Up

Powered Paragliding is mostly about "up".

Shortly after sun up this morning I woke up, immediately set up the coffee then washed up. Poured a cup and while I drank it up I went online and looked up the weather. After several days of bad weather predictions, things were looking up so I packed up and headed up to the farm for an early morning flight.

The thought of an early flight had put me in a good mood and although I wasn't jumping up and down, I was certainly feeling up.

Because it was a Friday and most people were headed to work, all of the traffic back ups were in the other lane. Checking my gas situation I realized that I was a little low so I cruised up to the station and filled up. Thought about getting the car wash but the farm is a way up a dirt road and if I cleaned the car now, it would get get dirtied up again.

Twenty minutes later I pulled up to the gate, dialed the combination and opened the place up. I put up the windsock; the winds looked perfect so I went ahead and opened up the Element and started setting up. You know the routine: take the wing and set it up, take out the motor, fuel it up and do a pre-flight check before starting it up. Start it up. Close up the Element, pick up the helmet, put on the motor and buckle up. Stand up, walk out to the field and run up the engine.

Bend down, pick up the risers, clip in, look around then look up....

Look up...

Hey, wait a minute! Those clouds weren't here ten minutes ago. The sky was clear last time I looked up.

Judging from the shape and color of the clouds, I was not going to be going up any time soon. I watched and waited for ten minutes before giving up and starting to pack up.

With all the equipment put up, I locked up and headed home.

Rather than waste the entire day, I looked up the number for the Bishop Planetarium and called them up to get the show schedule. No one picked up so I hung up. Drove up there to purchase tickets for the upcoming show but the building was locked up. A woman leaving the building informed us that the evening shows were booked up so we went to dinner at Twin Dolphins. The view, the food, and the company were all two thumbs up.