Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
I travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody’s looking for something
– Eurythmics (1983)
Skydiving: Skydiving at 14,000 feet (4270 meters) while traveling 120 mph (193 kilometers per hour) at Perris Valley Airport, Riverside County, California, 1997.
What was truly fascinating to learn twenty-six years after my jump was that my maternal grandfather, Captain George H. Morrison, a pioneer aviator who flew some of the first piloted planes belonging to the United States Army in 1918, would have flown over this exact area, and seen the same geography of the land as I did from that height.
Grandpa was stationed at the adjacent March Air Reserve Base, now called March Field. I wish I had known this information during my skydiving experience. My only consolation was that I could share this discovery with my mother, thus giving her the pleasure of the connection between generations.
Perris Valley Airport. Riverside County, California, 1997
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
(Ayers Rock)
Northern Territory, Australia
UNESCO World Heritage site 1987
Uluru/Ayers Rock: The rock and the surrounding park were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987, and UNESCO gave the park a second World Heritage designation in 1994 for its cultural significance.
Uluru/Ayers Rock rises 1,142 feet (348 metres) above the surrounding desert plain and reaches a height 2,831 feet (863 metres) above sea level. The monolith is oval in shape, measuring 2.2 miles (3.6 km) long by 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide, with a circumference of 5.8 miles (9.4 km). Composed of arkosic sandstone, which contains a high proportion of feldspar, the rock changes colour according to the position of the Sun; it is most visually striking at sunset, when it is coloured a fiery orange-red by the Sun’s rays. Its lower slopes have become fluted by the erosion of weaker rock layers, while the top is scored with gullies and basins that produce giant cataracts after infrequent rainstorms. Shallow caves at the base of the rock are sacred to several Aboriginal tribes and contain carvings and paintings. [Source: Britannica – Uluru/Ayers Rock | Location, Map, & Facts | Britannica]
©2024, Melissa A. Rendsburg, M.A.
England's Mountains Green 