First Flight

 Hello elder Rivera,

How’s Dalhart? I’m really curious about that little town, the little branch, the little old people that live there. Hats it like? Hopefully you’re getting used to things. I wonder if it’s starting to warm up. 

Guess what? I finally flew my drone and as a bonus, I got yelled at by an old man…no lie. You know that I have a bit of a problem with heights. Well, flying a drone kinda triggers that. The first flight was takeoff, turn, and land. It did those very directly. The only mistake I made was that I set the return to home height at 500 meters, so when I hit the return to home button it went from about ten meters to 500 meters straight up, it scared me. I had only flown the little thing from our driveway to just over the street in front of the Nobles house. So it gently turned around back towards me, the rose straight up at a brisk rate…and kept going until it was a tiny speck. My stomach tightened and then it started coming down, but at a slightly more gentle rate. It came straight down in a way that was robotically precise. It landed gently and within and inches from where it lifted off from. As I marveled at that feat Dave noble asked if it had a camera and when I answered I got a stern look. I’m glad I’m still young enough to get yelled at by someone older than me. I need to buy an SD to actually record any movies or pictures, but it was cool. Next time though, I’m going to try to find somewhere more open. 

Friday we went on another trip to Moab. Last time we went there was one trail on our itinerary that we weren’t able to do. When we made the plans with aunt Patti I imagined that your mom would be all the way better. But while she is doing a lot better, I didn’t think that it was the best idea to make her endure one of my rides. Don’t take me wrong, we went anyway, but we missed her. Friday we left for green river. I had reserved a decent hotel for your mother. Your brothers were in a bit of shock by the relative luxury of the place and were not convinced that it was hotel that your dad would reserve. It was right next to the Green River. Nearby it had a decent restaurant where I used to always eat with my parents when we’d pass through in the old days. After dinner we wanted to sweets so I suggested that we walk to the gas station that in my mind, was next stroke, nope, it was far. But it was a fun mini adventure to do with your brothers. 

The next day we had breakfast at the provided hotel buffet. It was surprisingly decent. We then gassed up and drove an hour to the trail head. The name of the trail was Onion Creek, rated easy. It was easy, but pretty. Unfortunately it was cloudy and misty so I didn’t take too many photos. It was pretty but boringly easy. There were a few technical sections but nothing remotely difficult or even challenging about halfway through the ride we had gone from classic Moab red rock to alpine forests. There were a couple of really cool overlooks looking down into the red canyons that looked like deep gashes cut into the forested slopes. However, this trail was infested with dozens of mountain bikers who without exception looked completely miserable and oissed to be riding on the muddy roads at nearly 7,000 feet in the rain/snow. And all of the picturesque views were crowded by those grumpy bikers, so no photos. I’ll bet every one of those guys was in Moab over beers telling each other how there was nothing better than that. Speaking of Moab, it was crowded, we got terrible Mexican food, and left. It was fun to be with Artie and patti. It was nice to get home to your mother. But there’s something I love about being in the car with your brothers cranking tunes. Oh, and the front facing camera worked decently well.

I guess otherwise this week the big story is your mother. Tuesday morning she went to her physical therapy and she was having heart rhythm issues, it seems that her heart rate is either low or high. Her doctor thinks she came off one of her meds too soon. When she went back to physical therapy on Thursday she was a little better, but still feeling it. This is common with people with heart surgery, but still not fun. We’re going to give her a blessing tonight.

That’s all I have for today my boy, I sure love you!

Pops