When adventurer meets adventurer something special is set in motion.

Passions take form in all of us, often in the form of dreams, and sometimes when we are blessed, in real life experiences.

I will share my Saturday with you, which became such an event in my small-town Pennsylvania experience. I have flown so many times on Commercial planes. When I was a young woman I had my first trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Nothing prepared me for the vast differences in life and culture. I drank in the beauty of bright crimson flowers at the airport. I observed the culture, the beauty, the vastness of the ocean ... and the abject poverty which brought children on the beach to sell wares for their family. They couldn't go to school because they had to provide food on the table for their family.

Mexico remained in my memory bank for over a decade before the next flight out of Pennsylvania to Coral Springs, Floria to visit my sister, Adrianne. Each and every trip away from home just opened up a greater understanding of the world and the people that I share this planet with. A hunger implanted itself deep in me to travel and to discover more.

But let's return to the beginning of this post. Was it accident or fate that Jeff, a wonderful well traveled man and hobby pilot, crossed my path in early October? Is it coincidence that we share a love for God, family and adventure? Some call it fate that we met purely by accident, but quickly found our worlds and values are strikingly similar.

If you missed my introduction of Jeff to my blog you can catch up here

I'm not sure what to define our meeting as, but I do know that we share a passion for exploration and adventure. Our life goals coincide. These truths are slowly becoming more and more apparent as we confide our mutual histories to each other.

Flying is Jeff's passion. Who knew? I learned this on our very first date. He drove me to the airport and showed off his four seater Cherokee in the hangar. There were things he was working on to prepare for out first flight together until this past Saturday; the big day. We were both excited. I think he was even more excited to be able to share this part of himself with me. I know I was thrilled, not that he was planning to take me out to eat, but that he was taking me with him in the air.

preparing for take off

Jeff is no stranger to the air. His father was a commercial pilot. He started flying at age14 and he purchased his own plane approximately 10 years ago at age 44. Seeing his own father being called away from the home for long stretches of time while he was growing up turned him away from wanting to be a commercial pilot himself. He prefers to fly for the simple joy of flying.

• Jeff's Cherokee 180*

These photos chronicle our very first flight together. It was a short flight, no longer than an hour. The destination: Butler, Pennsylvania.

• preflight Selfie!*

• all of those knobs and buttons and dials... I'm glad Jeff knows how to read them!*

• here is his flight GPS... See the little circles? Those are all the air spaces and he communicates with ground control as we passed through each one.

• Heading into the sunset... What could be more beautiful? We have lift off at approximately 80 miles per hour from Meadville, Pennsylvania.

• We are in flight! Next time I am cleaning these windows so that you can see clearly what I can see!

• We are flying over Lake Wilhelm... I've heard about it because my son fishes there but now I can actually see the whole thing!

• I am in awe sailing through the clouds and watching the broad expanse of the sun setting in Crawford County, Pennsylvania.

• This is the view from the left side of the plane... I feel so enveloped in this cocoon and the world looks so very small from up here!

• We arrive in Butler, Pennsylvania in under an hour. We are starving and just in time for dinner!

• We fly right up to Park at
  Serventi's Ristorante

• She waits patiently while we eat.

• A little bruschetta while we wait for the main course. We became too caught up in conversation and I forgot to take a picture of my prime rib and his shrimp pasta.

• We leave with the moon high in the sky!

• There's a world of lights and activity below us.. but the cocoon of the plane keeps me mesmerized in flight. We talked about life in the perspective of this great big world.

Our future plans are to fly to Canada to visit my best friend, Kim, in Aurora, Ontario. I need to introduce Kim and her husband, Charles to Jeff. You know Jeff needs to get my best friend's approval! First we need to upgrade my passport from a driving passport to an international passport first, or Canada will not allow me to pass customs. I drive over the Peace Bridge often to visit them, but that passport is insufficient for air travel.

In February, we are planning to go to California and make a stopover in Arizona to visit my father and his wife who winter in Arizona. This will be my first trips to both states. I have dreamed of visiting both for decades. In the future, we are planning a trip to Ireland, but we will be taking a commercial flight. I hope to chronicle all of our trips right here on Steemit. I hope you enjoyed my first flight as much as I did. Please follow along with me in an exciting new adventure for a closet traveler named @wandrnrose7 <3
Thank you for reading!

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