Flying From Seattle to Houston

October 7, 2012:

Before five in the morning, I was already stuffing previously-selected clothing into my camping backpack which Dilly playfully swatted, climbed up on, and fell down off of, just as she had done in July -- although less small and cute this time.
` Gem of a man that he is, Lou Ryan was helping me along, drove me to the airport, and kissed me goodbye. With only a mocha cappuccino protein drink in my stomach, I made jokes about smuggling parakeets in my pants and still managed to walk right through the backscatter X-ray scanner.
` I wondered to myself if they had scanned me anyway, and if so, was my hot bod appreciated?

I spent my time texting Brian and Rob about what was going on in the airport, the cloud of starlings billowing up on the side of the building, etc. By the time we got to boarding, the sun was just rising above the trees:

Or was it... aliens?

The United staff were actually looking for volunteers to get off the plane in exchange for round trip tickets to anywhere the airline flies. Despite this good deal, I did not perceive that anyone took up the offer.

At last, I made it into the metal tube, which then hurtled itself into the air:

Wheee!!

Here's a more industrial part of Seattle:

Look at the cute little factory!

This industrialness is only really possible because of all the access via water that is available:

Not to mention, those tiny cargo cranes, standing there so eager to help!

Then the tube of metal circled around into the mountains, which were full of morning fog:

Either that, or the deers were having a wake n' bake.

Here's a wider view -- gorgeous, no?

As long as they aren't building up on the inside of your freezer!

Fairly soon, we came upon this shining, hulking shape that strongly reminded me of Cthulu:

This is an Old One, indeed!

Right away, I realized that this gleaming mass was Mount Rainier:

Still covered in a beautiful layer of ice. But, for how long?

You can see the hole where it occasionally spews out hot ash:

It's best to keep away from that part.

It's all pink in the morning light, looking so innocent...

Doesn't look quite as pink when you get farther away from it and see the green hills all around:

If you look closely, you can see other Cascadian mountains in the distance:

Well, why not zoom in?

Bye, Mount Rainier! Behave yourself while I'm gone!

You know it won't.

After that, the landscape became very dry and canyony -- I suppose that's Eastern Washington?

That's not the grandest canyon I've seen. *Ducks for cover.*

Eventually, the land darkened with plants and wispiness:

...And became more mountainyer again:

After the mountains, there were all this weird, patchy fields and stuff.

(What a scientific observation!)

And then I noticed what looked like impact craters -- there's one in the lower left corner and another near the middle of the right side:

They're probably just strip mines, though, and not evidence of smaller rocks that had once jumped out in front of our planet. This next landscape, however, kind of reminds me of something Escher would draw:

And then, a little farther on, I saw a Martian glass worm -- on Earth!

After a while, there was another gorgeous area:

And when you look really, really closely....

Dam!

The UFO! Ehrmegerd, I ehrchelly gert a verdeo erv a Yer-Eff-Erh! Erhlmerst fergert!

"Kehl!"
"Nehr, ert's a meterl terb, yerh derpshert!"

As the plane -- I mean, metal tube -- made its way over Texas, I couldn't help but notice all these nice, snowy mountains:

I'd have more words with these photos, but as it turns out, I didn't write anything except: "Sure is loud on the back of a plane, and the earplugs just make the sounds of people talkking more distinct. So, have been blasting podcasts into my ears. Thank you, Wesley and Dustin. The scenery has been really nice, until it was cloudy."

Oh yes, that's right, my view of the ground became clouded -- that's in the next post, where I fly from Houston to Cleveland. Great Scott, where am I going to eventually end up? Stay Tuned!