Waving Hello

 
10/10/02

I said hello to a crop-dusting plane out on the Rez early this morning.

I was transporting boxes of fruit, breakfast bars and gallon water containers to a food bank on the west side of town - about 35 miles away. The truck bed of food was left over from a local event. After the event, I volunteered to take the remaining food items to a food bank later in the week. So, there I was driving my truck in the dark at 6:00 am.    

As I drove through the Rez to reach the I-10 to Phoenix, I saw a crop-dusting plane doing its acrobatics over the road. I timed him as he completed two passes. The pilot was really good. The wheels appeared to walk on the tops of the soon-to-be harvested cotton plants. He was applying plant killer so the harvesting could begin in a few weeks.  

The road was empty for a mile both ways. I watched him do the first pass and make his quick turn. I eased my speed up a bit (grin) to position my axis with his in the coming seconds. I turned on the interior light, lowered my front windows and waved at him outside the driver's window. When he was a second away, I turned on my lights and flickered the brights.  

As he flew over our axis, he waved hello with his wings by rolling the plane back and forth. I honked the horn, waved back and continued on to the I-10.

I had a smile a mile wide.