak, Rev. Danny Jones in the Canoe. Heidi and I on windsurf boards.

It was a beautiful, calm, quiet, warm evening on the lake, somehow we managed to find the entire lake to ourselves.

We formed our flotilla, read some passages, said a few things, exchanged a few vows. Gloria gave Heidi away. We exchanged rings, (mine made from the nose plate of my favourite glider).

Rev. Dan did the paperwork, and boom, the big plunge, a wet kiss indeed !

And off into the sunset we paddled, husband and wife.

Thanks Rev. Danny ! A very momentous occasion.

Cave with no name

I love the other worldlyness of limestone caves. I figure it is the last opportunity for a while, so I surprised Heidi and Gloria with a trip to the "cave without a name"

The formations did not disappoint. One thing that surprised me were how many caves remain unexplored in Texas. If I were staying I'd definitely get down under. Access can be a challenge round these parts, but I think it is interest that is lacking. 

It is easy to be a tourist, but so much more fun exploring for yourself. I have fond memories of crawling through tight spots, diving through sumps, and climbing down freezing cold waterfalls underground as a kid. Seeing the formations all lit up from different angles is neat too though.

Texas centers

This image looks like a CD or a 2D picture, but it is actually the domed interior ceiling of the Capitol building in Austin. I'd been wanting to check out a "Capitol building" for a few years, and didn't realize one could simply just walk in and around. Since we were passing through Austin, it was a perfect break.

There were a few things inside worth seeing, the architecture is what drew me in. The Rotunda is almost filled with portraits of each Governor of the Texas state, and President of the Texas Republic as it was before it was a state. When the most recent Governor is replaced, a new portrait is put in the #1 spot and every picture moves one spot right or goes up a floor - 6 week process apparently.

The State Senate room, and House of Representatives room were just impressive to me, because of the significance and implications of decisions made in those rooms. Which is reason enough to generate somewhat of an atmosphere.

A few days earlier we found ourselves in downtown San Antonio early and decided to visit the "Tower of Americas". It was quiet and not expensive to go up and a good day for a view at 750ft Above Ground Level.

I think this is the only visit we've made to downtown San Antonio in the passed year, so it was a hello and farewell tour, with a quick stop in the historical Menger Hotel Tavern.

Engagement - Up in the air.

Link to Vimeo - Up in the air proposal.
Here is my first crack at a video.

The next iteration is going to have to wait for some better computer hardware. - Any of my video editing friends recommend a particular upgrade such as : an SSD / more RAM / graphics card ?
Does any particular one upgrade alleviate video processing bottle necks more than another ?

In the meantime enjoy :)

The BIG Plunge

Yesterday, with the help of Fly Texas and Danny, I took the big plunge.

We took off behind the boat, fairly well planned and rehearsed into a sky full of puffy clouds. I'm not great with secrets, but somehow I did manage to surprise Heidi when I popped the question. I had grandiose plans of putting on a bow tie and getting down on one knee.

Right off tow, I went to sneakely put on the bow tie, and snapped the elastic that I'd rigged for my head without a helmet, so slightly flustered I put it in my mouth. Not so good for speech delivery :) I rambled through my speech through my ear to ear grin, sort of flying the glider (I think I remember flying?). Surprised and laughing ecstatically she said yes.

Made for a memorable day, thanks to Dan and Jeff for helping me set up the day, and with the preparations the previous few weeks :) I am going to put a short movie clip together in the next few days.

The deck.

Here's a project started around Christmas time. Definitely took a good deal longer than I expected, but I like the result, it ended up pretty much how I envisioned. It started off as a dilapidated pool that had been covered over with a wood frame and tarp, which had since decayed.

Of course I always like to start out with a sketch of what I think I'm aiming for. The hot tub and pizza over were a little out of the budget but could be added later. The fire ring  idea turned out to be too smokey since the pool siding doesn't vent.

But most other things panned out well. The steps were the largest amount or construction. They make a nice place to sit and watch storms roll through. Cutting a passage through the side was easy, we just bent the metal pool siding around the corner and riveted some more pieces on.

The BBQ stand was a couple of days project, but matched the rustic style.

Heidi worked like crazy with a wire brush on wood grinding the sun damaged wood of the surface. While I replaced rotten and overly damaged boards. This was by far the most effort and took a couple of solid weeks labor.

Then I put on some siding to hide the ugly parts and we painted it with deckover, it took 10 gallons and was the most expense part of the project. The wood was all reused from other parts (even and old redneck bed frame). Heidi repainted the light pole and down pipes sand. I think it all looks fantastic.

Purgatory again.

Having missed the previous day due to a poor weather call on my part, I was looking for a nice touring flight around the scenic part of Texas. Joel towed Dan - the new Sport class national champ first, Dave , me and Andy. The cross-wind wasn't such an issue, but it did make for a bouncy climb-out.

Andy, Dan and I slowly climbed over Luling, then Dan and I took off toward San Marcos, with Canyon Lake as goal.

I was flying with a couple of cameras this flight, with the plan of capturing the scenery. It is hard to do justice to the spring and river with my point and shoot though, it's never really been the same since it's trip to the bottom of the swimming pool. The flight was all going swimmingly until I got over San Marcos. There I found considerable sink, but was also over the edge of airspace, all the lift looked farther in... 

I snapped a few shots and turned tail, heading for the nearest building cloud. Somehow that climb didn't really kick, and down I went into Purgatory (the name of the road). Still the retrieve was short - thanks Heidi :)  and flying over San Marcos was fun. Soon - I will get good pictures of the lake ! Dan made goal not long after, great job :)

US 2013 Nationals last few days.

With long flights and strongish tail winds there was scant spare time for socializing or posting a few pictures. The final scores look like this : final scores open class. During the week most of us spent over 27 hours in the air, roughly 4 hours a day. That's some excellent flying conditions. Here are my tracks.

Some days had us dodging some dramatic weather. This day was stopped, and the storm eventually caught us up in Big Spring. These 5 pictures of one of the many cloudbursts that afternoon were all taken in about 10 minutes.

You see some strange things in Texas. It took us a little while what was making these weird patterns in the desert sand, where team mate James landed.

Not sure what this creature is though ?

A new to me, piece of software was fun to use during the meet. Flytrace live tracks pilots (with a SPOT device) in the air. Its great for both retrieval and seeing how the day is going generally - and who is winning ;) and of course you can do all this from your smart phone, while you are out in the desert someplace. Well - while your battery lasts ;)

And just like that the week was over, body was sore from the amount of airtime, but happy with being in the top ten, and happy with the flying in general.  Certainly some good lessons learned and some fantastic experiences shared. Apologies for the lack of in-air shots, I just didn't get around to organizing my camera equipment. 

Attila from Hungry or Australia, won the meet, Zac 2nd will take the US National title, My Team mate James was 3rd. Great flying guys.

In the Sport class Danny from Texas took 1st and the rest of the results are here

And of course Linda won the womens' national title.

Congratulations to Davis and Belinda for organizing and running such a fun and successful competition.

Big spring day2

Nice to be at goal. It was touch and go for a bit. Did some chimney inspections 20 km from goal. 123 mile flight.  Glide to goal went from 40:1 to 20:1 without actually climbing. So yep it was windy. 

Good times with good buds :) and Heidi has been driver extraordinaire.