♫ By the light, of the silvery moon... ♫

I am fortunate to count among my friends, a handful of private pilots. I was extremely fortunate enough to have been invited to join some of them on an outting last night. We flew out of a small local airport in two planes and cruised about 30 minutes north of Los Angeles, landing at an airfield in the desert town of Rosamond. When we arrived, we were about 4 miles from Edwards Air Force Base where the recent Space Shuttle mission ended.

I was a passenger in a small single prop plane with my friend and his brother and we arrived about 5 minutes before our other friends in a twin prop plane. We left just before sunset, hugging the mountains as we passed over, and arrived just as the sun dropped below the horizon. On the opposite horizon to the east, the moon rose up from between the cacti.

The pilots parked the planes on the side of the runway where there are "parking spots" in front of a little Mexican restaurant. Our two planes were later joined by a third, all lined up nice and neatly, a stones throw from the dining area. We literally stepped off the small runway and into the restaurant. The 6 of us enjoyed a great dinner on the patio, reveling in the cool desert air, a full moon shining high above. We swapped lies and laughs and closed the restaurant.

After dinner, we climbed back onboard the planes and set off once again into the night sky. The full moon lit up the barren desert floor and the nearby mountains. As we climbed higher enroute back to 'civilization', the ground beneath us was bejeweled with giant patches of millions of tiny colored lights. We flew at a mere 6500 ft. Part of our journey took us over the aquaduct that feeds the L.A. area. As we approached, the moonlight turned it into a giant silvery snake, hugging and slithering along the foothills, draped in the blanket of the night.

The return flight ended all too quickly, but I'm left with a memory that will last a lifetime.