The Lone Star view from 500 feet

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

On a 2,000 mile covered wagon voyage across America, 500 feet can make all the difference, especially if they’re straight up. To get a view and listen to the story, just click here….

Traveling the Texas high plains by covered wagon in early winter, it’s easy to fall victim to the High Lonesome grayscale blues. The corn and wheat’s been harvested leaving only stubble fields. Save for the occasional verdant patch of winter wheat, the color of the Lone Star landscape is hibernation.

Well, that’s what I thought until I met Kyle Odom.

Kyle Odom farms and ranches outside Happy, Texas.

This week, he invited me to celebrate his Stinson airplane’s 62nd birthday with a flight over the Cap Rock country south of Happy. For Kyle and his 1946 Stinson, it was more than a birthday. It was also a reunion. He’d owned the plane in the 1970s and sold it in 1990. A week ago, he’d bought it back.

Cruising at 500 feet, the Texas landscape looked anything but dormant.

Ready to listen to Kyle talk about the countryside and his airplane? Then swing into the co-pilot’s seat, buckle your lap belt and click on the audio player below.

From Tulia, just south of Happy, we set out across the farmland.

Soon, row crops gave way to the Palo Duro Canyon.

Back on the ground, driving me back to my covered wagon in his pickup, Kyle had this to say about the land we’d just flown over. If it looks easy and lucrative to farm from 500 feet, then you’d better listen to Kyle’s take by clicking on the audio player below.

Interesting, eh? Well, if you’d like to do some more flying, click here to tour the Nebraska Sandhills by ranch plane.

Oh, and Kyle: thanks for taking me out on your Stinson’s birthday flight. Cheers to your reunion after a decade and a half apart!

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