"I've Come from America"

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     This is another narrative I had to do for English.  This one is a historical narrative.  It's kind of a bit like a historical fiction, too.  I did this story on Amelia Earhart and her 1932 transatlantic solo flight.  If you'd like to learn more about Amelia Earhart click here (Google search).

"I've Come from America"

     Amelia read the date on the paper once again: May 20, 1932. The newspaper confirmed her flight date. Today, thanks to Amy Guest, she would be the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, the first person to attempt to equal or better the flight made by Charles Lindbergh in his “Spirit of St. Louis” this same day five years ago. But today she would do far better than attempt: she was going to do it.
     She would take off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, in a few short minutes in the “Little Red Bus” – a single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B, with a maximum of 185 miles per hour, 165 miles per hour cruise, a climb of 1,300 feet a minute, and a service ceiling of 15,000 feet. The plan was to land in Paris, France – a journey of over 2,000 miles. It was to be the longest non-stop flight made by a woman and the second solo flight across the great Atlantic.
     It was now 7:12 p.m., and the “Little Red Bus” was all set for the expedition. Amelia climbed into the cockpit and powered up the engine. She had carefully inspected all her equipment, and everything was in working order. She guided the “Little Red Bus” down the runway and flew off. So far so good; she read the altimeter and saw that she had reached 1,000 feet, then 3,000, 6,000.... The airspeed indicator revealed that she was arriving at 118 knots, approximately 136 miles per hour.
     After drinking down some warm broth, she brought her eyes to the altimeter once more. The needle was resting on the zero line: it was broken! She could not know at exactly what altitude she was flying. She inhaled and emitted a sigh. She glanced at the surrounding sky; the weather was changing fairly quickly. Hopefully, she would not run into any strong winds or violent thunderstorms.
     She continued her adventure, keeping a watchful eye on the weather. Conditions were becoming icy, and, judging by the smell filling her nostrils, gasoline was leaking into the cockpit. She passed her smelling salts beneath her nose once again. She reclosed the container, taking her eyes off the controls for a mere fraction of a second. The “Little Red Bus” began to drop – she had lost control and was chaotically spinning downwards! She desperately jerked the controls, and, after a few panic-filled moments, she won the struggle with gravity and was back on course.
     She could not tell for certain how far down she had fallen, but she estimated, based on how long she was without control, roughly 3,000 feet. Flames had now begun shooting from the exhaust manifold.
     The “Little Red Bus” pressed on. She fought oncoming northern winds every inch of the way, and finally had to forget the idea of flying all the way to Paris. She landed instead north of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in a pasture in Culmore. She calculated in her head it had been approximately 15 hours since she had left Newfoundland, and she was exhausted. When she opened the door to the cockpit and climbed down, she was greeted very warmly.
     “Have you flown far?” one farmhand asked, extending his hand to Amelia.
     Amelia shook his hand. She gave a firm nod of her head and smiled, “I’ve come from America.”

Rewards

     Amelia Earhart was awarded the Distinquished Flying Cross by the United States Congress, the Cross of Knight from the Legion of Honour of the French Government, the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society by President Herbert Hoover.  She also became good friends with Eleanor Roosevelt and Jacqueline Cohran.

Sources

Narrative Story

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     I had to write a first-person narrative for school.  It had to be about an experience we/I have had.  I chose to write about the time my dog, Hershey, ran away last year.  He was not gone for very long, and fortunately he was not injured or anything when he was lost.

Lost, but Found Again
     It was July 1st, 2011, and we were walking to the park on Riverside.  We had had somewhat of a hard time finding a place to park, for, although it was still early, cars were already parked everywhere.  There would be a fireworks display that night.  We had decided to take along our dog, Hershey, who is a Border Collie.
     So, here we were, walking along, with Hershey taking a sniff at whatever caught his attention.  It took only a few minutes to walk to the park.  There were people everywhere, but we finally found a comfortable spot that was as quiet as it could possible be in such a large crowd.
     It soon became dark, and, at around 10 o'clock, the fireworks began to shoot off in brilliant shapes and colours.  I had my camera with me, and began capturing the prettiest ones.  When the show was about half-way through, I realized I could not see Hershey anywhere, and asked my mom about him, but she told me just to watch for now.  I think I kind of thought he might have run off, but I kept watching anyway.  After awhile, Joshua noticed, too.  We could not just stand there watching the fireworks when Hershey had just run off in fear.  He could have gone into the streets that had not been closed off.  He could have been found by someone else and they kept him.  He could have hurt himself in his fright.
     We looked for him everywhere we could think of.  We walked up and down Riverside several times, calling for him.  After awhile, the fireworks now finished, we still had not found him.  We walked back down the street, to the police station, and reported him missing.  Thankfully, I had taken Hershey's picture earlier that day sot the police could know what Hershey looked like.  "If any dog would find his way home, it'd be him," on of the officers stated.  I think that Hershey would have found his way home, eventually, if he had not been found first.
     We then went back to Riverside and continued our search once again.  After awhile, we decided we should go home, because it was getting late already.  Th next day we printed some posters and posted them all over the park on Riverside.  We also drove to the humane society and gave them a poster, as well.  All we could do now was go home and wait (we could not just go all around Windsor looking for him, it is a pretty big city), and hope that someone finds him safe and sound.
     We knew that we may not find him for a very long time - maybe never.  However, on the second day after his disappearance on July 1st, my mom checked the humane society's website, and found that they had found a male border collie.  You cannot imagine how excited we were at that news.  Of course, we immediately drove there, doing our best to not get our hopes up, but we had no need to worry.
     We had a little bit of a wait when we got there, but not very long.  When we were allowed in the kennels to see the dog they had found, there was absolutely no doubt about it.  Five black spots on the left side of his nose (we call them "freckles"), a happy dance unique only to him, curly hair around his head and down his back,....it was him, alright!
     He had a tiny bit of a limp, because of all the running he had done in the past couple of days, and the bottom of his paws were slightly worn, too.  Otherwise, he was fine.  Were we every happy to see him (and he us)!!  The poor guy was exhausted, but he recovered quickly and returned to his old, lovable self.

New Pictures!

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     I finally have new pictures of my pets, which I'll share in this post.  Some of these pictures I took awhile back, but most of them are pretty recent.  I also have some other pictures which I took recently, or in the past few months.  Anywho, I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed capturing them.  I have edited them in GIMP.





     I hope you enjoyed them!
Tamara

Hershey

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     I don't think I have ever written about my dog, Hershey, on my blog before, so I will do so now.  Hershey is a border collie - well...he's around 85% border collie (if I remember right).  He has a little bit of something else in him, giving him curly hair, and he has five black freckles on the left side of his nose (the right side of his nose is just plain white).  We've had him for over a year now, we got him in 2010.  Hershey is a really lovable dog.  He likes to sleep a lot.  He is "a dog of routines", as my mom likes to say.  He likes to try to play with the cats, although I'm not so sure that our cats think of "play" the same way that he does.  He especially likes to "play" with our Smokey, our grey cat.
     Hershey loves his walks, but then again, what dog doesn't?  Like I said, he is a border collie, and he loves to run and play with us.  He loves it when my mom, brother and I all take him on long walks around the block.  When we first got him, he used to shy away from people, but now he's a lot more social around strangers.  He used to follow me everywhere around the house, but now he usually just follows my mom or sleeps in his favourite spot in my mom's room.
     When we leave to go somewhere like grocery shopping, visiting friends, or anything else, he'll usually hop up on my mom's bed and have a nice long nap, and, when we come back, he greets us at the door, happy to see us again.  He watches us carefully when we eat, hoping to get a little something from our plates.  Of course, he doesn't usually get anything - but one can always hope!  Hershey can sometimes be a little troublemaker, but, we love him, and he loves us too.  He's a "dog of many talents", and he's also very unique.