5th DAY

Well, we finally got back in the air this morning (Wed) with flight from Gunnison to Monument Valley UT for breakfast.This was a beautiful 1.5 hour flight at 12,500 feet. As we circled the monuments before landing, Ginger took several inflight photos of the valley that are included here. In this region, the wind always blows in the wrong direction making landings very challenging. Since the runway was paved, the air traffic has really increased at the Valley. Before we left, there were a total of 13 parked planes. We enjoyed a big breakfast at the Navajo restaurant that you can see in the photo background of me standing by my plane. After an enjoyable meal and fellowship, we departed for Bryce Canyon in clear blue sky. We started out at 6500 altitude and diverted to fly over Powell lake area. Sam Buchanan will recall the same extremely rugged area that we flew over some years ago when we toured Arizona from the air. As we approached the Bryce Canyon area, we had to climb to 8500 feet since the airport is around 7900 feet. The crosswind was around 20 knots, gusting to 30 knots. We are staying at Rubys Inn along with a large crowd of visiting hunters. We spent the afternoon driving thru the National Park as shown on photos herein. One of the photos shows what years of rain and frost erosion can create, such as the Natural Bridge. The other photo shows the entire travelling crew, namely, (left to right}, Jerry Hoggatt, Ginger and Bob Butler, Brian Kuntz, Tim Puris, Ed Banks, Brian Pyatt, and Doug Preston (our leader). Tomorrow, some will do some hiking in the Park. Later on tomorrow, we will fly to tour the Hoover Dam and spend the night. It is truly a small world, Ginger and I met a Mississippi couple at Silverton that are high school friends of a lady that we attend church with. And, today, while in an overlook in the Bryce National Park, I ran into a lady from Huntsville, AL that I have know since early 60's. What a coincidence !!!! Stay tuned.

There is currently a problem with uploading the photos. We will add them as soon as we can. We will also post the pictures for day four when the problem is corrected. And thanks Don Hull for helping us remember what day it is. We are having such a fantastic time it is hard to keep up with!!