My Simulated Flights in 2025

I've been flying with the X-Plane 11 and Microsoft 2020 simulators quite often this year, starting with the Douglas DC-3, then moving on to the Boeing 737-800, and more recently, a lot of flights in the Boeing 787-10. I'm still mostly adhering to my favorite way of doing this -- saving the flight after I land, and then picking up where I left off, to head somewhere new. I got overwhelmed with doing my usual verbose descriptions of each flight over on my VirtuallyAloft blog, so I took a break from that, and for the time being, I'm capturing my flights into a free account on the my.flightradar24.com website. If you click on that link, you will first see a world map, with all my recent flights overlaid on it. You can use the "Camera Controls" widget in the lower right corner to pan around, and zoom in and out on the map. You can also click here to see a tabular list of my flights. 

Snowy Saturday

Chilly 27°F Saturday, and heading down to 9° tonight. It’s been snowing lightly for most of the day. The kitties enjoyed the view from the breakfast nook door out to the deck, which was busy with squirrels and birds. 

I enjoyed today’s snow from the comfort of the DC-3 cockpit while flying in Alaska, on my way from Cold Bay to Dutch Harbor. The overcast and visibility in Dutch Harbor were both too low to safely complete the instrument approach. I gave it a couple of tries, then resolved to head somewhere else, when suddenly the simulator retrieved a weather update…

Suddenly the sky cleared, which made the approach and landing a piece of cake. Good flying karma today… Then I went out and shoveled some of the light fluffy stuff off of the driveway…

Beginning of decorating

We started decorating the house for the Christmas holiday today. The kitties have been paying close attention to all the changes. Here’s Rufus exploring the tree skirt. 

Bean checking out the nutcrackers

Rufus getting in the way in the kitchen

Rufus in an ornament box

Christmas tree with lights in the breakfast nook

Christmas tree closeup - needles and lights

Christmas tree in the front yard with lights and snow

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving 2024! I took “the girls” out to a Thanksgiving buffet, at the Garden Terrace Café, in the Inverness Hotel, about 20 minutes from here. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! And no cleanup! No leftovers, either...

Saturday bike ride

 

With cold weather and snow in the forecast, this might be my last bike ride of the winter season. I am hoping to sneak out whenever it gets sunny enough to dry out the trails. We’ll see…

Friday ride

Fun to get back in the saddle for a Friday ride, after being away for awhile. l had a chance encounter with a squirrel running through my front wheel, or maybe just behind it. It happened so fast, I barely caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my left eye, then heard/felt some frantic activity underneath me, before everything quieted down and I continued with my ride. I’ve heard of this kind of thing resulting in serious injury and worse, so I’m feeling pretty lucky. 🤷‍♂️ 

Sharing a few photos from today…

Fall colors have arrived in our view from the breakfast table. 

Snowy Egret on a rock in the South Platte River. 

Cormorant on a rock by rapids in the South Platte River. 

Cycling event organizers taking down some of their signs after an event. 

Railroad tracks curving toward Denver, with the Rocky Mountains in the background. 

I’m seeing more red leaves along my bike rides. 

Purple and green colors along the Highline Canal Trail. 

Pleasant view of fence and fall color along the Lee Gulch trail. 

A little flash of red beside the Highline Canal Trail. 

Pretty reflections on the lake at Sterne Park during an after-dinner walk with our neighbors. 

Crested Butte

We drove to the little town of Crested Butte this week, and did a little exploring and fall color viewing. 

The town is nestled in the shadow of Mt Crested Butte, 

A photo from our delightful Monday scenic Colorado drive through Kenosha Pass…

Spectacular view from Cottonwood Pass. 

We tried a shortcut that put us on a rutted dirt road for a dozen or so miles. Not expected, but also not too bad. 

Saw some more colorful flora and some striking mountain peaks. 

Finished our Monday with a short walk to Secret Stash Pizza for a pesto pizza for dinner, and a great sunset.

Cool 35° Tuesday morning walk in Crested Butte

Tuesday afternoon drive over Kebler Pass to Paonia, for some great views and a delicious late lunch at Rio Brava.

Wednesday afternoon hike on Mt Crested Butte — we got some exercise, checked out the ski area, and saw lots of the Colorado Fall color!

Trying Fedora 40

Every once in awhile, I boot my laptop computer into a different operating system - Fedora Linux. I miss my many work years of developing on a Linux system, with the command line terminals, the programming shells, and the VIM text editor, so I find it fun to step into a tiny version of that world, and see how things are going. 

I started messing with Linux at home in 2020, struggling a little with USB flash drives, trying to set one up with a bootable Linux image, and I eventually succeeded, but it was unbearably slow. It wasn't until later, that I discovered that some USB flash drives (including mine) don't support simultaneous reading and writing of data, which is an impossible constraint in a bootable disk. 

 

I resolved that issue completely, by setting up an external USB hard drive with a Fedora Linux boot image. I think back then, Fedora was at version 31, and I've been updating it occasionally, as they release a new version twice a year. My original installation, and the first few updates, were relatively complicated, but with clear instructions, and some helpful ISO boot image management programs like Rufus, I got through it. 

 

Last week, I updated my system to Fedora 40. Wow, what a difference. The update was pretty much painless, and the user experience is smooth and polished.

Freaky Friday

I hope you have a safe and fun Friday the 13th! It’s the first Friday the 13th of 2024, seen as one of the most unlucky days of the calendar year, a “spooky” reputation it earned centuries ago, although I had a positive experience on this day during my childhood, so I've always thought of it as a lucky day for me. This year will see the date occur twice, with the next one in December.

Maine Trip

Next adventure! Off to visit my cousin in Maine! I always relax a little, after we get the process of packing, getting to the airport, checking our bags, and getting to the gate, out of the way. 

No delays getting to, or going through, the airport, whew… just finished reading the safety card for the A320, my first time on this type aircraft. Nice to have a little extra leg room in the exit row.

After all our concern with the CloudStrike fiasco, our travel day went surprisingly well! The one hiccup was the plugged-up Boston traffic. 

We’re now comfortably ensconced at our vacation lodging near Bath, Maine. We’ve already enjoyed the gorgeous view, and a flyby of the local Heron and Osprey. 

We had a beautiful moonlit view from the living room, just before bed. 

7/21 We awoke to a beautiful Sunday post-travel morning. It was fun to see the uncovered land bridge, from the mainland over to Jenny's Nubble at low tide. Living in Colorado, we don't have much occasion to pay attention to the tides, but here the tidal range is approaching ten feet. Makes a difference!

 

We loved watching the crab boats come pick up their traps, and place new ones, every morning while eating Jennefer's delicious home-cooked breakfasts.

 

The local sailboats also provided us with some fun marine-themed entertainment. This sailor criss-crossed our view of the New Meadows river and Winnegance Bay many times.

 

We spent the day wandering around historic downtown Bath, and exploring the parks, views, and shops, in particular one very fun store named "Now You're Cooking", which is full of interesting kitchen utensils and other delightful gadgets.

 

Close up of the whimsical weathervane on top of the City Hall in the Davenport Memorial Building. Seems appropriate, considering the rich history there, of building sailing ships. 

 

We spent lots of time enjoying the view out of our living room window, especially at sunset.

We tried taking some full moon pictures with our relatively new cameras. The double image was from the two window panes, but I wasn’t venturing outside to do battle with the mosquitoes, just for a better photo.

7/22 We had a delightful breakfast table view of the crab boats managing their traps, at this beautiful place on the Maine shoreline. 

We took a little bit longer Monday walk to the Green Point Preserve, with a fun Barred Owl sighting.

7/23 We enjoyed a cool and rainy, but delightful Puffin viewing cruise! I’m always concerned about the possibility of motion sickness on an ocean cruise, but this went well for me. 

We got well and truly soaked by a widespread rainstorm on our way out to Eastern Egg Rock island, but loved every minute. We sought out a warm local seafood restaurant afterwards to try to dry out a little. 

7/24 We woke up to a wonderfully foggy 69° Wednesday morning, at our rental house in West Bath. This foggy moored sailboat view reminded me of paintings I've seen and loved.

We got back safe, after our winding trip through the Maine back roads, to see the play “Shakespeare’s Will” at the Theater at Monmouth. Beautiful old theater! The actress did such a wonderful job. Man, that theater was cold! Once again, I was thankful to have a good GPS receiver and navigation apps, to guide us safely to a place I’ve never been, and back in the dark of night, with no concerns.

7/25 Beautifully foggy 57° Thursday morning in Maine. Jennefer cooked us all breakfast, for most of the days we were there. We did hop over to Mae's Bakery and Cafe for some different breakfast and take-home dessert choices.

My sister found us a fun afternoon walk at Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, in the coastal forest a couple of peninsulas over from where we're staying. She said, "It's really different from anything I’ve hiked before. It felt like the old forest - closest thing I can think of is the Black Forest in Germany."

7/26 Pleasant start to our Friday morning. It's always fun for me, to watch the boats, and the local wildlife, including a nearby Cormorant on a buoy, drying their wings. 

We had a humid but delightful Friday afternoon at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, which are pretty amazing, with some good trails for hiking, too. 

7/27 Travel day to Boston. We started with a clear and comfortable 70° Saturday morning on the Maine coast. We’re starting to slow down a little, after our initially frenzied pre-departure housecleaning. 

I’m sad to be leaving this place, but looking forward to seeing my cousin's daughter and her family tomorrow.

Our Boston hotel room, on the other side of the hotel, had not quite as pretty of a Boston city view as we had last year, but still nice. 

We had a delicious dinner at The Daily Catch Waterfront restaurant, a short walk from our hotel on Long Wharf. We sat outside, and had an inquisitive visitor nearby. The girls all love birds, so that kept us busy, through the short wait until our dinner came. 

7/28 We awoke to a hazy 71° Sunday morning at Boston harbor... my sister and I went for a walk to the local coffee shop, and I was able to redeem my free birthday item - cinnamon coffee cake, of course!

We kept ourselves busy for the rest of the morning, with a delightful Trolley tour of Boston. They wandered all over downtown Boston, and inundated us with so many facts, I think we all ran out of brain cells to process it all.

That afternoon, we headed over to my cousin’s “new” home in Melrose. It was new to them two years ago, so I suppose now it's routine to them. We enjoyed seeing them in their own house, instead of their old apartment. After we arrived, and the oldest son had given each visitor their own personal tour, I was treated to a happy birthday party at my cousin’s house. 

We got to see everyone we missed last year, when COVID-19 hit their house when we were in town, and finally met their newest son, who arrived during the pandemic. 

 

The older son was very sure of himself, even with all of us rarely-seen family around. I enjoyed having him tell me all about everything. 

After more than a week of failed daily attempts to find my favorite Entenmann’s crumb coffee cake in the local Maine grocery stores, I was ready to admit defeat, and one day away from heading home without it. My cousin and her husband came to the rescue, presenting me with the only box he could find, on my birthday. What a pleasant surprise! 

Once the party and other fun activities with my cousin and her family were done, we headed back to our hotel, and were treated to a pretty sunset view reflecting off downtown Boston.

7/29 Travel day heading home. It was fun to see the old Constitution sailing ship from our room on this cool moist overcast morning. We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant to keep things simple, then picked up our rental car from the valet, and headed off to find gas for the car, and then the car rental return facility. That wasn’t as easy as expected, as there were quite a few road closures, and we ended up going in a circle around downtown once, before we finally were on our way in the Blue Line Bus to the airport. Glad we left ourselves tons of extra time for this part of the trip. 

Quiet, cool & moist Monday at Boston Logan airport, and a mostly relaxed beginning to our travel experience. We had to wait an extra hour for our flight crew to get here, but that just gave us plenty of time to explore the menu at Legal Seafoods. Their crab cake sandwich and Boston Cream Pie were delicious!

And then we were off! We had some fun cloud views out the window during the climbout. According to the map, we saw Lovells Island, just before we disappeared into the cloud layer. I was able to squeeze in exactly two movies. I didn’t expect to enjoy the end credits music as much, so I found myself still listening to them, as they were shutting down our 737-900 at the gate. Perfect timing!

Home sweet home! The kitties were happy to see us, if a little skittish, after our first extended time away from them. We were glad to receive occasional updates from the cat sitter, which helped us enjoy the trip.