When the clouds almost part (May 2025 sky shots)

Farewell, Columbus

Until the clouds opened, I forgot how much I missed navigating from the window seat. A little map knowledge and landscape becomes a canvas for exploration. 

On my Columbus flights in early May, the weather only allowed for limit chances to identify the anything on the ground. Sure, I could monitor the plane’s progress from my phone or computer and know my location with ease. I just prefer figuring it out by myself. 

After starting in the rainy pre-dawn in Colorado Springs, I caught flares of sunrise across the eastern plains on the tiny flight to Denver. 

I caught the rest of sunrise from the airport. DIA has opened an open-air deck at the end of one concourse. That was refreshing, as open-air observation decks vanished after 9/11. I remembered one at Cleveland Hopkins Airport I visited whenever my Dad was flying and we went to pick him up. 

The open pavilion helped burn time on my layover. The sky cleared as the plane moved to taxi into a giant line of airplanes. 

The terminals and runways turned into strange corporate art. Long waits for take-off will let the mind wander and give the universe a chance to present itself. 

Despite the constant rain in Columbus, the city skyline presented nicely before we ascended to cruising altitude. Within a few minutes the storms gave way to patchy clouds and exposed a deep green country. I spotted a bend on a large river, likely the Ohio. 

The cooling towers of a nuclear power plant on the north bank confirmed it as the Ohio separating Indiana and Kentucky. I drove past that Indiana plant once when visiting the Abraham Lincoln Boyhood Home National Memorial. 

On the opposite river bank lies Owensboro, Kentucky. The small metro area fanned south from the river. A fierce round of rain followed. The same storms delayed flights all over the Southeast and Midwest, pushing my Columbus flight back 2 hours and my Dallas flight to the Springs back by more. 

The Owensboro bend

Before landing at Love Field we ran parallel to downtown Dallas. Love Field is essentially an urban airport, Southwest’s main hub, so it was not a surprise to see Dallas in detail. 

But on days when clear moments are scarce, scraps like these satisfied my joy in navigating from the window seat.

Dallas greetings