Day 11, Tuesday, Sept 9, 2008

After a nice breakfast with several of the Independence airpark residents, we took off for the Spruce Goose and Space Museums at McMinnville, OR. You have to see the vastness of the beast to understand its size, and that it is made of wood! The Space museum opened just 3 months ago and is worthy of a visit. I was able to identify with several displays about the Apollo Program, Skylab, the Shuttle Program, and the new NASA Program, Ares 1 and Ares 5. In one of the enclosed photos you can see me standing near one of the actual Saturn 5 instrument units(IU) that I think was one of the test articles that was my project at MSFC in the 60's. It is 33 feet in diameter, while the new Ares 1 IU that is currently under development is 18 feet in diameter.

For those fellow Ares guys at MSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center, at Huntsville, AL), the museum has a scale model of the Ares 1 and 5 that you will see me standing near.

From there, we took off eastward toward Portland and followed the Columbia river at a low attitude over the large river to enjoy the gorge view.

Well, the winds got so bad that we had to climb to 5,500 feet to find smoother air, and finally to 7,500 feet. You have to experience these winds to appreciate the effects. Our destination was a grass strip nestled in a narrow mountain valley. I decided that I would have no part of landing in such that would require special maneuvers to get in, and then to get out. So I opted to land at a small airport at Council, Idaho and wait for the other 2 planes to come back. They flew about 40 miles to the strip and decided that the wind was too bad, and with the loaded RV-10, Doug Preston decided that it was too risky to go down to the strip. After their circling the strip, they returned to Council for gas. Council is literally in the middle of no-where! We pumped gas knowing the gallons, but no idea of the price per gallon. Ginger's and my Verizon cell would not work. Ed Banks' AT&T worked for making a call to the local motel, The Starlight Motel. A quick call revealed that they had no vacancies. So, as it was getting late, Ed made a call to Boise, Idaho and found some rooms. We made a quick departure for the 36 minute flight and landed at the large main airport. Tonight, we are staying in a very nice Suite (Cambria). Tomorrow, we plan to fly to Jackson Hole to tour the area for the day and spend the night. Our next hopeful area to tour from the air is Mount Rushmore and surrounding sites. From there, no plans other than heading South. The weather forecast ain't looking good......Stay tuned.