Flying the Edge of America
The trip of a lifetime
The actual route flown
In the summer of 2008 my wife and I
flew our small, single engine, airplane
around the edges of the contiguous
United States of America. Along the way,
we encountered America's small towns,
National Parks, and National Monuments.
The scenery between Glacier and
Yellowstone is particularly fantastic
and more majestic than I had imagined.
The USA has to have the most beautiful
countryside in the whole world. I do not
say this lightly as I have seen a lot of
the world, and much beautiful scenery in
other countries. Every continent has
something to offer, but North America
has it all, from deserts to snow capped
mountains, and almost everything in
between. It is really hard to compete
with the natural beauty of North
America.
A fallen redwood in Jedediah Smith
State Park
On the most dangerous and exciting
adventure of our lives we flew into
unanticipated ghastly weather,
thunderstorms, and brushed with
hurricanes. As we left Galveston and
passed over a murky brown sea, hurricane
Ike crossed into the Gulf of Mexico and
ballooned in size. Ike maintained a
powerful structure across most of the
Gulf as it continued to expand. On
September 13th, 2008, just four days
after we left Galveston, Ike made
landfall on the island as a strong
Category-2 hurricane. Ike created a huge
storm surge that topped the seawall and
caused extensive damage. The storm
deluged the city with a wall of water.
Ike was a 600-mile-wide Category-2
hurricane. Beyond Galveston it flooded
coastal towns and left widespread damage
across metropolitan Houston. Winds
gusted to 100 miles per hour. It peeled
sheets of steel off skyscrapers, smashed
bus shelters, and blew out windows. If
our airplane had been parked at the
airport I can only imagine what it would
have done to her.
Hidden Lake Glacier National Park
By the end of our three month trip we
had flown 10,000 miles and spent 70
hours in the skies above the USA. We
also discovered a land much more complex
than we had imagined, far larger than we
could believe, and more beautiful than
we dreamed possible.
After a year of hard work my wife and
I published our book of this amazing
flight around the edge of America. The
book is the story of our adventure, and
the journey that brought us to a deeper
understanding and love of our adopted
country.