Wow, what a day!
First, I rode out to the Yalaha Country Bakery to hear the Hindu Cowboys play.
But it turned out that the Yalaha Country Bakery was an officially designated sacred site for a worldwide festival commemorating the "Harmonic Concordance." It has something to do with the lunar eclipse.
People were standing around in circles chanting and humming. Holistic healers mingled with aura photographers, wandering monks, mystics and miscellaneous New Age weirdos. Guest speakers talked about astrological events and aligning your personal energy vibrations.
Needless to say, I got the holy Hell out of there as fast as I could. (After buying and eating a cherry streusel, that is.) Fuck the Hindu Cowboys -- I'll listen to them play the next time they have a downtown bar gig!
Instead, I rode to FreeFlight Skydiving School, the drop zone in Coleman where I used to work. Coleman is a very small town and FreeFlight is located on a very small airport. The runway is a grass strip. There are only two airplanes there, the DZ's own Cessna 182 and a Piper Cherokee 140 that some guy is keeping there.
I was only planning on hanging out, not jumping, but since I was there Frank (the owner and chief instructor) offered to loan me a rig and put me on a load. So I did a two-way with my old buddy Tim. It was good to see everybody again. I used to work at FreeFlight -- I was the jump pilot. I did that for a couple of years. It was partly for the free skydives and mostly because it was a really cool place to hang out on weekends. During the day we'd sit around, talk about flying and skydiving, and occasionally make a jump. During the night we'd sit around, talk about flying and skydiving, and drink beer. It was a good scene. I miss it. Maybe someday I'll have my own flight school and drop zone and I can re-create my own Harmonic Concordance.
First, I rode out to the Yalaha Country Bakery to hear the Hindu Cowboys play.
But it turned out that the Yalaha Country Bakery was an officially designated sacred site for a worldwide festival commemorating the "Harmonic Concordance." It has something to do with the lunar eclipse.
People were standing around in circles chanting and humming. Holistic healers mingled with aura photographers, wandering monks, mystics and miscellaneous New Age weirdos. Guest speakers talked about astrological events and aligning your personal energy vibrations.
Needless to say, I got the holy Hell out of there as fast as I could. (After buying and eating a cherry streusel, that is.) Fuck the Hindu Cowboys -- I'll listen to them play the next time they have a downtown bar gig!
Instead, I rode to FreeFlight Skydiving School, the drop zone in Coleman where I used to work. Coleman is a very small town and FreeFlight is located on a very small airport. The runway is a grass strip. There are only two airplanes there, the DZ's own Cessna 182 and a Piper Cherokee 140 that some guy is keeping there.
I was only planning on hanging out, not jumping, but since I was there Frank (the owner and chief instructor) offered to loan me a rig and put me on a load. So I did a two-way with my old buddy Tim. It was good to see everybody again. I used to work at FreeFlight -- I was the jump pilot. I did that for a couple of years. It was partly for the free skydives and mostly because it was a really cool place to hang out on weekends. During the day we'd sit around, talk about flying and skydiving, and occasionally make a jump. During the night we'd sit around, talk about flying and skydiving, and drink beer. It was a good scene. I miss it. Maybe someday I'll have my own flight school and drop zone and I can re-create my own Harmonic Concordance.