I bet the driver doesn’t think so. Take a drive on dirt for the last 1/10th mile to my house. As I’m typing this, I’m watching the town’s garbage collection truck rumble down the unreasonably steep and rugged road that leads to my home and my two neighbor’s homes. This ...

It’s not as easy as it seems sometimes. My R44, parked on the side lawn at the Lake Pateros Inn in Washington State. Sadly, heat from my engine browned the grass. One of the benefits of operating a helicopter is that you can land it almost anywhere. One of the drawbacks of this, however, is th...

I went looking for quicksand yesterday afternoon — and found it. Quicksand is quite common along the Hassayampa River in Wickenburg. The river runs mostly underground, in the sandy river bed. It comes to the surface in rocky areas, like around Box Canyon and south of town. It also flows on the...

Another trip up the mountain. On Sunday, Mike’s cousin and his girlfriend were in town from Seattle. They were bummed out because of the weather — it was rainy with low clouds — but we desert-dwellers were thrilled. We’ve had quite a bit of rain this winter and the desert is ...

Jack the Dog is bored and confused. One of the things that’s new about my life this year is our place in Phoenix, nicknamed “Rear Window.” You can read more about it here. When Mike and I go to Rear Window, we bring along Alex the Bird and Jack the Dog. Alex is easy. We set up his ...

We become part-time city dwellers. The situation was absurd. Mike was driving 70 miles each way from Wickenburg to Tempe for work every weekday. He was spending more time in the car than doing the things that make life worth living. I was trying to operate a helicopter charter business in a town whe...

Not as bad as it seems. As I type this, I’m sitting on a leather sofa in the second floor “pilot lounge” area of a friend’s hangar. The hangar is at a San Diego-area airport and the three large windows on this side of the room face out over one of the airport’s three ru...

Sure, they can pass tests. But can they tell time? I had a heavy shock today in the Safeway Supermarket in Wickenburg, AZ when I witnessed the following exchange between a cashier/manager and the teenage clerk who was bagging groceries at her register. Girl: Do I get a break today? Cashier (after st...