Rachael and I are driving back to Toronto today, so this is going to be a brief post. Things were rather hectic from the time we left Toronto on Monday — what with the car breaking down and all that — right up until we arrived here last night. Besides the trip to Rhinebeck, I had an arm’s length list of errands to run while I was in Scranton, and I have a bunch of things to do today, too. I did a rough calculation of our mileage as of yesterday afternoon, and it was more than 1,600 kilometers, or 1,000 miles!
But we really couldn’t make a journey to Pennsylvania without visiting some Flickr folk somewhere. I let Rachael set up the meeting because I had too much on my plate as it was. There are photos uploaded to Flickr already, but I’ll have to dig up the links after I get home and get some sleep and return the rental car and pick up my car from the garage!
Tuesday was simply a beautiful day. It really was a mad scramble to get to Rhinebeck to meet the pilot, who turned out to be Stanley Segalla (“The Flying Farmer”) himself. He flew his Piper Cub from Connecticut on very short notice to do this for us because we couldn’t get any pilots for the ‘29 New Standard biplane. I wore David’s goggles, leather helmet, and scarf along with Hermann’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome t-shirt that Helma gave to me that morning. (There’s a story behind it, I’ll write it out later.) When the plane cleared the trees and we were alight over the Aerodrome, I felt absolute peace in those moments and an indescribable tranquility looking out over the Hudson Valley. I held David’s ashes and scattered them over the Aerodrome while our friends watched from below, with the tears fogging up the aviator goggles and a big smile on my face for the joy I felt to be flying in a Piper with David AND one of his heroes.
I’m very grateful to those who were present at the Aerodrome for being there on such notice, and I will have more time to thank you all personally after I get home. I’m sorry the CAP cadets, Frank, Dale, Dick, and some others just missed the flyover, but I appreciate very much the efforts that people made to try and get there on time. I’ll be in touch with everyone later.
A big THANK YOU to all the lovely folk in Pennsylvania, our hosts in the north and the south.
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