Sea-Tac airport concourse- notice the snow-capped mountains in the distance

There are benefits to being a scribe.  Currently, I’ve decided that writing a blog posting sitting in an airport looking at snow-capped mountains is one of the better ones.

We are live, ‘on location’ as they say,  in the Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) International Airport on our grand Western Swing.  The occasion is ostensibly a magazine assignment for S.W.A.T. Magazine but sometimes we feel just a little guilty for such grand adventures on someone else’s dime- even if they do expect 2000 words of profound pontification in return.

We started out before dawn at Indianapolis International Airport, one of the best in the nation.  Everything was looking Condition Green until they started boarding the aircraft.  Suffice it to say that we were the last soul to board the aircraft and it appeared somewhat doubtful if the adventure would literally get off the ground.

The flight out to Minneapolis was enjoyable as the weather was perfect and we managed to orient ourselves to the passing landscape, a somewhat unusual occurrence when flying.  Quite accidentally we picked out a major highway interchange near our home and managed to follow Interstate 65 to Cedar Lake where we lost interest in the proceedings.  In the intervening 30 minutes, it was very entertaining and informative to review many of our hunting and fishing haunts climbing through 10,000 feet.

Minneapolis was cloudy and raining, much as I imagined Seattle.  However, once we dodged through the thunderstorms surrounding the airport, we were once again in the clear and enjoyed the ride.

A better- but still inadequate- picture of the view from my keyboard

It was so flawlessly beautiful that traffic on highways could be seen five miles below.  Even better was our route.  We flew over Flathead Kootenai and  Kaniksu National Forests,  Glacier National Park and through the Northern Cascade mountain range.  Seattle, contrary to common wisdom, was nestled under a flawlessly blue sky and Mount Ranier, Baker, Hood and St. Helen’s were clearly visible jutting above the other snow-capped mountains.  In all, the panorama as we descended into Seattle was very reminiscent of the Arctic ocean with four white-crowned icebergs towering over the scene.

Now, we are enjoying a four-hour layover at Sea-Tac, watching planes arrive and depart from all over the Pacific.  It seems odd to watch both Air France and IcelandAir jets sharing the ramp, along with unmarked 747′s undoubtedly carrying fresh seafood to the orient and prop-driven cargo planes bound for their home base in the last frontier.  The Inuit visage that appears on all of the Air Alaska planes is scattered everywhere on the tarmac and the departure board in the concourse reads like a menu of adventure for outdoors enthusiasts.

The last, and perhaps greatest (or most frightening), leg of the trip awaits: flying through the Cascades on a twin-turboprop plane to our final destination of Yakima, located in the high desert of interior Washington.    We’ll be on the ground in about three more hours, ready to begin our evaluation of a new shooting school.

We will endeavor to post updates frequently throughout the next few days; stay tuned for further developments.  Until then, we’ll host a Alaska Pale Ale at the airport bar in honor of everyone who wants to be here but isn’t!

Did I mention that it is sometimes good to be a writer?

-BW

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