Disappointment and success in the western United States
Flying in the United States has always excited me, after dozens of hours of flying in the East it is time for a flight in the West. About six months before the date, I contacted a local company in the town of Van Nice near Los Angeles.
Arriving to Los Angeles – The date has been set, a plane and Instructor will be waiting for me and my friend Joel for an eight days flight. The long-awaited day arrived. Commercial flight brought us to Van Nice. The next day we checked in at the airline. The fat-fleshed Jewish owner named Peter welcomed us but we noticed that something was wrong. With a downcast face he informed us that the Instructor who was supposed to accompany us there disappeared at the last minute and another Instructor was not found. “There is still hope” he said, hope to get answers today.
First Flight – We decided not to waste time, and asked for a short round trip flight to Santa Barbara hoping that by the time we got back there would be Instructor. (Priority was to the island of Santa Catalina, but the weather was cloudy) For this flight the Instructor was very nice old man, we tried to persuade him to join but it did not work. The Cessna Skyhawk took off and climbed quit well to the flight level, the route passed over the shoreline above a beautiful mansions along the coast. After about 90 minutes we landed next to the town’s charming beach, we had a light meal at a beachfront restaurant.
Disappointment – When we returned e had a big disappointment, there was no Instructor available. Peter apologized, “you will not miss your trip because of my mistake, and tomorrow morning you will go on to your trip as planned but in a rented car at my expense”. That evening we planned the route that included most of the places we were supposed to be by flying.
The next day a big and comfortable dodge car was waiting for us, we loaded our belongings into the trunk, said goodbye to Peter, and headed toward San Francisco.
Strawberry Festival – On our way we came across large signs “Strawberry Festival”, we were intrigued to see what it was all about. We arrived at a huge compound. We were greeted with a bag of strawberries handed out to visitors at stalls at the entrance. Dozens of stalls waited for guests, game stalls, food stalls, activity stalls and more. We left happy and satisfied.
We stopped at a small town by the shore of the Pacific Ocean for the night, a lovely town with a golden beach whose twilight in the evening shone with a reddish gloom. In the evening we found a lovely bar full of young people playing snooker, a glass of beer helped us pass the evening pleasantly.
Jeff Herst Castel – Along the way to the north, an unplanned surprise awaited for us, the Castel of press mogul Jeff Hurst. We decided to go in and To see how megalomaniac the man was. A 15-minute bus ride brought us to the top of a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. On the hill stood a palace within a well take care with many sculptures, flower and lot of trees. A number of buildings were scattered around the palace probably for guests, just to clarify each of the houses looks like a mansion from Beverly Hills. We entered with a young woman guide for a tour inside the palace, the size of the rooms, the furniture, the sculptures, he carpets, the pictures left me speechless, the best palaces of the kings of France did not match the level of this palace. When the tour ended inside the palace we could walk around in the gardens, the guide stated not to forget to pass by the indoor pool hall, where the bus would wait to take us back to the reception hall. It’s hard to describe the surprise of the moment we entered the indoor pool hall. The huge pool (perhaps Olympic size) was lined with blue and white ceramics interwoven with red golden colors, surrounded by Roman statues and huge chandeliers, the windows were arched with stained glass windows from Bible paintings.
The second flight – It was hard to get out of the hall and leave this beauty, but we had no choice but to keep going. We arrived Palo Alto at Joel’s relative’s house for the night. Since we had little time we visited the impressive Stanford University, in my imagination I saw the students studying in the wonderful place so picturesque in the ancient stone buildings and the inspiration they get from famous graduates like Sergei Brin, Larry Page, Elon Musk and many more.
The need to fly tickled our fingertips, to be in San Francisco and not to fly over the Golden Bridge does not make sense, very quickly we located an airport in Palo Alto, soon we were in the air with an Israeli guide who navigated for us between Auckland and San Francisco International to the Golden Bridge. We passed Alcatraz Prison Island, over the bridge we made 360 degrees above it and continued to land at Napa Valley Airport. Due to lack of time we could not walk between the vineyards and wineries and we returned the same way over the bridge and the island only this time the steering wheel was in Joel’s hand who flew us back to Palo Alto.
San Francisco – After landing we said goodbye to Joel’s relative thanking him for the hospitality. San Francisco was the next destination, the next day we met with a friend who was the city resident and kindly accompanied us for a tour of the area, he took us to Santa Monica the beautiful magical town by the beach, The promenade was full of visitors, youth on roller skates performed acrobatics in a designated facility, music was heard from huge speakers and a group of young people fiddled and danced to their sound. The nearby streets whose canals passed through their center reminded me of Venice, only instead of gondolas there were boats parked near the houses. In the evening we walked around the big city and tasted hummus at a restaurant that is its name. A little weird but our friend wanted to be proud of the local hummus.
Reno the Gambling town – One of the sites that were on the flight plan was the city of Reno in Nevada, but this time we would reach there in a car. The road passed relatively calmly and we settled in one of the most beautiful hotels in the city, being a gambling town the price in 5 star hotels was funny, I couldn’t believe that a night there cost just as much as a night in motel six or Lodge and alike. Of course, we spent a few bucks at the casino. The next day we tried our luck at Reno Airport but an approaching front spoiled our third plan to fly. We settled for a tour of the city.
Yosemite National Park – The next day we aimed for the next destination, Yosemite National Park. We passed the deserted Lake Thao looking for accommodation for the night. As we reached the park on its eastern side we had to cross a ridge at an altitude of 10,000 feet (about 3000 meters) climbing a narrow road, sometimes we had to drive through heavy fog and snowflakes that fell from the sky, as we ascended the piles of snow on the side of the road rose and began to cover every piece of land. At the top pass before the descent to the valley we reached a toll booth, the courteous forest rangers charged the entrance fee not before warning us against slipping on the wet road and animals that may cross the road, of course Joel grinned “I have not encountered animals on all my hikes ever”, “I’m lucky” I said “wait and see”. We began to descend slowly while paying attention to the environment. At some point we reached a lovely lake we stopped to be impressed by the view breathing the cool air of the peaks. Further down our road we came across a line of parking cars on the side of the road. We stopped to check what was the curiosity that caused a traffic jam, the surprise was waiting in the form of a cute brown teddy bear who chewed grass about 100 meters from us, occasionally raised his head to see who were looking at him and immediately proceeded with his affairs. We got as close as possible to photograph the bear proving that there are animals in the park.
A cloud covered the mountain peaks which prevented us from being impressed by the entire height of the cliff and especially the famous Al Captain. But the rest of the sites, the walking trails with the waterfall, the river and the green flourish were wonderful sight. The most impressive was when we reached the Sequoia Tree Reserve. The size and width of the trunks caused us to feel that we were in a prehistoric place, that suddenly a dinosaur will appear in front of you but the visitors who passed through and took photographic quickly brought us back to reality.
The Jazz Country – That’s it, it’s time to get back to Van Nice and return the car back. On our way we derived to Edwards Air Force Base. At the entrance to the base there is a display of aircraft that were in the service of the Air Force in the past. Although this section of our trip is over but thankfully a new section begins, a meeting in New Orleans with the wives. The flight with American Airlines passed quickly as we landed at the Louis Armstrong field in New Orleans.
The timing was perfect we met with the wives in the field. Taxi took us to a small boutique hotel in the French Quarter of the city. We spent about four days of intoxication. During the day time we toured the city by foot, checking the restaurants, visit the impressive cemetery with the voodoo stories, and went to cooking course of the Cajun dish. The evening was devoted to bar tours and listening to the jazz music that filled the atmosphere from all directions.
The Finale – The visit to New Orleans was over, we said goodbye to Joel and his wife. They preferred a pleasure cruise while my wife and I preferred to visit Washington and New York. For my wife this was the first time in the city where the US president lived. The impressive museums, the Capitol building, the obelisk and the White House are definitely worth a visit. And New York is always interesting, like Tel Aviv, you can be in New York many times and always see new things.
The longing for family and grandchildren in our small country draws us home. Kennedy Airport will get to see us again this time on the way east. In the end it seems that despite the disappointment that we were not able to execute our flight plan, given that the weather did not always brighten our faces maybe it was for the better.
