TheBanyanTree: A Search Adventure

[Tom Smith]

Last weekend I went looking for the model airplane lost by
the 70 yr old man who built it maybe half that long ago.
I could tell by the way he talked that he really cared about
that plane.  He and friends had watched with binoculars as it
disappeared over a mountain ridge after a 30 min. flight.  
Since he had an exact recollection of the direction of flight,
I took on the challenge and adventure of looking for it.  

A Border Patrol agent in a jeep stopped me on the way out.  
A still-lingering image is of him placing the palm of his 
hand on his pistol as he walked up to my window and asked 
what I was doing.  After I explained, he let me continue,
but cautioned, "You should know we heard over the radio that
a mountain lion was sighted in that area."  

I didn't want to be defenseless, so I put a screwdriver in
my pocket and headed out on about a 3 hour search.  I
slipped and fell occasionally and tumbled once in rough
steep terrain, but did so less often once I found and used a
6'long branch as a third leg.  A couple hours into the 
search, something on a distant hillside that didn't look 
natural caught my eye, and with increasing curiosity and anticipation I
made my way over to it. Bingo, the lost model 
was there, or the body and tail of it.  

Mysteriously, there was no sign whatsoever of the wing.  The
nose of the model plane was badly damaged and my guess is
that the wing (held on with rubber bands) came off in rough
turbulence and continued fly off on it's own in a powerful
rising current of air. I've seen wings do that.  Of course
the body without the wing would drop straight down. I'm sure
that if the wing had been attached when the body hit, the
wing would have been nearby and significantly damaged. 

At the end of the search, when I returned to my truck on a hillside
less than a quarter mile from the border fence, 
waaaay out in the boonies, I realized I had lost the keys 
that had been in my pocket during one those tumbles.. 

I looked under the truck where I remembered hiding an extra
set of keys years ago, and finding them still there was this
year's highlight.

The old model airplane flyer had his name and address on the
plane and I dropped the remains off at his house on the way
home.  He was excited and pleased.  I was happy and relieved.
This morning out at the field he gave me an envelope.. I just opened
it.. a Christmas card with a $40 Target gift card and 
a note saying "Tom, I really appreciate your search" 

Tom
deserthiker2000 at yahoo.com


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