Grant County Airport revisited

Nick had to travel back to Brooklyn in July and no sooner did he return than I had to go out to DC. We had 4 – well, actually 5 opportunities to visit our regional airport about which I’ve already told a couple of stories. I have a feeling that Grant County Airport will always be a source of stories – this time, corroborated with pictures.

. I remembered to take my camera so you could travel with me down the country road to the airport, see the welcoming committee, remark the size of the plane, note the airmail being passed up to the pilot’s window and Nick’s deplaning, and finally watch the plane take off over a member of the welcoming committee, her attention now redirected to a most preferred activity. Here, at flickr, is the story.

. Janey, one of the employees of the airline and airport, is a local animal rescue specialist. You never know what you’ll find when you visit her at the airport. When we dropped Nick off for his outbound flight, she let us know that the pilot was coming in quickly to see her babies. Too bad I didn’t have my camera that time – her babies were 2 month old skunks! Their mother had been killed while they were still nursing. We found them running loose in the back section of the airport. She moved the baby gate and the babies scampered out from the back into the ticket and waiting area. 5 baby skunks exploring the territory, eventually finding human shoes and toes, as well as more adventurous human hands trailing the floor to be sniffed. Janey scooped them up, one by one, to greet us. They “scoop” much like cats grabbed around the middle and held aloft. These were very cute little critters and would soon be ready to release or adopt. Fortunately for all noses present, they are acclimated to people, dogs, distractions and chaos – so they don’t get defensive and spray.

. Picking Nick up, I had my camera, only to find that Janey was not on duty, thus neither were her babies.

. Nick came home on Friday, and I was supposed to leave on Monday. We showed up Monday to find the flight had been canceled. It seems that the lightning storm the evening before had taken out the airport’s one light/power pole on which hung the airport’s communication system and the airport’s approach and landing lights. FAA requires both for commercial flights to operate. The power company hoped to have the transformer working again by mid-day and afterwards the communication and approach/landing systems could be restored. When was the last time you couldn’t fly somewhere because all the systems that made the airport functional were on one pole and that one pole was struck by lightning?! However, the babies were in the terminal. You should have seen the faces of the people not local, not knowing Janey’s penchant for critters in need, when they saw several small skunks with tails standing at high noon waddling around the waiting area checking out feet and bags. But you can imagine. Good news: two babies have been adopted (skunks, believe it or not, make excellent pets) and the others are almost ready for wild release.

. I flew out on Tuesday, spent a good and productive week in DC and flew back on Sunday last weekend. Monsoons are here. That means that, like DC on sultry summer afternoons, there are often storms moving through. We got out of Albuquerque ok, and flew through the overcast at an altitude of around 20,000. Looking out the window, I was struck by the experience of watching the cloud particles flowing past the plane’s window. We flew out from the surround of gray cotton, only to find ourselves surrounded by lightning cells. Off to the left, there was a very active cell – so fascinating to watch the electric discharges right to the ground. To the right, another storm cell was providing an impressive display. Ahead, toward Grant County, the mines, Silver City and the airport, was sunny, blue sky. But we had to get through the leading edge of the front to reach that calmer, brighter prospect. And so we hit the bumps. Once through, we sailed clear into the airport. I hoped that the plane would have time to land, shovel us all out the door and get airborne again, before the storms hit. Otherwise, those pilots would need someone’s living room couch for the night.

. Landing on time meant we got home just before the storms moved over Silver City proper. So we sat on the back patio and watched the most spectacular sky scenery that we’ve seen since moving here. Magical -- clouds, layered in purples and blues with coral bands where the cloud layer was high enough to reflect the setting sun’s light; deep windows into the strata of clouds with lightning running laterally across space against blue sky; almost black at the horizon with falling rain making indistinguishable the sky from the hills. We took Nutmeg for her evening walk, walking in circles and loops up the road and back again, with our heads craned back, trying to take in what was offered to us up above. And you know, for all of that, it never did rain here that night.